Mylène de Zoete (Ceratizit-WNT) won stage 1 of the Tour of Chongming Island, beating Daria Pikulik (Human Powered Health) and Georgia Baker (Jayco AlUla) to the line in the expected bunch sprint, admitting she was supposed to lead out her teammate Martina Fidenza burt the finish line came early and surprised them.
The break of the day only got away halfway through the 108.9-kilometre stage and the three riders held a lead of up to two minutes, with two chasers bridging 29 km from the finish.
By that time, however, the peloton was controlling the gap and the breakaway was caught with 19km to go. There were no further attacks, and on a wide road, De Zoete had the best positioning and highest speed to win the stage.
With time bonifications, De Zoete now leads the general classification by four seconds to Pikulik and six seconds to Baker.
“I was supposed to be the lead out but then I had to brake and get going again and the line was suddenly there,” she explained.
“It’s difficult to time a lead out but both Martina and I like the speed as track riders, and so it went well in the end. We were a bit confused at the first, because the line was already there but Martina was happy for me, so all is good. We’re happy as a team.”
“It’s exciting to lead the race and lets see if we can do it again and win a WorldTour stage race. First we take it day by day. We’ll enjoy being in the leader’s jersey.”
How it unfolded
The 2023 edition of the Tour of Chongming Island is the first since 2019 as the race was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic in the last three years.
Held on the flat island of Chongming in the Yangtze estuary, just north of Shanghai, the highest point of the first stage was a bridge just six metres above sea level, serving as the day’s only ‘mountain’ sprint after 16.3 km.
There were no attacks until then, and Nina Kessler (Jayco AlUla) was first on the bridge, taking the lead in the QOM classification.
After several short-lived solo attacks, Thi That Nguyen (Israel-Premier Tech Roland), Georgia Whitehouse (ARA-Skip Capital), and Jarmila Machačová (Dukla Praha) got a 22-second gap, but they were brought back again by UAE Team ADQ who targeted the intermediate sprints.
Their sprinter Chiara Consonni duly won the first intermediate sprint and took three bonus seconds ahead of Vittoria Guazzini (FDJ-SUEZ) and Hanna Tserakh (Li Ning Star Ladies).
Nicole Hartychová (Dukla Praha) then attacked with 54 km to go, and when Tiril Jørgensen (Team…
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