Alice Sharpe solid in her opening road race of season in Belgium

Alice Sharpe got her international road racing season off to a solid start on Wednesday, finishing a solid 19th in the prestigious Scheldeprijs race in Schoten, Belgium. The national road race champion sprinted in as part of the 28-rider front group at the end of the 1.1 ranked event, finishing in the same time as the Dutch winner Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx).

Sharpe was riding with the Israel Premier Tech Roland team in the race. She is officially part of the squad’s development team, but will guest with the WorldTour squad at times. Fellow Irishwoman Mia Griffin is signed to the latter, but didn’t compete in Scheldeprijs after lining out in the Tour of Flanders on Sunday.

Both riders are part of Cycling Ireland’s track endurance squad, and have helped the team pursuit squad break the national record three times already this season. Sharpe and Griffin are next due to compete in the 1.1 ranked Ronde de Mouscron on Easter Monday.

In France Ben Healy finished in the main bunch on stage two of the Région Pays de la Loire Tour. Norwegian rider Erlend Blikra led in the 82-man peloton, with Healy not disputing the sprint and rolling in 44th. He is 32nd overall after two stages and, because of time bonuses secured by the stage one and two winners, is 10 seconds off the race lead.

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Two stages remain in the race. Healy recently took the first two victories since he turned professional, winning stage three of the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali on March 23rd and then taking the GP Industria & Artigianato with a solo attack three days later.

Over the border, Eddie Dunbar continued to log racing kilometres in the Itzulia Basque Country stage race. Stage three went to Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), who pulled two seconds clear of the next riders on the steep uphill finish at Amasa-Villabona.

The course would normally suit Dunbar but due to the disruption caused by a fractured hand at the beginning of February and over eight weeks out of competition, he is riding tempo in the race to build form. He rolled in 83rd on the stage. The event continues on Thursday with a tough 175.7 kilometre race to Santurtzi, and concludes on Saturday.

Meanwhile Cycling Ireland has announced that James Quilligan will become its new chief executive on June 12th, taking over from interim chief executive Chris Kitchen. Quilligan has been a member of the federation for over 10 years and competes with Greenmount Cycling Academy. He has over 25 years of experience in the commercial and public sectors, with his previous positions including that of chief executive of Moorehaven Group and the integrated service regional manager for Rehab Group.

He said that he aims to use his professional experience to work “collaboratively with all stakeholders in improving the organisation and to make Cycling Ireland a leading NGB in the years to come.”

Federation president Dr Tom Daly said the appointment was an important one. “His extensive experience in organisational management and his understanding of Irish cycling makes him an ideal candidate to lead our organisation forward. The Board, staff and membership groups will look forward to working with James in further developing our organisation and delivering upon our strategic objectives.”