Huang wins Tour of Chongming Island opener

Ting Ying Huang (Chinese Tapei) won the first stage of the Tour of Chongming Island on Friday. The young sprinter out-paced Canada's Leah Kirchmann (Team Liv Plantur) and Australia's Chloe Hosking (Wiggle High5) to take a remarkable victory in the Women's WorldTour event.

Huang will now wear the leader's jersey into the second stage on Saturday. 

All stages begin and end in Xincheng Park. The opening stage took the women's field along a 139.8km road race that ended in a bunch sprint along a wide boulevard. Wiggle High5 was responsible for reeling in a dangerous two-person breakaway that managed to escape with 40km to go. The break included Olga Zabelinskaya (BePink).

Wiggle High5 teammates worked together to reduce the gap from one minute to nothing with 15km to go, setting up the bunch sprint to the line. But it was Huang who came up victorious.

"In the last 40km a break of two got away which I was concerned about because Olga was in it. Dani [King], Mayuko [Hagiwara], Anna [Christian] and Amy [Roberts] worked hard to keep the gap under a minute and then closed it with about 15km to go with the help of some other teams," Hosking said in a team press release.

"Lucy and I were hanging out and talking about what we wanted to do in the sprint. My legs weren't great so I had said I'd lead her out for the sprint but in typical China style the finish was chaotic and there were so many crashes and near misses. Lucy lost my wheel and I was already in position so I just had to make the best out of the situation which today was third.

"Of course I wish it was the top step but given how my legs were feeling I'm not totally disappointed."

Stage 2 will take the peloton on a 112.8km race around the flat island roads.

Brief Results