A GUTSY ride by Sharon Laws earned her a place on the podium after stage three of the 2015 Aviva Women’s Tour of Britain on Friday – it also reminded her why she loves being a professional cyclist.

The Bigla Pro Cycling team rider from Bourton-on-the-Water was not in tip-top shape after a broken collar bone in her first race of the season and illness had left her short of maximum race fitness, but it did not stop her making a spirited defence of the Queen of the Mountains polka-dot jersey she won on the inaugural tour in 2014.

In the end she had to settle for third place in the QoM category behind Melissa Hoskins of Australia and Elise Delzenne of France as well as a position halfway down the general classification for the overall tour.

More importantly, it brought her 'back on track' ahead of two imminent major challenges, this Sunday's National Road Race Championship in Lincoln – which she won in 2012 – and the biggest race in the women's cycling calendar – the 10-day Giro Rosa – in Italy from July 3-12.

On Friday, Sharon claimed the Yodel Direct Combativity Award – for the most aggressive rider of the day – after an heroic solo effort to break away from the peloton and bridge a gap of more than a minute to the two-rider breakaway of Chloe McConville (Australia) and Heather Fischer (United States).

The trio then raced clear until caught by the pack just three kilometres from the stage finish in Kettering.

Sharon's ride featured heavily on the ITV highlights package that night. "Friday was a special day," said Sharon. "I saw an opportunity to bridge the gap and I knew it would give me the best chance of gaining some points in the Queen of the Mountains category.

"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 me on.

“Once I got over to Chloe and Heather it was good and we worked well together. It was a shame we could not stay there all the way."

Reflecting on her overall performance at the tour she said: "It was really good. It has been a struggle to get back into shape and I expected to be hanging on much more than I was "I didn’t have the speed in the sprints this year to successfully defend my QoM title but it was good to hold on for third.

"Bigla had two riders including myself who won aggressive rider awards and we got Lotta (Lepesto) to the podium on the fourth day so there was plenty of TV exposure which pleases the sponsors."

Sharon has been spending a few days at her mum's home in the Cotswolds before Sunday's Nationals.

"It's going to be really interesting this year as lots of the Brits did well at the Women's Tour, including Laura Trott, Hannah Barnes, Lucy Garner and of course Lizzie Armitstead who won the opening stage before crashing and pulling out injured.

"I expect Lizzie to race in Lincoln and she like myself and Hannah will be riding solo without any team-mates, so it is going to be quite tactical and we will have to pick which attack to follow and ride smartly.

"From what I’ve read it is a more of a sprinters' course but I shall be doing the best I can and I want to feature.

"Then it's on to the Giro in Italy when the team's job will be trying to get Ashleigh (Moolman) on the podium – she has been riding really well."