Alice Barnes sprinted to fifth place in today’s opening stage of the Women’s Tour in Bury St Edmunds, Great Britain. The CANYON//SRAM Racing rider positioned herself in the final kilometres into a technical finish and was able to avoid a late crash to finish behind stage winner Clara Copponi (FDJ).

Alice explained, “Our team plan focused on putting myself in a good position for the final roundabout. We had a long break in the race and I thought the stop-start might not suit me. But when we restarted I felt okay and we decided to stick to the plan.”

“My teammates tried to help me and we had aimed to be patient, but I was blocked to get to them, so I made the choice to go alone. I was able to find my way close to the front before the roundabout but I have to admit we’d already been slipping a lot all day on the wet roads and that didn’t give me a lot of confidence. The riders ahead of me took the left-hand corner too hot and crashed. I was able to find my way through and did my best in the final 100m,” added Alice.

With Alice’s fifth place, she takes the lead in the Best British Rider classification and goes into tomorrow’s second stage in ninth place overall, +10 seconds behind tour leader Copponi. Teammate Elise Chabbey is placed second in the mountain classification after being led out by teammates Tiffany Cromwell and Kasia Niewiadoma to take points in the two classifications.

Elise said, “It was the plan I would go for those classifications if I was in position. In reality, they weren’t really hills but more like a sprint. I’ll see how I feel and if I’m in position maybe I’ll try to go for it again in the next stages but for sure it’s not the main goal for the team.”

HOW TO FOLLOW

The Women’s Tour can be followed on Twitter with #WomensTour. Each stage is broadcast live on GCN, Eurosport Player and SBS with details below.

Stage 2 | Tuesday 7 June | 92.1km | Harlow – Harlow | Race start 11:00BST | Broadcast 12:30-13:45BST.

Stage 3 | Wednesday 8 June | 107.9km | Tewkesbury – Gloucester | Race start 11:00BST | Broadcast 12:30-14:15BST.

Stage 4 | Thursday 9 June | 144.7km | Wrexham – Welshpool | Race start 11:00BST | Broadcast 12:30-15:30BST.

Stage 5 | Friday 10 June | 106.6km | Pembery Country Park – Black Mountain | Race start 11:00BST | Broadcast 11:30-14:40BST.

Stage 6 | Saturday 11 June | 142.9km | Chipping Norton – Oxford | Race start 11:00BST | Broadcast 10:55-15:15BST.

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