Heavy crash ruins Barras' chances in Scotland

8:19pm Tuesday 25th March 2008

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Lying seventh after a promising first two stages, Keighley racing cyclist Tom Barras crashed heavily on stage three and struggled through to the finish of the Girvan Three-Day Event in Scotland.

Barras enjoyed good form for the first two stages, finishing seventh from 125 riders on the opening stage, while also scoring three points in the sprints competition, and he then took fourth on the evening criterium and added another three sprint points to move up to second overall in that category.

But that was where things started to go wrong for the Plowman Craven RT rider.

"Just after one of the climbs, the plan was for our team to attack on the descent, and it was working fine," said Barras.

"I attacked down the left and got some space, but in front of me was Alex Coutts from the Team Anglo Scot. His chain snapped and I hit him at about 30mph and went into a rocky ditch.

"I was very fortunate not to have been seriously injured.

"I got back on my bike and got a couple of new wheels and tried to carry on, but I lost about eight minutes on the leaders, which meant my race was over."

With pre-race favourite and team-mate Evan Oliphant still in contention, Barras battled through the last two stages in a bid to help his colleague win the overall event.

But with rival teams Rapha Condor and Pinarello RT working together, they had their work cut out.

"The team was going really well, but effectively it was eight guys against 16 with Rapha and Pinarello working together.

"We gambled everything on the last stage, trying to get Evan the win, but it just didn't come off."

This Sunday, Barras rejoins his team-mates in County Durham for the Tour of the Reservoir - round three of the Premier Calendar series.

"I should be ok by then," he added, as he held an ice-pack to his knee.