The Irish track team has been competing in the Trofeu Internacional Artur Lopes meeting in Portugal as the riders fine tune their form ahead of the European Championships in Switzerland in two weeks time.
The meeting in Anadia saw a collection of national teams, development outfits and other trade and regional teams compete in a variety and sprint and endurance events of three days of competition. Orla Walsh, JB Murphy, Lara Gillespie, Emily Kay and Alice Sharpe were all in action for Ireland. Those five riders - along with Mia Griffin, Conor Rowley and Kelly Murphy - will make up the Irish team for the upcoming Europeans in Grenchen.
Walsh took timely confidence-boosting results going into the Euros, winning three bronze medals in the sprint, keirin and 500m TT events at the Portuguese meeting. In the keirin event, featuring 10 riders in total, Walsh won her five-rider heat, from Stephanie Lawrence (Star Cycling). She advanced to the 1-6 final, where she claimed bronze behind winner Helena Casas (Spain) and runner-up Katy Marchant (Team Inspired).
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In the sprint event, the Team Inspired riders, from Britain, took the top three placings, of a nine-rider field, in qualifying. Lauren Bell was fastest (10.888secs) from Marchant (10.984) and Blaine Ridge-Davis (11.113). Ireland's Walsh was 4th, in a time of 11.140, just over two tenths of a second outside her national record.
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Walsh went on to face Bell in the semifinals and was beaten by her in two sprints. However, when the Irish woman met Ridge-Davis in the bronze medal match she beat her in two sprints to claim that medal.
While Walsh also claimed a bronze in the 500m TT, no official results for that race appeared to be available at the the time of writing.
Lara Gillespie, who stormed back into form in the second half of last year, was in action in the omnium, just missing out on a medal when she finished 4th in the 24-rider field. Emily Kay and Alice Sharpe were also in the omnium, finishing 12th and 14th respectively.
In the scratch race, Gillespie was 6th, Kay 8th and Sharpe 10th. In the tempo race, Gillespie was 4th, Kay 10th and Sharpe19th. The elimination race saw Sharpe finish 6th while Gillespie was 9th and Kay was 15th. The final event of the omnium, the points race, saw Gillespie finish 4th while Kay was 12th and Sharpe placed 14th. The omnium was won by Valentine Fortin (Cofidis) from Anita Stenberg (Norway) and Victoire Berteau (Cofidis).
In the men's omnium, JB Murphy placed 17th in the 24-rider field. He finished 13th in the scratch race, 16th in the tempo race and 17th in both the elimination and points races. The event was won by William Perrett (Chainy Windows and Doors) from Iuri Leitao (Portugal) and Thomas Boudat (Go Sport-Roubaix Lille Metropole).
Ireland's Sharpe was also in action in the points race on Saturday, placing 13th, and the scratch race on Sunday, placing 5th. Murphy was also in action in some other races, placing 22nd in the points race and 19th in the scratch race.
