Hanna Tserakh (Li Ning Star Ladies) won stage 2 of the Tour of Chongming Island, beating Martina Fidanza (Ceratizit-WNT) and Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ) in the sprint.
For most of the stage, Olga Zabelinskaya (Tashkent City) kept a solo breakaway going, being almost three minutes ahead of the peloton at one point. But the 43-year-old was reeled in just after the flamme rouge.
In the ensuing sprint, Li Ning Star Ladies had positioned their sprinter well, and Tserakh came off the wheel of Consonni to claim the 128.6km stage from Shanghai to Chongming.
"My team did a perfect lead-out for me, and this is my first big win, it feels incredible. My team did a good job, thanks to all of them and our staff members. I haven't raced for a long time, so I'm happy with this result," Tserakh said after the stage.
The Tour of Chongming Island is the first UCI road race of the 2023 season for the Belarusian rider, and with the time bonifications, Tserakh also takes the overall lead, one second ahead of stage 1 winner Mylène de Zoete (Ceratizit-WNT) and two seconds ahead of Consonni.
With the time bonifications, Tserakh also takes the overall lead, one second ahead of stage 1 winner Mylène de Zoete (Ceratizit-WNT) and two seconds ahead of Consonni.
That makes it a tight battle on the final day of racing, which will unfold on Saturday with a 112.3km stage starting and finishing in Chongming's New City Park. The route begins with a category 4 climb and offers three intermediate sprints.
How it unfolded
Stage 2 started on the neighbouring island of Changxing, crossing the Yangtze estuary on a cable-stayed bridge that was the highest point of the race at 72 metres and doubled as the day’s only mountain sprint after nine kilometres.
Laura Tomasi (UAE Team ADQ) was first at the top of the bridge, and when the peloton went downhill towards the island of Chongming, Zabelinskaya took the chance to attack.
The Uzbek rider quickly built an advantage of up to 2:52 minutes as the peloton was riding through heavy rains, but halfway through the race, the sprinters’ teams took up the chase.
Zabelinskaya won both intermediate sprints, collecting six bonus seconds, while Daria Pikulik (Human Powered Health) picked up three bonus seconds from the peloton, Consonni took two, and Anniina Ahtosalo (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team) one bonus second.
32 km from the finish, Zabelinskaya’s gap had dropped to one minute, but the peloton did not want to catch her too early and left the gap open for a long time. Laura Asencio (Ceratizit-WNT) took a long turn at the front of the pack to help cut Zabelinskaya's margin to 30 seconds with 6 km to go.
The peloton now had her in sight, and just inside the flamme rouge, Zabelinskaya was caught. Li Ning Star Ladies used the right-hand turn onto the finishing straight well, their lead-out rider bringing Tserakh to the very front, and when the UAE Team ADQ train with Consonni came alongside, Tserakh took her wheel.
Wearing the yellow jersey, De Zoete was leading out Fidanza. The Italian launched her sprint, Consonni went into her slipstream, and shortly afterwards, Tserakh went into the wind, cranking up her speed. As Consonni launched from Fidanza’s wheel, Tserakh steadily gained ground and came past Fidanza on the final metres to take the biggest victory of her career.
Results
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