Tour of Chongming Island – Marta Lach wins stage 3 and overall

In her penultimate race for the Ceratizit-WNT team, Marta Lach has won the final stage and with it the general classification of the 2024 Tour of Chongming Island. The Polish rider won the bunch sprint ahead of Scarlett Souren and Sofie van Rooijen (both VolkerWessels), and the accompanying bonus seconds put her ahead of teammate and stage 1 winner Mylène de Zoete in GC.

The stage was dominated by a breakaway from Anne Knijnenburg (VolkerWessels) and Nela Slaníková (Team Dukla Praha) who were up to 1:42 minutes ahead. Knijnenburg went solo with 23km to go, but she was caught 4.5km from the finish.

In the sprint, Van Rooijen passed Tereza Neumanová (UAE Team ADQ), but Lach came off the Dutchwoman's wheel and took a comfortable victory, with Souren even beating her own teammate to second place in Lach's slipstream.

How it unfolded

The final stage consisted of a 29.9-kilometre loop followed by seven laps on a 11.5km circuit, creating a total stage distance of 110.4km. Intermediate sprints after the long loop and after the second and fourth short laps offered bonus seconds.

Knijnenburg took the day’s QOM sprint on the Dongpinghe Bridge, securing her the QOM jersey. Her teammate Van Rooijen then won the first intermediate sprint ahead of Neumanová and Lach, putting Van Rooijen and Neumanová 11 seconds behind De Zoete in GC while Lach reduced her gap to only one second.

The second intermediate sprint was won by Souren ahead of Kathrin Schweinberger (Ceratizit-WNT) and Jutatip Maneephan (Thailand Women’s Cycling). On the third of the seven short laps, Knijnenburg and Slaníková went off the front, quickly building a massive gap for the Tour of Chongming Island. 

Aurela Nerlo (Winspace), April Tacey (Team Coop-Repsol), and Rachael Wales (ARA-Skip Capital) formed a chase group between the two frontrunners and the peloton.

19-year-old Slaníková became the virtual yellow jersey when the attackers were 1:40 ahead with 40km to go. She was one spot ahead of Knijnenburg in the GC going into the stage. 

Knijnenburg looked the stronger of the duo, though, winning the final intermediate sprint to leapfrog Slaníková in GC and take the virtual lead. Tacey took the last remaining bonus second from the chase group.

Ceratizit-WNT were leading the peloton and brought the gap down to 1:15 minutes with 24km to go, reeling in the chase group in the process. Knijnenburg dropped Slaníková just before entering the penultimate lap, her advantage now down to 50 seconds.

As the bell was rung out for the final 11.5km lap, Knijnenburg was 35 seconds ahead of the peloton that had caught Slaníková. Human Powered Health and Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi also contributed to the chase.

7.5km from the line, Knijnenburg’s advantage was down to 19 seconds, and she soon shook her head in resignation before being caught three kilometres later.

Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi led the peloton into a chaotic final kilometre. 550 metres from the finish, UAE Team ADQ took over with Anastasia Carbonari and Eleonora Gasparrini leading out Neumanová. 

Van Rooijen was on the Czech sprinter’s wheel, and Lach jumped on Van Rooijen’s wheel while De Zoete was boxed in.

Several riders crashed into the barriers that started with 250 metres to go, causing a mass crash around position 30 in the peloton. At the front, Gasparrini dropped off Neumanová who started her sprint 200 metres from the line, with Van Rooijen and Lach coming out off her slipstream almost immediately. Lach took the lead in the last 100 metres and beat Souren by half a bikelength while Van Rooijen edged out Neumanová for third place.

With her two stage victories, Lach also won the green jersey while Van Rooijen won the white U23 jersey. Ceratizit-WNT won the team classification due to their domination.

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