Ireland's Sharpe, O'Brien, Tyler all in action at Tour of Britain | Video

Caoimhe O'Brien, second from left, is one of three Irish riders in action at the Women's Tour of Britain (Photo: Bob MacGregor)

Irish riders Alice Share, Caoimhe O'Brien (both DAS-Hutchinson-Brother-UK) and Amelie Tyler (Alba Development Road Team) are in action at the Tour of Britain at present, competing against some of the biggest teams in the sport.

Sharpe took a solid 15th place on the opening stage, of four, on the race yesterday, which took the riders some 142.4km from Welshpool to Llandudno, with 2,300m of climbing.

A breakaway group, comprised of many of the riders who were expected to perform very strongly in the event, broke clear on the second-category climb of Ty'n y Llidiart climb and gained almost four minutes.

Letizia Paternoster (Liv AlUla Jayco) looked like she had won the stage in the sprint from the breakaway, after apparently beating world champion Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx-Protime) in the lunge to the line.

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However, while the Italian rider celebrated just after crossing the line, and the overhead footage also appeared to show she had shaded it, the photo-finish showed Kopecky had won by a whisker, with Pfeiffer Georgi (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) 3rd and Lizzie Deignan (Great Britain) 4th.

Sharpe was part of the main bunch that finished 3:50 down on the winner. The sprint for 11th was won Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx - Protime) from Charlotte Kool (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL).

Sharpe was 5th in the bunch sprint, for 15th on the stage, with her team mate O'Brien (22) also in the bunch and placing 38th. Tyler was also present in the group, with the 20-year-old just losing a few seconds in the sprint, finishing in 73rd at 4:09.

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"Once we crossed the finish line, Letizia raised her hand, and I was like, 'I'm not sure I won, but I'm also not sure that you won'. It took quite a while before we found out I won," Kopecky said.

"It was a nice stage, pretty hilly, never flat, but there was also a lot of headwind. That made it a bit slower, but I'm happy that we could get a break on the last climb.

"We had a really good group in the front, and I was happy to have Christine Majerus with me. When you go to the finish and there are two riders of a team, you know that they start playing the game. It was a nice final."

The race continues today with a 140km stage starting and finishing in Wrexham and feature the cat 1 Horseshow climb, with just over 30km remaining.

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