{"id":6983,"date":"2026-03-18T20:17:04","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T20:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/6983\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T20:17:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T20:17:04","slug":"lara-gillespie-claims-third-at-nokere-koerse-in-belgium-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/6983\/","title":{"rendered":"Lara Gillespie claims third at Nokere Koerse in Belgium \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/lara-gillespie\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/lara-gillespie\/\">Lara Gillespie<\/a> took another top result in finishing a strong third in the women\u2019s Nokere Koerse in Belgium on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The UAE Team ADQ rider finished just behind double World Champion Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) and ace sprinter Charlotte Kool (Fenix-Premier Tech), showing fine form in her build-up to Paris-Roubaix. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Gillespie won the Beobank Samyn Ladies earlier this month, and was second in the Omloop van het Hageland. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/sam-bennett\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/sam-bennett\/\">Sam Bennett<\/a> also had a solid showing in the men\u2019s race, his first since having a heart operation last autumn. The 35-year-old was prominent with 41km to go, sitting at the front of the bunch, but faded as the final battle for the line unfolded.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Bennett finished 5:11 behind winner Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech), with Northern Ireland\u2019s Seth Dunwoody 1:43 back, the 19 year old guesting with the Bahrain-Victorious World Tour team. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cTo be honest, I was quite happy, because the base fitness is quite good,\u201d said Bennett afterward the race. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cI just didn\u2019t have the accelerations to keep doing it. On the last lap I just completely blew up. The thing was, even when I was dropped, I was still sitting at 350, 400 watts. I just had one speed. It is the first time in the last couple of years where I thought I need racing to get ready.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cNormally I am good from the start, just with training, but I suppose it has been so many months without racing. I\u2019m only training the bones of two months, so I can\u2019t really expect more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling rider said he had hoped to remain with the bunch until closer to the finish but expects to reach better race sharpness soon. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Bennett won two stages and the green jersey in the 2020 Tour de France, but has since faced various setbacks. The Carrick-on-Suir man experienced a knee injury in 2021 and despite taking two stages in the following year\u2019s Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, he was later forced to withdraw due to Covid. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Bennett experienced symptoms of atrial fibrillation last November and underwent surgery to correct the heart rhythm issues. He believes the issue may have affected him for several years and hopes to return to his best in the months ahead. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He is pencilled in to ride the Koksijde Classic on Friday, with a final decision to be made following consultation with his team. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lara Gillespie took another top result in finishing a strong third in the women\u2019s Nokere Koerse in Belgium&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,3427,5045],"class_list":{"0":"post-6983","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-belgium","8":"tag-belgium","9":"tag-lara-gillespie","10":"tag-sam-bennett"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116252026008101523","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}