Wiebes takes stage 1 at Tour of Chongming Island

Lorena Wiebes (Parkhotel Valkenburg) won stage 1 of the Tour of Chongming Island on Thursday. After a fast race, Wiebes triumphed in the sprint finish, taking her fourth race victory of the 2019 season. Lotte Kopecky (Lotto Soudal) finished second, while Nina Kessler (Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank) rounded out the podium.

The 102.7-kilometre stage started and finished at the New City Park and covered the western half of Chongming Island. There were two intermediate sprints along the way with valuable bonus seconds on offer, and a mountain sprint at the highest point of the course at 16 metres.

With such a flat stage and many teams working for a sprint finish, there was no breakaway for a long time. The first intermediate sprint after 15 km was won by Wiebes ahead of Kopecky and Jutatip Maneephan (Thailand Women's Cycling Team). Kessler was first across the line at the 'mountain' sprint, securing her the mountain jersey.

The speed was high throughout the day, particularly so in the second half of the stage where the peloton was often strung out in single file. A big crash just before the intermediate sprint with 34.7 km to go brought down several riders, some of which had to abandon the race, and led to a split in the peloton. Maneephan won that sprint ahead of Wiebes and Kopecky, and with the four bonus seconds from the intermediate sprints, the 30-year-old Thai rider takes the lead in the classification for the best Asian rider and will race in the blue jersey tomorrow.

Tatsiana Sharakova (Minsk Cycling Club) attacked right after the intermediate sprint and succeeded in getting away. She held a small advantage, but even on the winding road through a forest, the peloton rarely lost Sharakova out of sight. The Belarusian was reeled back in 27 km from the finish.

This short breakaway was followed by other attacks as riders wanted to break away themselves or just keep the pace high. Moniek Tenniglo (Mitchelton-Scott) and riders from a.o. Cogeas Mettler Look, Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank, and Lotto Soudal Ladies tried their luck but were closed down quickly.

In the final 15 km, the wind picked up, and a group of four got a small gap in the crosswinds, with other riders bridging across. But everything was back together with 9 km to go, and Parkhotel Valkenburg as well as Hitec Products-Birk Sport took control of the peloton and kept it strung out.

There were two last attacks by riders from Doltcini-Van Eyck, but these were reeled in quickly. No one team took charge of affairs on the final kilometres leading to the sprint preparation looking a bit chaotic. Parkhotel Valkenburg were first around the last corner with 800 metres to go, but Wiebes' leadout ran out of steam. Wiebes latched onto the wheel of Kessler before launching her sprint and winning comfortably. Coming out of Wiebes' slipstream late, Kopecky sprinted to second place, with Kessler right behind her.

With the stage win, Wiebes now holds the yellow jersey for the overall leader as well as the green points jersey and the white jersey for the best young rider. The race continues on Saturday with stage two, 126.6 km from neighbouring Changxing Island to Chongming Island, again finishing at New City Park.

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