DUTCH sprinter Amy Pieters beat British national champion Hannah Barnes to victory on stage two as Lizzie Deignan's hopes of overall victory ended in the OVO Energy Women's Tour in Stoke-on-Trent.

Pieters edged out Canyon/SRAM's Barnes and Ellen van Dijk (Sunweb) to take the win, while stage one winner Katarzyna Niewiadoma was fifth to retain the overall lead.

It proved another day to forget for Otley rider Deignan as she struggled on the climbs and finished well behind the leaders in 63rd position. She now sits eight minutes and 47 seconds down in the general classification in 47th place.

Victory for Pieters helped her Boels-Dolmans team make up for the disappointment of the opening stage, when they failed to respond to Niewiadoma's attack and let the Pole open up a near two-minute advantage on Deignan.

"It was a really hard day, we lost a bit of time on the GC yesterday so our goal was to go for the stage win," Pieters said.

"Our team was pretty strong today. Christine (Majerus) got in the front at one point and we were almost all there together going into the finish. We spoke about preparing for a sprint so they could save my energy, and the girls helped me really well in the finale."

Niewiadoma continues to lead by one minute and 46 seconds from her team-mate Marianne Vos, while Barnes' second place on the day was enough to move up her to third overall with the same deficit.

"It's bittersweet," Barnes said. "I'm really pleased to be up there in the finish, it's been a long time since I've been able to be aggressive and get a good placing like that. But I'd have loved to have finished off the team's good work today with a win."

Her sister Alice, riding for the Drops team which included Wilsden's Annie Simpson, was eighth while Dani King (Cylance) was ninth as three British riders finished in the top 10. Hannah will take over from Alice in the Best British Rider jersey as she puts her British champions colours to one side.

"I love wearing my national champion's jersey," she added. "It's one that all the fans look for and every time I put it on I'm really proud. But the Adnams Best British Rider jersey is also really special, so it's not a bad swap for tomorrow's stage."

The 144.5km stage around Stoke-on-Trent finished in a reduced sprint after lone escapee Lucinda Brand (Sunweb) was caught with seven kilometres left to go.

Brand had sought to follow the blueprint of Niewiadoma's solo win on Wednesday as she attacked off the front after Ipstones, the first of the two categorised climbs late in the day.

Brand built a lead of one minute and 20 seconds over the peloton and was still almost a minute clear as she began the final 20km, but in contrast to the opening day there was no hesitating in the pack as the chase was on.

After stunning the peloton on Wednesday, Niewiadoma is the clear favourite to go on and hold the leader's green jersey all the way to Sunday's final stage in London.

"I don't want to overreact or get too confident, but this is another day done," the 22-year-old Pole said. "Everything can happen, as we saw today. It's so hard to control it when lots of teams are attacking. I know that everybody wants that OVO Energy Green Jersey, so it's like one team versus all of the others. It's a big battle."