Alice Sharpe clocked up what is arguably the best road-racing result of her career thus far in the Vuelta CV Feminas race in Spain on Sunday. The 27-year-old IBCT rider placed tenth out of 104 finishers in the 1.1-ranked UCI event, prominent in a bunch sprint to the line in Valencia. Former world champion Marta Bastianelli (UAE Team ADQ) triumphed at the end of 92 kilometres of undulating racing.
Sharpe's teammate and compatriot Mia Griffin was also competing and placed 41st, finishing in the second half of the main bunch some 11 seconds back.
In France, Eddie Dunbar was 91st overall in the first race of his 2022 season, the Etoile de Bessèges. He played a supporting role in the event, riding for his Ineos Grendadiers team, but had a solid showing on Saturday’s penultimate stage. He placed 15th and was best of his team on the uphill finish at Mont Bouquet, 33 seconds behind the winner Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team). Dunbar is in the final year of his current contract with his squad and while he is currently building form, he is determined to have a strong season.
Elsewhere, Ryan Mullen showed signs of good form when he finished 37th overall in the Saudi Tour. He played an important role in the Bora hansgrohe sprint leadout train, helping teammate Martin Laas to second on the opening stage and Danny Van Poppel to fourth on stage three and fifth on stage five.
The Irish road race champion’s big responsibility will be to help set Sam Bennett up for race victories as part of his leadout train. Bennett is still building form after a knee injury last season and didn’t compete in the race.
Vuelta CV Feminas, Spain (1.1): 1 Marta Bastianelli (UAE Team ADQ) 92 kilometres in 2 hours 11' 32", 2 I Sanguineti (Valcar-Travel & Service), 3 K Schweinberger (Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling Team), 4 S Andersen (Uno-X Pro Cycling Women), 5 S Alonso Dominguez (Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling Team)
Irish: 10 A Sharpe (IBCT), 41 M Griffin (IBCT) at 11"
