Wild wins Prudential RideLondon Classique

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Kirsten Wild (Wiggle High5) has won the Prudential RideLondon Classique, triumphing on The Mall a second time after her 2016 win. In a headwind sprint, the Dutchwoman beat European champion Marianne Vos (WaowDeals) to the line, with Elisa Balsamo (Valcar PBM) finishing in third place.

Raced on a fast and technical city-centre circuit around St. James' Park, Trafalgar Square, and Horse Guards Parade, the peloton did twelve laps of the 5.4-kilometre course for a race length of 65 kilometres. Although the shortest and flattest of all UCI Women's WorldTour races, the RideLondon Classique offers the biggest prize fund with a total of € 100,000 on the line, the race winner alone pocketing €25,000.

There were three intermediate sprints as well, with nine, six, and three laps to go, with cash prizes for the top five in each sprint and the overall top five of the sprint competition. Amy Pieters (Boels Dolmans) won the first sprint ahead of Danielle Rowe (WaowDeals) and Lucy Garner (Wiggle High5), Rowe then beat Leah Kirchmann (Team Sunweb) and Chloe Hosking (Alé Cipollini) in the second sprint. Pieters prevailed against Rowe in the third sprint, but WaowDeals' British rider had amassed enough points to win the sprint competition and collect a total of €5000 for her sprint placings and overall win - this alone was more than the prize money awarded to the winner in many other UCI Women's WorldTour races.

There were a couple of attacks from the peloton on the fast, criterium-like course, but the sprinters' teams never lost control of the race. On the final three laps, Mitchelton-Scott were always seen at or near the front of the peloton for their sprinter Jolien D'hoore. The other lead-out trains got organised on the last ten kilometres that were raced at high speed. At the two-kilometre mark, Mitchelton-Scott were lined up on the right side of the road, with Alé Cipollini leading out Chloe Hosking in the middle and Lisa Brennauer (Wiggle High5) piloting her sprinter Kirsten Wild to the front on the left.

Team Sunweb came to the front in strength with one kilometre to go, putting last year's winner Coryn Rivera into the driver's seat as she still had three team mates to lead her out. Trixi Worrack (Canyon-SRAM) expertly placed her team mate Alice Barnes in the Sunweb train, causing Rivera to drop back a few positions. This meant that the US champion had to sprint back onto the back of her train as the field passed through Admiralty Arch and emerged onto The Mall.

A touch of wheels caused a crash around twentieth position that brought down a number of riders. At the front, Bastianelli peeled off after a last turn, and this was the signal for Marianne Vos to start her effort. From 14th position, the European champion sprinted into first position on the left side of the road, but Kirsten Wild immediately jumped when she saw Vos come past. On the right side, Rivera still had two team mates, but they could not match the best sprinters' speed and swung off, leaving Rivera to fight for herself. The US champion did not get up to speed and eventually finished in sixth place.

Vos faded on the last metres after her long sprint, and Wild came past her in the middle of the road to win about half a bikelength ahead of Vos. Elisa Balsamo had gone into Wild's wheel when the Dutchwoman started her sprint and finished third, behind her Chloe Hosking and Lotta Lepistö (Cervélo-Bigla) finished fourth and fifth.

Anna van der Breggen (Boels Dolmans) continues to lead the UCI Women's WorldTour overall standings; the next round of the race series will be the Vårgårda WestSweden TTT on 11 August followed by the Vårgårda WestSweden RR on August 13.

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