Rowney takes sprint win in crash-marred run to Palmerston

Loren Rowney (VIS Women's Team) claimed her first UCI stage win in Palmerston North, out-sprinting the experienced Judith Arndt (GreenEdge-AIS) to win the second stage of the Women's Tour of New Zealand.

Overnight race leader Kristin Armstrong (USA National Team) was third across the finish line, allowing her to retain the yellow jersey heading into Stage 3 on Friday. The reigning Olympic time trial champion holds a 15second gap over Arndt, with teammate Evelyn Stevens a further seven seconds in arrears.

"We still have another three days in front of us and I don't take anything for granted," Armstrong told RoadCycling.co.nz. "Every day we can have the yellow jersey on one of our backs, we'll take it."

Foul weather made its mark on the stage, with rain and cross-winds resulting in several riders hitting the deck.

A break of three riders, Kaytee Boyd (New Zealand National Team), Gracie Elvin (Team Jayco – AIS) and Yun Yun Yuan (China Chongming - Giant Pro Cycling) gained distance on the peloton not long after the neutral zone and a dominant USA National Team was forced to do the bulk of the work in the chase. The Chinese rider crashed out of the stage while in the break, and was taken to hospital.

With around 30 kilometres left to race, Boyd and Elvin were caught, triggering multiple attacks from the USA National Team and GreenEdge but it was a bunch sprint which decided the day.

The result was an impressive one for Rowney, who is making the step up from the Australian Women's National Road Series and has signed with Specialized-lululemon for 2012. The support of VIS teammates Joanne Hogan and Jessica Allen allowed Rowney to overtake her rivals in the dive for the finish line.

"Judith mistimed the sprint unfortunately, which put her into second on the stage," said GreenEdge-AIS sports director Rodney McGee on the team's website. "She's a fast finisher, but she's not a sprinter, so second is still a good result. There were bonus seconds available on the finish for first, second and third, and Arndt was able to make up a few seconds on Armstrong by beating her in the sprint."

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