Bronzini wins Chongming Island World Cup

Giorgia Bronzini (Wiggle-Honda) won the fifth round of the World Cup series at Chongming Island in China on Sunday. The Italian, former world champion, won the bunch sprint to the finish line ahead of Kirsten Wild (Hitec Products) and Fanny Ribérot (France).

“We were together for the lead out for Chloe [Hosking] but there was some chaos before the last corner that divided us, so I remained with Nettie [Edmondson] in my wheel,” Bronzini said. “At 700 metres to go the best thing was go out in the right side to pull for a sprint, but I had no space so I decided to wait.

“At 300 metres to go I checked behind me and also Nettie wasn't in my draft so I decided to defend my position and keep Wild’s wheel,” she said “Fortunately for me there was a strong head wind and she had to take a long sprint, so I could come out the last moment.”

Current World Cup series overall leader Anna van der Breggen (Rabo-Liv) was not present at the event, however, there was no change to the standings. She is still leading the series with 290 points, Annemiek van Vleuten (Bigla) has 226 and Jolien D’hoore (Wiggle-Honda) has 220 points. Bronzini's win marks the third World Cup win for Wiggle-Honda after D'hoore won the opening round at the Ronde van Drenthe and Elisa Longo Borghini won Tour of Flanders.

The Chongming Island World Cup, which followed the Tour of Chongming Island won by Wild on Friday, offered a 125km race that started and finished in Chongming. Much of the race was active with many attacks but none were successful in holding time on the field. The most successful breakaway included Hongyu Liang (China Chongming-Liv-Champion System Pro Cycling) and Anastasia Chulkova (Bepink Laclassica), who managed to gain one minute but they were reeled back in with seven kilometres to go.

Teams Hitec Products, with defending champion Wild, Bigla with their sprinter Shelley Olds and Wiggle-Honda with Bronzini and Hosking held the race together in anticipation of a fierce bunch kick.

Bronzini relied on her Wiggle-Honda lead-out train to take her with in a few hundred metres of the finish line, where she was relatively uncontested for the World Cup victory in the final sprint.

“I really think that that win depended on the amazing sprit that there is in the team with staff too,” Bronzini said. “Together we can!”

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