Wild set to defend title at Tour of Chongming Island World Cup

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The World Cup series will resume with the fifth round at the Tour of Chongming Island on Sunday, May 17 in China, for a 130km race that starts and finishes in the city of Chongming. Kirsten Wild (Hitec Products) will start as the defending champion and the odds-on-favourite after winning the recent Tour of Chongming Island three-day stage race that wrapped up on Friday.

Anna van der Breggen (Rabo Liv) is currently leading the World Cup series after strong performance throughout the first four rounds, which includes her win at La Flèche Wallonne Féminine. Her team, however, is currently not registered to participate in the fifth round.

The women's World Cup kicked off with the Boels Rental Ronde van Drenthe in the Netherlands in March where Jolien D'hoore (Wiggle-Honda) won the race and took the early series lead. That was followed by the Trofeo Alfredo Binda - Comune di Cittiglio in Italy won by Lizzie Armitstead (Boels-Dolmans), who moved into the overall series lead at that time. The series moved to Belgium for the next two rounds; Tour of Flanders won by Elisa Longo-Borghini (Wiggle-Honda) with D'hoore moving back into the series lead, and La Flèche Wallonne Féminine won by Van der Breggen (Rabo Liv).

Van der Breggen is currently leading the World Cup with 290 points. Annemiek Van Vleuten (Bigla Pro Cycling Team) is second place with 226 points and D'hoore in third with 220.

The Tour of Chongming Island World Cup follows the Tour of Chongming Island UCI 2.1 stage race that was held from May 13 to 15 where Wild won the overall title. The Dutchwoman won the opening stage in a sprint ahead of Shelly Olds (Bigla) and Giorgia Bronzini (Wiggle-Honda) to take the early leader's jersey. She increased her lead in the overall classification after winning the stage 2 bunch sprint ahead of Roxane Fournier (Futuroscope) with Bronzini again in third place. Fournier took the top spot on the podium after winning the stage 3 finale sprint ahead of Annalisa Cucinotta (Ale-Cipollini) and Iris Sachet (France). Wild finished 10th on the day but secured her place as the overall winner, making her the favourite to win the upcoming sprinter-friendly World Cup on Sunday.

Following the Tour of Chongming Island, the World Cup will head to the US for the Philadelphia Cycling Classic on June 7 in Pennsylvania and then take a short break. The series will start up again in Europe at the Sparkassen Giro on August 2 in Germany, and the Crescent Women World Cup Vargarda team time trial and road race on August 21 and 23 in Sweden. The World Cup series will conclude with the 10th round at the GP de Plouay-Bretagne in August 29 in France.