Alice Sharpe has rounded off the RideLondon Classique World Tour race in 15th place in the final standings, the best GC result of her career at this level. The road and track international finished 24th in the bunch sprint that concluded the event in London yesterday.
Sharpe's (IBCT) best ride came on the opening stage - some 136.5km into Maldon - featuring an uphill finish, which split the race to pieces. Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM) was best - collecting the first of her three stage wins - on the final incline, where the top seven riders finished on the same time.
Their small group was followed by small gaps all down through the field, with Sharpe finishing in 24th; one of 11 riders nine seconds down on the winner.
That put the Irish woman in a strong position to target a good GC result and on stage 2 - some 141.7km into Epping - Sharpe finished 15th in the bunch sprint, won by Wiebes, on a day when the bunch was thinned back to just 50 riders.
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Wiebes also won the bunch sprint finish yesterday, again from world road race champion Elisa Balsamo (Trek-Segafredo). Sharpe finishing on the same time as the winner bumped her up one place in the general classification to 15th in the final standings.
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The race was won by Wiebes, who took GC victory by 19 seconds from Balsamo, with Emma Norsgaard (Movistar) 3rd overall at 28 seconds. In 15th place, Sharpe was 46 seconds down.
Irish riders Mia Griffin and Megan Armitage, both IBCT team mates of Sharpe, were among the non-finishers on yesterday's final stage.
