Giorgia Bronzini (Wiggle Honda) claimed victory on round 5 of the UCI Women Road World Cup, on Sunday May 17 after unleashing a powerful sprint to defeat Kirsten Wild (Hitec Products) and Fanny Ribérot (France National Team) at the Tour of Chongming Island. The first young rider on the day was Arianna Fidanza (Alé-Cipollini).
With leaders missing from the start line, there is no change at the top of the UCI Women Road World Cup leader boards.
The 125-kilometre race across the Chinese island of Chongming was typical of what you could expect from this particular circuit: crosswinds splitting the peloton into echelons at several points with riders fighting to stay in.
The weather is always a major factor in how this race progresses but today unlike the past few days, the rain seemed to hold off. The race started in style, from the magnificent Oriental Sports Center in Shanghai with team presentations followed by traditional Chinese dancing.
The race was very active from the off with attacks instigated by the local China Chongming-Liv-Champion System Pro Cycling and the Korean National Team. Asian teams know how it is to race in that part of the world, especially on warm, muggy days like today. However there was no escaping from the European teams as Hitec Products, Bigla Pro Cycling Team and Ale Cipollini reeled each attempts back immediately.
It was Simona Frapporti (Alé Cipollini) who pocketed the first prime of the day winning the first intermediate sprint.
The peloton then crossed a 10-km underwater tunnel before jumping onto the 8-km Shanghai Yangtze River Bridge to Changxing Island. The bridge QOM was taken by Australian Lauren Kitchen (Hitec Products) with side-winds making it difficult for those caught behind to move up.
On the second half of the race, Hongyu Liang (China Chongming-Liv-Champion System Pro Cycling) and Anastasia Chulkova (Bepink Laclassica) attacked to open a gap of over 1-minute on the chasing peloton. This temporary lead allowed Chulkova to grab the second intermediate sprint of the day before being caught with 7-km to go.
All black and orange in the final kilometres If there was ever any doubt Wiggle Honda’s train was the best in the women’s peloton, there shouldn’t be now.
In the final sprint, Bronzini grabbed onto her lead-out before opening her final effort. The former world champion had enough in the tank to hold on for the win. Not even power house Kirsten Wild (Hitec Products) could come around her, finishing second and France National Team’s Fanny Ribérot, rounding up the podium for third.
“Chloe (Hosking) was supposed to be the one to contest the sprint” said winner Bronzini. “But she got caught behind a crash and wasn’t able to make it to the front so I took over”.
This is Wiggle Honda’s third UCI Women Road World Cup win of the season after the Boels Rental Ronde van Drenthe won by Jolien D'Hoore and the Tour of Flanders, by Elisa Longo Borghini.
Today’s SufferPrize by The Sufferfest was awarded to Hongyu Liang (China Chongming-Liv-Champion System Pro Cycling) for her grit and determination in trying to stay away, making the bunch dig deep to bring her back!
For highlights of the day including interviews, log on to the UCI YouTube channel at tv.uci.ch
Full results and standings