Armitstead wins final stage of Ladies Tour of Qatar

Lizzie Armitstead (Boels Dolmans) won the final stage of the Ladies Tour of Qatar, securing her position as the overall race winner ahead of Chloe Hosking (Wiggle-Honda) and Ellen Van Dijk (Boels Dolmans Cycling Team).

The win marked Boels Dolmans third stage win in the race, sealing their almost complete domination in the four-day women’s race. However they were pushed until the last by Wiggle Honda, who were looking to reverse a nine second deficit at the start of the stage and propel Hosking to an unlikely overall victory.

Hosking and her team found themselves in an even tough position at the first sprint when Armitstead finished ahead of the Australian to extend her lead in the overall.

However, Hosking fought back and narrowed the gap by taking the second intermediate sprint of the day after lone-breakaway rider Xiu Jie Jiang had been reeled in.

It meant that Hosking needed to win the stage and see Armitstead finish outside the top three places if she was to topple the British all-rounder from the top of the overall standings.

Armitstead made no mistakes in the finale, hitting the front after an excellent lead out from Chantal Blaak. Hosking pulled herself into content and onto Armitstead’s wheel, the pair head and shoulders above their opposition.

It looked as though Hosking would at least end her race on a high as she began to creep over the top of Armitstead but the Boels Dolmans ride just had enough to take the win, and seal her first stage race of the season.

Hosking finished second, 12 seconds down with Van Dijk at 22 seconds in third. Armitstead also came away with the Points jersey, with Wiggle Honda picking up the team’s classification as a consolation.

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