Tour of Chongming Island: Georgia Baker upgraded to winner of stage 1 after Kathrin Schweinberger relegated in sprint

Australia's Georgia Baker (Liv AlUla Jayco) was named winner of stage 1 of the Tour of Chongming Island, after initial victor Kathrin Schweinberger (Human Powered Health) was relegated in the sprint.

In the revised results, Baker was named the winner ahead of Sofie van Rooijen (UAE Team ADQ) and Mia Griffin (Roland Le Dévoluy) in what was a close finish with rider spread wide across the road at the line.

The Austrian champion Schweinberger came over the line ahead of Baker on the wide-open finishing straight, but was later stripped of the win for her actions in the sprint.

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As Schweinberger launched her sprint, she veered in front of Van Rooijen and impeded the Dutch rider, earning her a relegation after celebrating with her teammates.

Finishing just behind Schweinberger, Baker was awarded the win and collected the yellow leader's jersey on the podium. This is the Australian's first road win of the season and her first at WorldTour level.

“It’s a bit of a strange way to win, but I’m incredibly happy with my first WorldTour victory and the leader’s jersey in the Tour of Chongming Island," she said.

"The team was very good today, the riders looked after me all day and led me fantastically in the final. We will do everything we can to keep the leader’s jersey in the next two stages.”

The sprint played out on the 800m long finishing straight after a break of five was caught before the race hit the 10km to go mark, after the sprint teams kept the gap small all day.

The break was made up of Tamara Dronova-Balabolina (Roland Le Dévoluy), Yanina Kuskova (Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi), Marina Garau (BePink-Imatra-Bongioanni), Laura Lizette Sander (Team Coop-Repsol) and Yelizaveta Sklyarova (Born to Win BTC City Ljubljana Zhiraf).

Despite the rain starting to fall in Chongming in the final, the sprint played out without incident, with Schweinberger's irregular effort the only drama from the opening stage.

The opening day of racing on the final stage-race of the Women's WorldTour in China took on the flat roads around Chongming, the 108.6km stage having just 86m of elevation gain.

The racing will continue to play into the hands of the sprinters through the remaining days, with flat terrain through both the 128.6km stage 2 from Shanghai to Chongming and the 111.4 km finale at Chongming New City Park.

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