After the Classics campaign, the UCI Women's WorldTour peloton moved to China for the series’ first stage race of the season: Tour of Chongming Island UCI Women’s WorldTour. On mostly wide and flat roads, the three-day event is a race that especially suits the sprinters, and therefore most of the fastest women in the world were there to fight for prestigious victories. Jolien D'Hoore (Wiggle High5) crashed on the first day, but then went on to win the 2nd and 3rd stages and also take the overall victory. Kirsten Wild (Cylance Pro Cycling), who won the first stage, placed second on the other two days - beaten by D'Hoore by just a few centimetres each time. Behind Wild, defending champion Chloe Hosking (Alé Cipollini) took third place in the overall classification.
Thursday, May 11 - Sunday, May 14: Amgen Breakaway from Heart Disease Women's Race empowered with SRAM
At 20 years old, Chloe Dygert Owen is one of the most promising talents in women's cycling. The American only started road racing at the age of 16, but two years later won the gold medal in both the road race and individual time trial for Junior Women at the UCI Road World Championships in Richmond (USA). Six months later she became UCI World Champion with Team USA in the team pursuit on track. Working closely with Kristin Armstrong and Ina-Yoko Teutenberg, Dygert Owen learned from the best and was sixth at her first UCI Women's WorldTour event of her career - last year's Amgen Tour of California. Silver medalist in the team pursuit at Rio 2016, the young athlete, married to professional cyclist Logan Owen, is 2017 UCI World Champion in the individual and team pursuit and 2017 Panamerican Champion in the road individual time trial. Watch out for her in California!