A GUTSY ride by Sharon Laws earned her the Yodel Direct Combativity Award – for the most aggressive rider of the day – during stage three of the 2015 Aviva Women's Tour of Britain on Friday.

The Bigla Pro Cycling team rider from Bourton-on-the-Water is making a spirited defence of the Queen of the Mountains jersey which she won on the inaugural tour in 2014.

She is currently in third place in that category behind Melissa Hoskins of Australia and Elisse Delzenne of France after three of the five stages.

It took more than an hour for a breakaway to be established with Chloe McConville (Australia) and Heather Fischer (United States) building up a lead of more than a minute.

Laws took it upon herself to try and bridge the gap and eventually caught the other two girls after a brave solo effort, picking up a further four points towards her QoM bid.

The trio then rode together until caught by the peloton with just three kilometres of the Oundle to Kettering stage to go. The stage was won by Luxembourg's Christine Majerus of the Boels-Dolmans team.

"It was a long day but we had seen on Thursday that the break stood a chance and we wanted to get in one today so I took my chance," said Sharon.

"I decided to try and bridge the gap when Chloe and Heather went up the road. Once I got over to them it was good and we worked well together. It was a shame we could stay all the way.

"At one point it looked quite hopeful and then I think they were chasing really hard behind. Because we had Chloe from the Orica team she stopped working with 25km to go because her team leader was behind, but two of us kept working and went quite hard but the gap was coming down.

“It was amazing to see the crowds. When there’s only three of you they recognise you and a lot of people knew my name and were cheering on. It was a really special day."