Barnes sisters dominate British Road National Championships women's time trial to take first and second

Hannah Barnes beat her sister Alice by 17 seconds with no other riders close to them

Hannah Barnes wins the women's British time trial title (Picture by SWpix.com)
(Image credit: SWpix.com)

Hannah Barnes won gold at the British Road National Championships women's time trial ahead of her sister Alice, with the Canyon-SRAM pair putting in dominant performances to take the top two steps on the podium.

Hannah, a former road race national champion, set a time of 39-38 over the the 29.8km course, holding an average speed of around 45kmh.

The 25-year-old was just one of two riders with her sister to set a sub-40 minute time. Alice went 17 seconds slower at 39-55, while the next fastest rider, Neah Evans (Storey Racing), who took third clocking in at 1-37 down on the winner.

Olympic gold medallist Dani Rowe (WaowDeals), who came into the road champs carrying decent form after a third place overall finish at the Women's Tour earlier this month, could only manage sixth place at 2-09 to Hannah Barnes.

Alice Barnes at the British Road National Championships women's time trial. Picture by SWpix.com
(Image credit: SWpix.com)

Likewise Dame Sarah Storey couldn't do enough to place near the podium, taking seventh place behind Rowe with a time 2-13 down.

Emma Lewis (Fusion RT Veloperformance), who went off early on the course in Northumberland, set an early benchmark of 41-21, but after a long wait was pushed out of the hotseat emphatically by Alice who went over a minute faster.

Lewis was unlucky not to hold onto a podium spot, with Evans going just six seconds faster to claim the bronze medal.

“I’m happy. This is a target I had for the season so it’s nice to have this jersey, and to have Alice in second is pretty cool," Barnes said after her victory.

"There’s not much rivalry between us – we’ve both focused a lot on our time trials this season, so coming into this we had a lot of help from our team. We certainly couldn’t blame our equipment or the team if it didn’t go well today, so it was down to us to perform on the day.”

Barnes will now look to add a second career road race title to her collection on Sunday, with the elite women's race taking on a 106.2km course.

Results

British Road National Championships 2018, elite women's individual time trial (29.8km)

1 Hannah Barnes (GBr) Canyon-SRAM, in 39-38-14

2 Alice Barnes (GBr) Canyon-SRAM, at 17s

3 Neah Evans (GBr) Storey Racing, at 1-37

4 Emma Lewis (GBr) Fusion RT Veloperformance, at 1-43

5 Molly Patch (GBr) Fusion RT Veloperformance, at 2-07

6 Dani Rowe (GBr) WaowDeals, at 2-09

7 Sarah Storey (GBr) Storey Racing, at 2-13

8 Melissa Lowther (GBr) Storey Racing, at 2-26

9 Anna Henderson (GBr) Cycle Team OnForm, at 2-29

10 Alice Lethbridge (GBr) Drag2Zero, at 2-33

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