Alison Jackson takes victory at Women’s Tour of Scotland stage two
Canadian Alison Jackson won a sprint to become the first rider to win a stage at the inaugural Women’s Tour of Scotland.
The team Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank rider finished with a time of 3:24:37 - beating American Emma White and Norwegian Stine Borgli by four seconds.
Earlier in the stage Brodie Chapman had taken a strong lead of 1 minute and 45 seconds, but a chase saw it cut to just nine seconds with 10km left to ride. A hair-raising sprint at 200m finished the route, which ran from Glasgow to Perth.
Alison Jackson said she had been “ready to win” from the beginning, but was set back by bad weather. Friday’s inaugural stage one was seen off after extreme weather hit the area.
“Myself and my team came here wanting to win,” she said “We knew we could do that by winning stages.
“We were ready to win yesterday’s, if it weren’t for the rain, but today we managed to achieve our goal. We really played the game.
“When you have your teammates all in the right place, you know you will be able to win the sprint. I’m really happy about the result, not just for myself individually, but for the whole team.”
Emma White, from Rally UHC Cycling, took the Deloitte Best Young Rider Jersey for her second-placed effort. The 21-year-old said the race had been “bittersweet”.
She said: “I am so pleased with my result. I was so close to the win, which makes it a little bit bittersweet because for a split second I thought, I can win this.
“Alison is such a powerful sprinter with so much race experience over here in Europe which is exactly what myself and my team here are trying to gain. I couldn’t be happier to finish in second.
“Bigla was the most powerful team out there. They had strength in numbers but I parked myself right behind them, knowing it would be a strong lead-out.
“With about 200m to go, I came around Leah, their sprinter, and almost imagined to hold it. I loved the finish in Perth, we were forced to take chances. It’s the best result we have had here in Europe so I’m just so happy.”
The race will end on Sunday with a 118.3km stage three starting and finishing in Edinburgh via the Borders.
