Alice Sharpe has returned to the European road peloton, with a new team, with a bang having spent recent months focused on getting to the Paris Olympics with the Irish track team.
The former Irish road race champion is now competing with UK UCI team DAS-Hutchinson-Brother-UK, after riding for the Israel Premier Tech Roland World Tour team last year, and will have plenty of European racing before she needs to switch back to track in the run up to Paris.
Sharpe led a six-rider team into her first race in France, with that line-up also including her Irish team pursuit team mate Mia Griffin, while Fiona Mangan (Cynisca Cycling) was also in action.
The 116.8km Région Pays de la Loire Tour-Féminin (1.2), starting and finishing in Saumur, took the riders on six long laps - with a 600m climb at 5.2 per cent - followed a small lap just before the finish, with a climb of 600m at 9 per cent. That last ascent was crested just 4.5 km from the finish.
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That tough final split he field, with both Sharpe and Mangan at the pointy end after the final climb. Sharpe went on to be part of the fight for victory, in a 10-rider front group, placing 5th on the day.
The race was won in a sprint from that front group by Michaela Drummond (Arkéa-B&B Hotels Women) from Victorie Guilman (St Michel-Mavic-Auber93) and Lucinda Stewart (ARA | Skip Capital).
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Mangan finished in the 18-strong second group, nine seconds down on the leaders, and finished in 17th while Griffin as a non-finisher.
