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Katharine takes Bronze in National Women's Road Race!
Sunday, June 30, 2019
Tonight saw Foyle CC host the 2019 Irish National Women's Road Race Championship. The five-lap race was dominated by a three-rider move, which included BRC's Katharine Smyth.
Three riders got away on the second lap of five and that move was to prove the winning of the race.
Thursday’s TT winner Kelly Murphy of Storey Racing got across to the three leaders alone later in the contest.
However, she closed a gap of over one minute to the trio up front in about 15-20km after making her move on the third lap.
And while that was impressive, the effort clearly took it out of her. Soon after she caught the leading three she fell into a pattern of being dropped and trying to get back on.
On one of those occasions she was dropped for good, restoring the three-rider breakaway group to the original line-up.
With Murphy out of the picture it looked certain the three medals would be shared between the three leaders as a six-rider chase group was over 2½ minutes back.
And when Sharpe and Cotter distance Smyth on the final lap it was a two-horse race; the established Sharpe against her rapidly emerging rival Cotter.
Katharine chased hard and at one stage had the leaders pegged back to 8 seconds. In the end Sharpe took it from Cotter; the latter having based herself abroad this year for the first time and clearly reaping the rewards. Katharine Smyth finished a fantastic 3rd place, finishing off a fantastic week for BRC women, after Eileen Burns' bronze in Thursday's Time Trial.
BRC's Eileen Burns finished well in the chasing group, whilst Laura Campbell retired from the race early, still suffering from injuries sustained from a crash during the recent McQuigg Cup 50 miles TT. Well done to all the BRC girls.