Five top women stand out in Irish TT Champs title race 2019

There are five in the mix but three names that stand out most: Defending champion Kelly Murphy and 2017 and 2016 champions Eileen Burns and Anna Turvey

Five names stand from among the start list for the women’s National TT Championships title race in Donegal, with Kelly Murphy going into battle as defending champion.

Murphy (Storey
Racing) has been going well of late, wing the RTTC National Circuit
Championships in Britain.

Her win in that event two weeks ago also sealed overall
victory in the six-round Sigma Sports Classic Series.

Last year in the Irish TT championships she ran out the
winner ahead of the 2017 champion Eileen Burns (Ballymena).

And with those two having swapped gold and silver of the
last two years, they will look to outdo each other and claim victory again.

Burns has developed in recent years in a tester of real
quality. Though she took up racing relatively late, she is now a veteran of the
Worlds and Europeans with Ireland and the Commonwealth Games with Northern
Ireland.

But while Burns and Murphy will both had designs on gold
tomorrow evening, there is the not so small matter of Anna Turvey (Drag2zero) in their way.

Riders in all categories will use an out and back course starting and finishing near Speenoge, Co Donegal. You can view the 41.48km route by following this link.

Alice Sharpe has taken a step up this year to UCI level and is going well

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Turvey won the nationals back in 2016 not long having
declared for Ireland. And just a few months later she claimed bronze in the
individual pursuit at the European Track Championships.

Clearly a gifted rider, it will be interesting to see how
the three-way battle between Turvey, Burns and Murphy pans out.

There is perhaps a little more suspense than usual become
they do not race against each other through the year, which means gauging their
form of each other is impossible.

While they are the three proven testers in recent years,
Lauren Creamer and Alice Sharpe must also be counted into the reckoning.

Sharpe has really stepped up on the road over the past
two years and this season she is riding in Europe for the UCI’s World Cycling
Centre pro trade team.

Sharpe has also just come out of the European Games where
she competed in the road race and placed 25th.

Creamer
(Brotherton Cycles) has finished 4th in the TT champs twice and taken 5th as
well as winning a silver medal back in 2014.

In that occasion
she was beaten to the title in Wexford by the since retired Caroline Ryan and
would love to get a medal again.

It looks to be a
three-rider shoot-out between Murphy, Burns and Turvey, though Creamer and
Sharpe are capable of upsetting them.