Sofie van Rooijen (UAE Team ADQ) laid down a winning sprint on stage 2 of the Tour of Chongming Island turning stage 1's close run second place into a victory celebration in Chongming on Wednesday.
Van Rooijen jumped from Elisa Balsamo's (Lidl-Trek) wheel and while the Italian Lidl-Trek rider kept on the pressure on the left Mia Griffin (Roland Le Dévoluy) swept up the right to claim the runner-up spot while Balsamo had to settle for third.
The sprinters teams had been determined to make sure they had their chance again on the 128.6km stage from Shanghai to Chongming, chasing down a break of four that got a gap relatively late in the day of racing, with little more than 25km to go.
It included Giulia Giuliani (Roland Le Dévoluy), Catalina Soto (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi), Anne Knijnenburg (VolkerWessels) and Marina Komina (Li Ning Star Ladies). Soto was soon dropped but the remaining three worked together to carve out a margin of over 40 seconds at 16km to go, falling to around 30 seconds at 10km to go and putting the break within sight of the peloton on the long straight roads.
At 6km to go Knijnenburg dropped, leaving the two ahead forging on with a gap soon falling below 20 seconds and the peloton was breathing down their neck at 3km to go and when the catch occurred at under 2km to go the set up for a bunch sprint well underway.
In stage 1 Austrian champion Kathrin Schweinberger (Human Powered Health) crossed the line first but was relegated so Australian rider Georgia Baker (Liv AlUla Jayco) was awarded the top spot on the stage and overall, with Van Rooijen and Griffin then taking the remaining podium spots.
They both moved up a podium spot on Wednesday, leaving Van Rooijen with her first victory of the season and first Women's WorldTour win, while Baker was fifth on stage 2 behind Cristina Tonetti (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi). That meant Van Rooijen's win also put her in the overall lead, with the rider helped along by her move to claim top spot in the first intermediate sprint of the day.
The race concludes on Thursday with a 111.4km stage 3 around Chongming New City Park, finishing on a long and wide 3km finishing straight.
Results
Position |
Rider (Team) |
Time Gap |
|---|---|---|
1 |
Sofie Van Rooijen (UAE Team ADQ) |
2:57:09 |
2 |
Mia Griffin (Roland Le Dévoluy) |
" |
3 |
Elisa Balsamo (Lidl–Trek) |
" |
4 |
Cristina Tonetti (Laboral Kutxa - Fundación Euskadi) |
" |
5 |
Georgia Baker (Liv AlUla Jayco) |
" |
6 |
Lonneke Uneken (VolkerWessels Cycling Team) |
" |
7 |
Kathrin Schweinberger (Human Powered Health) |
" |
8 |
Kaja Rysz (Roland Le Dévoluy) |
+0:01 |
9 |
Valentina Basilico (Eneicat - CMTeam) |
" |
10 |
Laura Tomasi (Laboral Kutxa - Fundación Euskadi) |
" |
11 |
Lani Wittevrongel (Lotto Ladies) |
" |
12 |
Jutatip Maneephan (Thailand Women's Cycling Team) |
" |
13 |
Anne Van Rooijen (VolkerWessels Cycling Team) |
" |
14 |
Clara Copponi (Lidl–Trek) |
" |
15 |
Mieke Docx (Lotto Ladies) |
" |
16 |
Monica Greenwood (Team Coop - Repsol) |
" |
17 |
Barbora Němcová (Team Dukla Praha) |
+0:02 |
18 |
Lara Crestanello (Born to Win BTC City Ljubljana Zhiraf) |
" |
19 |
Mari Hole Mohr (Team Coop - Repsol) |
" |
20 |
Yelizaveta Sklyarova (Born to Win BTC City Ljubljana Zhiraf) |
" |
21 |
Dominika Włodarczyk (UAE Team ADQ) |
" |
22 |
Marina Garau (BePink - Imatra - Bongioanni) |
" |
23 |
Margot Vanpachtenbeke (VolkerWessels Cycling Team) |
" |
24 |
Nora Jenčušová (BePink - Imatra - Bongioanni) |
" |
25 |
Dina Boels (Lotto Ladies) |
" |
26 |
Argiro Milaki (Aromitalia 3T Vaiano) |
" |
27 |
Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Liv AlUla Jayco) |
" |
28 |
Virginia Iaccarino (Aromitalia 3T Vaiano) |
" |
29 |
Laura Lizette Sander (Team Coop - Repsol) |
" |
30 |
Tamara Dronova-Balabolina (Roland Le Dévoluy) |
+0:03 |
31 |
Elisabeth Ebras (BePink - Imatra - Bongioanni) |
" |
32 |
Nicole Hartychová (Team Dukla Praha) |
" |
33 |
Yanina Kuskova (Laboral Kutxa - Fundación Euskadi) |
" |
34 |
Karlijn Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ) |
" |
35 |
Rungnapha Kuson (Thailand Women's Cycling Team) |
" |
36 |
Emma Norsgaard (Lidl–Trek) |
" |
37 |
Ruoxue Wang (Li Ning Star Ladies) |
" |
38 |
Andrea Casagranda (BePink - Imatra - Bongioanni) |
" |
