Irishman Ryan Sherlock placed 43rd in today’s opening round of the Cyprus Sunshine Cup in Voroklini, finishing a lap behind the winner Jan Skarnitzl (Giant Team – Czech).

Skarnitzl beat his team-mate Jiri Fruedl (Giant Team – Czech) by 21 seconds, with the Belgian Roel Paulissen netting third.

Sherlock said afterwards that it was a difficult event. “It was a really hard race with a world-class field, and very hot too. I blew my lights!”

His German girlfriend Mel Spath took a fine fourth place in the women’s event. “Mel had probably her best race ever,” he said. “She was fourth, six minutes back, but beat the vice-U23 World Champ by two minutes, and the UK champ by four.”

Danish rider Annika Langvad finished first in that, putting two minutes into Janka Stevkova (Slovakia).

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Cyprus Sunshine Cup round 1, Voroklini

Elite men:

1, Jan Skarnitzl (Giant Team – Czech) 2 hours 14 mins 5 secs
2, Jiri Fruedl (Giant Team – Czech) at 21 secs
3, Roel Paulissen (Belgian national team) at 38 secs
4, Christoph Soukup (Merida Racing) at 1 min 9 secs
5, Frank Schotman (Netherlands) at 1 min 37 secs

Irish:

43, Ryan Sherlock, at 1 lap

Elite women:

1, Annika Langvad (Denmark) 1 hour 58 mins 24 secs
2, Janka Stevkova (Slovakia) at 2 mins
3, Ekaterina Anoshina (Russia) at 3 mins 2 secs

Other:

4, Melanie Spath (Germany) at 6 mins 15 secs