Sierra wins women's Tour of Guangxi

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Cuban sprinter Arlenis Sierra (Astana Women's Team) won the final race of the 2018 UCI Women's WorldTour, sprinting to victory in the Tour of Guangxi ahead of Hannah Barnes (Canyon-SRAM) and Sara Mustonen (Experza-Footlogix).

The 145.8-kilometre race consisted of three parts: The first 86 kilometres were practically flat, containing the first of two intermediate sprints. A hilly section with two mountain sprints (third and second category) was then followed by another flat 30km including the second intermediate sprint before the finish in Guilin.

In fog and rain, Chinese rider Yue Bai (China Liv) was the only one to attempt an early breakaway but did not get further away than 100 metres and was reeled in again soon. The peloton reached the first intermediate sprint after 40km together, and Chiara Consonni (Valcar PBM) beat Tanja Erath (Canyon-SRAM) to the line for two sprint points and a $1000 prime.

Team Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank tried to get a break going. Brodie Chapman was 12 seconds ahead for a short while but was caught again quickly.

When the race reached the hills, Mitchelton-Scott took charge and set a hard pace in order to drop some of the sprinters. The quartet of Katia Ragusa (BePink), Alison Jackson (Team Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank), Winanda Spoor (WNT Rotor), and Xi Sha Zhao (China Liv) went up the road on the lower slopes of the climb. They briefly held a gap of 17 seconds before being caught by Mitchelton-Scott who launched Lucy Kennedy themselves.

Kennedy won the third-category mountain sprint and was joined by Elena Pirrone (Astana Women's Team) in the descent. The two increased their gap to almost a minute at the second-category mountain sprint. This was again won by Kennedy who takes home a total of $4000 for her exploits.

Behind the front duo, the size of the peloton had been reduced significantly to just over 30 riders of the 71 that started the race. In the foggy and technical descent, Tatiana Guderzo (BePink) and Alena Amialiusik (Canyon-SRAM) got away from the bunch and caught up with Kennedy and Pirrone. But the peloton was only fifteen seconds behind by that point and closed the remaining gap at the bottom of the descent.

Jackson won the second intermediate sprint ahead of Georgia Williams (Mitchelton-Scott). Since Consonni had been dropped in the hills, Jackson won the sprint classification and a total of $3000.

The pouring rain did not discourage attacks from riders who wanted to anticipate a mass sprint. Kennedy and Chapman went on the move again just after the intermediate sprint and were joined by Tetyana Riabchenko (Doltcini-Van Eyck) and Dalia Muccioli (Valcar PBM). But this break was short-lived, too, and caught with 15 km to go.

In the finishing straight in Guilin, Amialiusik led out Barnes who looked like a certain winner only to be passed by Arlenis Sierra in the final metres. In Sierra's slipstream, Mustonen sprinted to third place.

The final round of the UCI Women's WorldTour did not cause big changes in the overall rankings. Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) wins the UCI Women's WorldTour overall classification while the youth ranking is topped by Sierra's teammate Sofia Bertizzolo.

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