Irish national road race champion, Alice Sharpe, has taken her career best result on the road today when she was to the fore at the pointy end of the Baloise Ladies Tour in Belgium.
The IBCT rider took 6th in the bunch sprint that settled the stage, with Team DSM's Lorena Wiebes winning from Amber van der Hulst (Liv Racing Xstra) and Letizia Paternoster (Trek-Segafredo).
Is was the third win a row for Wiebes and she now leads the race overall from prologue TT winner, and world champion against the watch, Ellen van Dijk (Trek-Segafredo)
Today both Sharpe and compatriot and team mate Mia Griffin got stuck in during the final sprint at the end of 82.8km of racing from Cadzand to Knokke-Heist; placing 6th and 11th respectively - Griffin hanging on for that result after finishing the team lead-out for Sharpe.
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On Wednesday's opening 3.8km prologue in Utrecht, Sharpe was 79th at 45 seconds while Griffin placed 81st at 46 seconds. Former Irish criterium champion, Ellen McDermott (Keukens Redant Cycling Team), was 94th at 49 seconds.
On Thursday's 128.6km stage 1, starting and finish in Zulte, Sharpe and Griffin were 14th and 15th while McDermott was 55th, with all three Irish riders finishing in the bunch; the stage won in a sprint by Wiebes.
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Yesterday's stage 2 was 114.6km, starting and finishing in Herzele. Wiebes won in a bunch sprint again, with Sharpe 26th and Griffin 28th - both in the main bunch - while McDermott was a non-finisher.
After this morning's road stage, the riders faced a 15.6km TT in Knokke-Heist this evening before the final stage tomorrow; some 119.7km starting and finishing in Deinze.
That TT this evening was won by Van Dijk by 44 seconds from Mieke Kröger (Human Powered Health) with Audrey Cordon-Ragot (Trek-Segafredo) 3rd at 46 seconds. Wiebes was 4th but lost 51 seconds, and the race lead, to stage winner Van Dijk. Ireland's Sharpe and Griffin were 73rd and 78th in the TT, at 3:47 and 4:16.
