Hosking wins opening stage of Women's Herald Sun Tour

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Ale Cipollini's Chloe Hosking won the opening stage of the Women's Herald Sun Tour on Wednesday, winning a reduced-bunch sprint at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in Victoria, Australia, and relegating BePink's Rachele Barbieri to second place, with Lotta Lepistö (Trek-Segafredo) finishing third.

Lepistö's Trek-Segafredo teammate – British-born American rider, Ruth Winder – animated the stage, breaking away on lap six of the 22-lap, 97km first stage, on the same circuit and over the same distance as the opening stage of the men's race later in the afternoon.

She built up a maximum lead of 2:45, and Winder's day out at the head of affairs only came to an end with a lap-and-a-half to go, following pressure from first Mitchelton-Scott and later Tibco-SVB.

With the race back together, and Tibco continuing in control, it looked as though it would come down to a bunch sprint. But with Tibco joined at the front on the final lap by Ale Cipollini, Trek-Segafredo and again by Mitchelton-Scott, a small eight-rider group – also containing Mitchelton's Gracie Elvin, Amanda Spratt and Grace Brown, Tibco's Alison Jackson and the KordaMentha Australian national team's Emily Roper – managed to get a jump on the rest of the field, led home by Hosking coming with a seven-second advantage over the rest.

Hosking now leads Barbieri by five seconds overall thanks to her win bonus and a three-second bonus won earlier in the day at the first intermediate sprint. Race favourite Amanda Spratt (Mitchelton-Scott) is 13 seconds off the pace in eighth place, with defending champion Brodie Chapman (Tibco-SVB) in ninth place overall, 20 seconds back.

"It was a really big team effort, so I get a lot of satisfaction out of seeing all the girls contribute to the win, and I think we can take a lot of confidence out of that going forward," said Hosking after her win.

She explained that her team left it to Mitchelton to chase Winder, as she's more of a GC rider, and therefore it wasn't Ale Cipollini's responsibility, as a team built around a sprinter, to chase.

"We just went for it with a kilometre to go, and the skill levels in the corners are varying: some girls can go super fast, and some can't, and that just splits the peloton," she said, explaining the small split that came at the end.

"I know there's still a lot of work to go, so it's a nice surprise to come away with a few wins this summer," Hosking said, having already taken wins at the Bay Crits and a stage of the Tour Down Under earlier in January.

As a sprinter, she played down her chances of being able to defend her leader's jersey on Thursday's second and final – and much hillier – stage on a circuit around Churchill in the Latrobe Valley, but didn't totally discount it.

"There's some gravel, which I love," she said of the top section of the Jeeralang climb, which comes 12km before the downhill finish, "and it isn't over until the fat lady sings."

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