Internationale Thuringen Rundfahrt der Frauen 2011, July 18-24 2011.

Shara Gillow's star continues to rise with the Queenslander claiming a podium finish in the Thuringen Rundfahrt women's tour in Germany at the weekend.

The twenty-three-year-old finished third overall, just 32 seconds behind overall leader Sweden's Emma Johansson (Hitec Products-UCK) who turned a three second deficit of overnight leader, the USA's Amber Neben (HTC Highroad), into a six second victory over the American.

Team Australia finished second overall in the teams classification, 1:44 behind Garmin-Cervelo and 50seconds ahead of HTC Highroad.

Gillow, a member of the Team Jayco AIS women's program, made her debut for Australia at the 2010 UCI Road World Championships finishing eighth in the individual time trial.

Earlier this month she claimed the biggest win of her career to date by winning the second stage and wearing the pink leader's jersey at the Giro d'Italia Femminile earlier this month riding for the Bizkaia-Durango team.

In Germany this week, Gillow finished fourth in the tour's second stage after being pipped on the line in a bunch sprint, fifth in stage five - a 19km time trial, with three other finishes in the main peloton across the six stages.

Team Australia's Vicki Whitelaw, who claimed a second placing in the tour's second stage, finished eighth overall, with Ruth Corset and Taryn Heather each finishing inside the top 30.

Source: http://www.cycling.org.au