Alice Barnes: I can be happy but I’ve got a lot of time to make up on the bigger riders

Alice Barnes was satisfied with her ride in the Yorkshire World Championships time trial, but admits she has work to do if she wants to keep up with the star riders.

The British national time trial champion went up against the likes of Annemiek van Vleuten, Anna van der Breggen and Chloe Dygert in the women’s TT, taking 16th place after racing through horrendous weather conditions.

Barnes, 24, was taking part in only her second time trial at World Championship level and improved on her 22nd place finish from 2018.

>>> Top under-23 riders react to ‘crazy’ weather conditions at Yorkshire 2019 World Championships

Speaking at the finish in Harrogate, Barnes said: “I think I can be happy. I rode to my power and that was my plan.

“I think for where I am and for how much time I've put into time trialling I can be happy.

"I know I've got a lot of work to do and a lot of time to make up on the bigger riders but I've got things I can take away and things I can learn from as well.”

British hopes in the 30.3km  Yorkshire 2019 World Championships TT, from Ripon to Harrogate, rested upon Barnes and 31-year-old Hayley Simmonds, with the latter finishing 26th, 5-36 down on the winner.

Barnes finished her run just inside the provisional top 10, but was bumped down to 16th and 4-33 slower than the winner as the favourites came.

Chloe Dygert from the USA put in one of the most memorable time trial performances ever to smash the Dutch duo of Annemiek van Vleuten and Anna van der Breggen, taking the title with more than 1-30 over silver medal finisher Van der Breggen.

The weather was one of the main talking points on the third day of racing in Yorkshire, as heavy downpours caused flooding that caused chaos in the men’s under-23 TT earlier in the day and caused the women’s race to be delayed by 40 minutes.

>>> Watch: Chaos reigns supreme at Yorkshire Worlds U23 time trial 

Barnes said: “[Conditions] weren’t too bad and they were the same for everyone. It was still raining for our race and we had a bit of a delay while they cleared some of the standing water, but other than that you just let your tire pressure down a bit and take the corners a little bit slower and try to stay safe.”

“Not too long ago in Manchester we had a lot of rain and a lot of flooding and I was actually out on my TT bike,” Barnes joked, “I guess it added some more preparation.”

“I actually called that session off and did it on the turbo trainer, so maybe I should have stuck it out a bit longer.”