Irish road race champions Rory Townsend and Alice Sharpe were in action at Scheldeprijs today, Sharpe making her debut for new team Israel Premier Tech Roland Development and showing some good road legs after her focus on team pursuit in recent months.
Both Townsend (Bolton Equities Black Spoke) and Sharpe were in the mix at the end of the races, trying to force their way into the front of the action after both the men's and women's races came down to bunch sprints.
Sharpe placed 19th in the gallop after 131.6km of all-out racing into Schoten. The race was won by European champion Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx) from Charlotte Kool (Team DSM) and Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ).
Townsend, already a winner this year at La Roue Tourangelle in France, finished just outside the top 20 in the 205.3km men's race, placing 21st. Victory went to Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) from Sam Welsford (Team DSM) and Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan Team).
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In France, Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) has been in action over the last two days in the four-day Région Pays de la Loire Tour (2.1). The 22-year-old has been in fine form of late, with a six-week lay-off after breaking his finger in Etoile de Bessèges in February apparently having no impact on his condition.
He had placed 3rd in Trofeo Calvia (1.1) in Mallorca in January, after a 'man of the match' performance in the breakaway. And though that was followed by his forced lay-off, he stormed back into the peloton with a stage victory and 3rd overall - not to mention 3rd in the TT stage - at Coppi e Bartali in Italy last week. A day after that race concluded, he was back in action at GP Industria & Artigianato (1.Pro) last Sunday and took another win.
The opening two days of action in France, today and yesterday, were not hilly enough for Healy, who finished in the main peloton as the victories were fought out in bunch sprints. Healy placed 30th in stage 1 yesterday and was 44th on today's stage 2. The opener was won by Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) and today's victory was taken by Erlend Blikra (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team).
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The remaining two stages are slightly hillier, though the climbs are small and frequent, rather than any one of them posing a major challenge. However, the field is likely to be whittled down tomorrow a little and on Friday's final stage there is a small climb - 400m at 11.3 per cent gradient - that must be negotiated six times and may do more damage.
Meanwhile, at Itzulia Basque Country (2.UWT) Eddie Dunbar of Team Jayco AlUla has lost time on the opening stages as he tries to regain his condition for the climbs, racing against the biggest names in the sport.
The Irishman, who is just back into action eight weeks after breaking a bone in his hand during his first race of the season, finished 79th on the opening stage on Monday, which ended in a bunch sprint. Dunbar finished on the same time as the stage winner, Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers).
Yesterday's and today's stages were hillier, with Dunbar 90th and 83rd, losing 6:22 and 12:54 respectively. With three stages remaining, the Irishman is 92nd overall, some 19:28 behind race leader - and winner of today's stage 3 - Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma).
While Dunbar is obviously well out of the reckoning for the general classification, he has team mates Matteo Sobrero and Simon Yates in contention - 4th and 12th overall, at 18 and 24 seconds respectively - and will also emerge from this race with valuable racing miles in his legs.
