Lara Gillespie: ‘Katie Archibald is an icon, it’s like trying to race against a superhero at Track Champions League’

No UCI Track Champions League rider enjoyed a greater improvement in their results between the first and second rounds of the competition than Ireland’s Lara Gillespie.

The 22-year-old debutant achieved perfectly respectable finishes of 13th and seventh in the scratch and elimination races respectively in Mallorca. In Berlin, however, she leapt up the standings from 10th place to fifth thanks to a pair of fourth-place finishes.

The explanation for Gillespie’s improvement might easily have been as simple as ‘better legs’, or better familiarity with the format.

In fact, it was almost entirely a mechanical matter.

“I made a huge error in Mallorca,” she tells Eurosport from the Ireland team base on the island.

“I miscounted my sprockets so I had the wrong gear on the whole day, and I didn’t notice.”

The gear she found herself riding on was “way too small” which, in layman’s terms, means she wasn’t able to go as fast as she wanted to, no matter how fast she pedalled.

Unlike at competitions such as European or World Championships, at the Track Champions League the athletes do not have dedicated technical support. Although there is expert assistance available to them, that is spread across all 72 participants, which means the riders are largely expected to look after their bikes themselves.

There’s no bitterness on Gillespie’s part. On the contrary, she says: “I’ve really enjoyed the process of being there on my own and figuring things out, because I’ve never done that.

“I didn’t grow up doing track cycling, so even things with the bike I’m still learning a lot. Being forced to do everything has been really good.”

Yes, you read that right. Despite being up there in the TCL standings with seasoned pros such as Maggie Coles-Lyster, Anita Yvonne Stenberg and Lily Williams, Gillespie would in no way call herself a track specialist, which means the TCL experience is newer to her even than it might be.

“These few weeks are the most I’ve been on a track ever,” she says, adding she has “never in my life done a track league where you race every week. Usually I go months without a track race.”

Which rather makes you wonder how good she might already be had she spent as much time on the boards as some of her rivals, or how far she might be yet able to go on this side of the sport.

As well as more suitable gearing – and an obvious natural talent – attitude is the other secret to Gillespie’s success. She sums her approach up as “fake it until I make it,” and says it’s the same now as it was in 2018, when she became European points champion barely weeks after her first time racing on track.

“I had no idea how to race,” she says, so told herself to “ride like the Italians, who were winning at the time. Now I’m doing the same thing. I just have to just ride like the people who are winning. I have to put myself in those positions and eventually I will be good enough, through my training and through my physical development. You just have to almost pretend that it’s normal to you.”

Gillespie certainly expects the Track Champions League to “accelerate my learning” – and sees no rider better to learn from than Katie Archibald.

“Katie is an icon,” Gillespie says. “It’s like trying to race against a superhero, the person who you aspire to be. It’s funny when you’re sitting beside her – does she know that we all aspire to be her, and she’s really inspiring?”

Does Gillespie imagine she might be able to beat the double Olympic gold medallist?

“I’d love to. It’s about being smart. Maybe one day.”

Although Gillespie denies being especially analytical – at least in a data-sense – she is unquestionably smart.

Last year she graduated from University College Dublin with a degree in Health and Performance Science and now works on health research for the same department in her spare time.

At the moment, however, “there isn’t much spare time.” Indeed for the foreseeable future, she says “my goals are all in cycling.”

Next year that means representing Ireland at the Paris Olympics.

“Right now we’re in the process of qualifying through team pursuit,” she says. “We’re on the right path for that, and that will also qualify us for the Madison and the omnium. My goal is to do all three.”

She doesn’t rule out the prospect of competing for a medal but isn’t putting any pressure on herself either.

“I don’t know about next year but we’ll see how it goes,” she says.

“If I do make that step up, it would be a big step up, considering where I came from at the start of this year. I have a long journey ahead of me, but yeah, I’d love to be fighting up in the top five.”

Which is, not coincidentally, where Gillespie finds herself on the eve of the Paris round of the Track Champions League. Her overall plan is simply “to refine what I did good last weekend. It’s just small changes, thinking quicker. When I think of something, instead of pausing and doing it, I want to just do it with full conviction.”

That applies particularly to the scratch race. “I like how it’s short and straight to the point. Let’s get it on.”

Every rider really only has “one chance,” and it’s “about where you want to go and when you want to make that effort.”

While there are moments of relaxation in the scratch, with the elimination every rider is constantly being asked a question and being forced to make a decision: “You’re in that process, you’re committed that whole time,” Gillespie says. “You can’t uncommit in any situation, otherwise you’ll always be at the back.”

Although she says “sometimes I do spend a few too many laps at the front” which might mean investing too much energy too early, it’s better than the opposite:

“It’s the worst feeling ever when you get eliminated and you’re not even tired,” Gillespie agrees.

The healthy, relaxed attitude of the Dublin-born (and raised) rider must also be rooted in a profound appreciation for the opportunities before her, and simply getting to do full time something most people only do as a hobby.

“Getting up and training and for that to be my job is so cool,” she says. “I enjoy every part of that, and it doesn’t seem like a chore in any way. It only seems right that that’s the thing that I’m doing. I love getting better week on week, and year on year.”

Likewise the Track Champions League, even with its prime time TV coverage, bright lights and massive crowds, causes Gillespie no stress whatsoever.

“I’m just enjoying the whole thing,” she says. “It’s not anxiety-inducing in any way. It’s the love of racing.”