Irish riders have been in action in Europe, and enjoying strong results, of late with Alice Sharpe and Megan Armitage racing in France and Cormac Mcgeough competing in Romania.
While Armitage (IBCT) made the breakaway on stage 3 of Tour Cycliste Féminin International de l'Ardèche (2.1) - to take 4th place and move up to 4th overall - which we reported at the time, her team mate Sharpe was to the fore later in the race.
Sharpe placed 4th on that sixth stage of the race - some 96.3km into Alès - when it came down to a bunch sprint. Victory on the day went to Silvia Zanardi (Bepink) from Jelena Erić (Movistar) and Danique Braam (Bingoal Casino-Chevalmeire-Van Eyck Sport), with Sharpe next.
That was one of the Irish woman's best results of the season and bodes well ahead of the World Track Championships in Paris in coming weeks, where she will be part of the team pursuit line-up and ride some of the individual endurance events.
Advertisement
In the same race in France, after Armitage took 4th on stage 3 she went on to take 7th on stage 5 on an uphill finish to Mont Lozère after 109.4km of racing. And while she was 9th overall going into the final stage she suffered a crash and lost two places to claim 11th in the final general classification.
Related News
Sharpe and Armitage had team mate Loes Adegeest in contention for overall victory through the race after the Dutch rider won stage 3 - when she was in the breakaway with Armitage - and also made the winning breakaway the following day.
However, after taking the race lead as a result of her stage win, Adegeest lost the jersey to Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-Sram Generation). The German teenager ran out the overall winner, with Adegeest in 2nd place, at 1:14, and Colombian Paula Andrea Patiño (Movistar) 3rd at 1:51.
Elsewhere in Europe, US-based Irish rider Cormac Mcgeough has enjoyed a very strong campaign at the Tour of Romania. The Wildlife Generation rider emerged from the five-stage race with victory in the king of the mountains jersey.
The 26-year-old began the race with 18th in the prologue TT before going on the attack the following stage - some 205km from Satu Mare to Bistrița Primărie. He targeted the climbers points and though his breakaway was caught he claimed the lead in that classification.
Mcgeough, who was 2nd in the elite road race at the National Road Championships in Kanturk in June, also took time bonuses while in the breakaway and moved up to 2nd overall. He then added to his points tally in the climbers' classification on stage 3.
He then doubled his points tally, to over 30 points, with another breakaway ride on stage 4; some 208km from Cristian to Curtea de Argeș. The race was won overall by Mark Stewart (Bolton Equities Black Spoke Pro Cycling).
