Evans’ plans hit by early crash but Archibald helps team- mate Wild to stage win

Neah Evans’ best-laid plans took just a few miles to go out of the window when she suffered a crash on day one of the 2018 ASDA Tour de Yorkshire Women’s race.

The Scottish rider was looking to impress with Storey Racing, but a bunch incident caused her to hit the tarmac as the race rolled out of Beverley towards the finish line in Doncaster. With no permanent damage done the 27- year- old was back in the saddle, though from there the race became one of consolidation and she was pleased just to cross the finish line in 14th.

But for the first time that doesn’t mark the end of Evans’ Tour, with a second stage introduced this year which takes her and the peloton from Barnsley to Ilkley – including a gruelling summit finish on the Cow and Calf hill today.

“If you had asked me any other time about there being two stages in the Tour, I would have agreed with you about how good it is, but currently not so much,” she said.

“I had a little sit down but I’m doing okay, the bike will probably need a bit of work before going again on Friday but on the whole it looks okay–it’ s one of those things.

“It’s not the best star t but it happens, I chased a little bit and then sat and recovered – luckily I came off it okay.”

There was better luck for fellow Scot Katie Archibald however, the Wiggle High5 rider helping team-mate Kirsten Wild to win courtesy of a sprint finish, earning the Yorkshire Bank and Yorkshire Bank Bike Libraries leader’s blue jersey in the process.

“I’ m feeling pretty good, buoyant really, there’s a real team high after the finish we had,” said Archibald. “The legs are feeling good, I would have liked to have been there a bit later on for Kirsten but she had 300 metres or so to be able to go from, that was all the more impressive for her and as a team you’re just happy to see that win.” ● Yorkshire Bank is an Official Partner of t he Tour de Yorkshire and the ground- breaking Yorkshire Bank Bike Libraries initiative. Visit www.ybonline.co. uk/tdy