Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling’s Giorgia Bronzini sprinted to third place at the end of the opening stage of the Tour of Chongming Island, in the Chongbei area of the island across the mouth of the Yangtze River from Shanghai. The former two-time road World Champion was beaten to the line by Dutch super-sprinter Kirsten Wild (Hitec Products) and American Shelley Olds (Bigla) at the end of a largely uneventful 107km stage.
“It was a pretty uneventful race, with like four turns in the whole course,” Bronzini said afterwards. “The first intermediate sprint was massive chaos, and the girls tried to pull me to the sprint, but I lost them so I was out for the first one. The second one was better and I was second behind Wild.”
With virtually nothing, aside from a few corners in the wide, flat, boulevard-style roads, to disrupt the peloton, a bunch sprint was almost inevitable. Aside from a number of riders distanced by the bunch’s pace in the closing kilometres, the entire race arrived at the Chongbei finish together.
Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling’s Emilia Fahlin and Chloe Hosking managed to position Bronzini for her final sprint but, unfortunately, the flat – almost downhill – nature of the finishing straight meant that the on-form Wild would be tough to beat.
“Nothing really happened after that until the finish line,” Bronzini continued. “The girls did an amazing job overall; in the last 800 metres Emilia and Chloe did a really great effort!
“In the end third in that sprint that is not one of my favourite things, but we keep going to try, and we never give up! Thanks all the girls and staff for the support!”
Result
1. Kirsten Wild (Hitec Products)
2. Shelley Olds (Bigla)
3. Giorgia Bronzini (Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling)
