Tour of Chongming Island: Charlotte Becker wins stage 2 from breakaway

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Stage 2 of the Tour of Chongming Island produced a surprising breakaway win. The sprinters' teams miscalculated, letting a group of five go too far up the road, from which Charlotte Becker (Hitec Products-Birk Sport) won the sprint and took the overall lead of the race. 

Shannon Malseed (Team Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank) finished second and Anastasia Iakovenko (BTC City Ljubljana) third, with Dalia Muccioli (Valcar PBM) and Coralie Demay (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) the other members of the break.

The 121.3km stage included the highest point of the whole race, but this was at the altitude of only 60 metres on a bridge crossing to Chongming Island from neighbouring Changxing Island, which hosted the start of the stage. Lucy Garner took the sole mountain point and is now certain to win the polka-dot jersey if she finishes stage 3 tomorrow.

The first intermediate sprint after 37.7km was won by Jolien D'hoore (Mitchelton-Scott) ahead of yellow jersey Giorgia Bronzini (Cylance Pro Cycling) and Chloe Hosking (Alé Cipollini). Only halfway into the race did an attack stick when Malseed initiated a breakaway together with Becker, Iakovenko, Demay, and Muccioli.

The quintet continually increased their advantage on the peloton and a group of three chasers that were stuck in no-man's-land for much of the stage, but never got to the front. The second intermediate sprint was won by Becker ahead of Malseed and Iakovenko. With 27km to go, the gap was at its maximum of 3:34, and the peloton faced a frantic chase to bring back the escapees.

But the breakaway riders worked together well and lost ground only slowly. Though Muccioli stopped taking turns and only sat on at the back of the group in the last 12km, the other four continued their cooperation all the way to the finishing straight. The chase in the peloton was led by Wiggle High5, Mitchelton Scott, and Cylance Pro Cycling, but the escapees' teams, especially Hitec Products-Birk Sport and Team Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank, did their best to disrupt the chase.

Becker took a position at the back of the group in the final kilometre and launched her sprint with 250 metres to go. Malseed was in her wheel, but the German was too strong and held off the Australian champion, along with the Russian champion Iakovenko. Muccioli finished fourth, and Demay was fifth. Jolien D'hoore won the bunch sprint for sixth place 1:12 behind, meaning that Becker also takes over the yellow leader's jersey.

Due to bonus seconds, Becker now has a five-second lead on Malseed going into the final day, with an exciting climax in prospect on the 126.5km stage, consisting of 11 laps of a 11.5 km circuit. There are intermediate sprints with a maximum of six bonus seconds on offer after the third and sixth lap, as well as 10 bonus seconds for the stage winner.

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