Hosking expects support role in Santos Women's Tour

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Fresh after her stage and overall win in the Bay Crits, Chloe Hosking returns to racing with Wiggle Down Under at the Santos Women's Tour. The Australian will form part of an impressive team including former world champion Giorgia Bronzini, Emilia Fahlin, Eileen Roe, and hometown favourite Annette Edmondson in the four day race that runs January 17-20.

“The form was good two weeks ago. I’ve not done much since Nationals and I’ve had a recovery week so I’ll either be really fresh or a little under done, so we’ll see how it goes,” a relaxed Hosking told Cyclingnews before she travelled to Adelaide on Thursday morning.

“I’m really going there in support Annette who is from Adelaide and Gio. I’ll be there to help those girls out and with that sort of team we’re going to be looking to go for as many sprints as possible and we can start fine tuning our leadout.”

Hosking was one of the major transfers in the women’s peloton over the winter, closing her account at Team Hitec before moving to the Wiggle team for 2015. She started the year in flying form, winning the opening day at the Bay Crits before closing out the overall with a dogged performance over the resulting days.

“I didn’t expect to be going this well. I had a bit of a slower build and I went into Bay Crits a bit nervous because it was with a new team and wanted to do well. To come out and win on the first day was a relief and to win overall was so cool and hugely satisfying,” she told Cyclingnews.

After the win she raced the nationals, a far tougher event, held over a course at odds with her natural characteristics as a sprinter. Despite not picking up a result Hosking believes that her performance in that race gave here even more confidence.

“I actually took more confidence from the Nationals where I managed to stay with the bunch until the very last lap. I was really happy with that because it’s a really tough course and I’ve never gone that far. It’s showing that my training is working and I’ve just got to keep chugging away.”

The Santos Tour will see Hosking move into the role of leadout ride for her teammates, and Wiggle enter the race with one of the most powerful and experienced teams in the race, with Hosking looking forward to the challenge ahead.

“I’m always motivated and I always go out and train. The move to Wiggle has given me a shift in training though as I’m taking on a different role as I become more of a leadout than a sprinter.”