Wild wins final sprint in Tour of Chongming Island

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Kirsten Wild (Wiggle-High5) got the sprint victory she had come for on stage three of the Tour of Chongming Island, beating Jolien D'hoore (Mitchelton Scott) and Giorgia Bronzini (Cylance Pro Cycling) to the line. The race overall was won by Charlotte Becker (Hitec Products-Birk Sport).

The stage consisted of an 11.5-km circuit that was raced 11 times for a total of 121.5 km. Bonus seconds were at stake in intermediate sprints after laps three and six, and after lap nine there was a single mountain point on offer. However, Lucy Garner (Wiggle-High5) had an unassailable lead in the queen of the mountains classification after taking a haul of pints on the previous stages and took home the polka-dot jersey.

Hitec Products-Birk Sport controlled the race for Becker, and nobody got away in the first half of the race. The intermediate sprint after three laps was won by Giorgia Bronzini (Cylance Pro Cycling) ahead of Chloe Hosking (Alé Cipollini) and Jolien D'hoore (Mitchelton Scott).

Becker's team was joined at the front of the peloton by Team Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank, defending Shannon Malseed's second place overall, as well as by sprinters' teams Mitchelton Scott, Alé Cipollini, and Cylance Pro Cycling. Hosking won the second intermediate sprint ahead of Bronzini and Paola Andrea Muñoz (Swapit Agolico).

Attacks started flying on lap seven, and Minsk Cycling Club was particularly active. These moves were quickly brought back, but with 38 km to go it was Sarah Roy (Mitchelton-Scott) who put in a fierce acceleration and opened up a gap on the peloton.

Roy was chased by a group of five including Sheyla Gutiérrez (Cylance Pro Cycling) and riders from Team Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank, Alé Cipollini, Hitec Products-Birk Sport, and Team Dukla Praha Women. When the chasers bridged to Roy, there was no cooperation and the group was caught soon after.

Hitec Products-Birk Sport took control of the race again with some help by Team Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank. There were attacks ahead of the mountain sprint, which was won by Muñoz. On the final two laps, the teams of the overall leaders kept the pace high to discourage any further attacks, and finally there was a mass sprint for the stage win.

Team Virtu Cycling led out the peloton on the final kilometre for Barbara Guarischi and it was a hectic sprint on a wide road. Mitchelton-Scott put D'hoore in position behind Guarischi, while Hosking was on the right side of the road. Wild did not have the same lead-out train as the other top sprinters, but came up strong on the left side with 200 metres to go and won the stage ahead of D'hoore and Bronzini, who secured her green points jersey. Becker won the race overall ahead of Malseed and Anastasia Iakovenko (BTC City Ljubljana) who took the white jersey as best U23 rider.

Anna van der Breggen (Boels-Dolmans) continues to lead the UCI Women's WorldTour classification. The next race in the series is the Women's Tour of California, 17-19 May.

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