The Wicklow rider adds to her silver medal won on Wednesday’s opening day of competition in Shanghai

Lara Gillespie produced a sensational ride to win the gold medal in the points race on the final day of the UCI Track World Championships in Shanghai, earning herself another coveted rainbow jersey in utterly commanding style.

A year on from becoming the first Irish woman to win a UCI world track title in any event, Gillespie was prominent throughout the 100 laps of the 25km race, which came down to a three-way battle for gold in the final sprint for the line, where double points were on offer.

By nailing second in that sprint, Gillespie took her total to 42 points, five points ahead of Amalie Dideriksen from Denmark, with Belgium’s Shari Bossuyt, the early leader, winning bronze on 35 points.

Gillespie was unquestionably the strongest and most astute by the end, the 25-year-old Wicklow rider adding to her silver medal won in the scratch race on Wednesday’s opening day of competition.

Points are won in 10 different sprints, after every 10 laps, during the race, with Gillespie, Dideriksen and Bossuyt also the only riders to secure the 20 bonus points for lapping the rest of the bunch. Gillespie won the second and fifth sprint, finished second in the seventh and ninth, before her second place in the final sprint earned her the outright victory.

Just one point up going into that final sprint, critically she finished ahead of Dideriksen, the former road race world champion, with Gillespie timing her last effort to near perfection.

Defending world champion Yareli Acevedo from Mexico won those final sprint points, but finished up a long way back in fourth, with just 13 points.

Gillespie had finished just inches short of gold in the scratch race, won by Dutch star Lorena Wiebes. She then finished fifth in the omnium on Friday, moving up two places in the final race, but just short of the podium.

Her breakthrough win on the track came in the elimination race at last year’s UCI Track World Championships in Santiago, Chile – and she also won bronze in the points race in 2024.

Since winning in Santiago, Gillespie became the first Irish rider to complete all three major stage races for women – finishing fourth in the points classification in the Giro d’Italia, having taken on both the Tour de France Femmes and the Vuelta de España last summer. She then won two Irish national titles in June (the time trial and road race), before finishing third in the women’s Tour of Poland.

Last weekend, Gillespie finished second in the three-day Tour of Chongming Island in Shanghai, with two successive runner-up positions in the last two stages, her best result in a World Tour stage race. She now finishes the season with another rainbow jersey to add to her collection, looking eminently capable of winning many more.

Katie-George Dunlevy has also previously won multiple UCI Para-Cycling track titles.