A trio of top Irish road riders - Mia Griffin, Alice Sharpe and Lauren Creamer - has enjoyed a strong early season outing at Le Samyn in Belgium today.
After 2½ hours of racing, and on a day when a third of the field did not finish, the three Irish women all stayed the course and finished the race in the same group, some 9:36 down on winner Lotte Kopecky (Liv Racing).
For Sharpe (Team Rupelcleaning) and Creamer (Lviv Cycling Team) the 92.5km Le Samyn des Dames was their season debut. Considering it was their first race of the year, not to mention the standard of the opposition, being among the survivors today was a solid start to 2021.
Griffin, who is also riding for Team Rupelcleaning this season, got the new campaign underway at the weekend when she lined out in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, where she was a non finisher.
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Today the race split to pieces very early, with repeated attacks off the front ensuring intense pressure stayed on for a sustained period, causing carnage through the field.
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With 15 sections of pavé to contend with, as well as six categorised climbs and 2½ laps of a challenging finishing circuit, the top riders did not bide their time. As a result, there was significant damage inflicted with just 30km completed.
The race split significantly on a section of cobbles just
after the Côte de la Roquette, with a large group surging clear and containing
most of the big names.
And while there were plenty of efforts made to try and
break up that front group, it remained largely intact with a group of about 30
riders contesting the finale.
The finish came down to a sprint from the lead group,
with Danish champion Cecilie Norsgaard (Movistar) going early in the gallop and
getting a gap.
However, Liv Racing’s Kopecky closed her down and passed her before the line to win it strongly, with Norsgaard taking 2nd and Chloe Hosking (Trek-Segafredo) rounding out the podium.
The Irish women finished in the third large group on the road; Creamer in 84th, Sharpe in 87th and Griffin in 89th.
Stickybottle did a feature length interview with Mia Griffin a few days ago, which you can read here. We'll catch up with Sharpe in coming days.
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