Kirsten Wild wins opening stage of Tour of Chongming Island
Kirsten Wild has won the opening stage of the Tour of Chongming Island, sprinting to her ninth win of the season and assuming the race lead in doing so.
The 121.6km stage never really split and as a result was fairly steady to control. Kirsten even managed to take the intermediate sprints and bonus seconds on offer during the stage to comfort her overall lead after the first day of racing.
The Team Giant-Shimano women started one rider short here in China with Claudia Häusler not making the journey out due to personal reasons. However, Kirsten was still well supported for the sprint at the end, with her teammates helping to put her in position at the finish leaving her to do the final hard effort at the end.
Kirsten takes not only the overall race lead but leads the points classification as well.
“The stage went well today and the girls controlled the race in a strong way,” said Kirsten after the finish. “The sprint points were good practice for the final and then the team set me up well once again.
“They kept the pace high on the run-in and then delivered me to the front where I went with about 250m to go because of the tailwind which worked out perfectly.
“It’s great to race out here, on the other side of the world and the support for the team here in China is great. We will look to keep up this strong form on tomorrow’s second stage.”
Team Giant-Shimano coach, Ruud Verhagen added: “The team did a good job today and controlled the race well even though they were one rider short. Kirsten h is now in a very good position overall having taken the the bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint points.
“It’s nice to win again here after last year and it is good for the confidence ahead of Sunday’s World Cup race. We will now look ahead to tomorrow’s stage and make a plan for the team to defend our lead on tomorrow’s second stage.”
Stage 1 Result
1 Kirsten Wild Team Giant-Shimano 3:05:40
2 Roxane Fournier Poitou-Charentes.Futuroscope.86 ,,
3 Shelley Olds Alé Cipollini ,,
24 Sara Mustonen Team Giant-Shimano ,,
76 Julia Soek Team Giant-Shimano ,,
86 Marijn de Vries Team Giant-Shimano 0:40
87 Willeke Knol Team Giant-Shimano ,,
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