Great Britain’s Alice Barnes sprinted in ahead of a group of 28 to win the second stage of An Post Rás na mBan in Castlecomer today.
Barnes crashed with 7km to go but quickly regained her position in the front group and held off Sweden’s Frida Knutsson (Team Crescent DARE) and another Swede Wlima Olausson (Backstedt Hotchillee) at the end of 75 km.
Barnes’s sister Hannah was a double stage winner of An Post Rás na mBan in 2013 and Alice, who is now the leader of the NDC Points competition, is gearing up to represent Britain at the world championships in Norway later this month.
Overall race leader and stage one winner Belle de Gast (WV Breda) was another rider to crash but she was safely in the group sprinting for the win, finishing eighth to retain her An Post pink leader’s jersey.
Best Irish rider was paralympic heroine Eve McCrystal (Garda CC) who will wear the Kilkenny County Council Green jersey again on tomorrow’s third stage which finishes on Mount Leinster after 112km.
