Hosking victorious in Santos Women’s Tour’s third stage

After placing third to Kirsten Wild on Sunday, sprint competition leader Chloe Hosking (Australia) gave Alé Cipollini its first win of the Santos Women’s Tour on Monday. Hosking struck from a reduced bunch sprint. Another triumph for Alé Cipollini was GC second place Janneke Ensing taking over the mountains category lead.

The field had 92.4-kilometres to negotiate between Tanunda and Lyndoch, including a figure eight north of Tanunda and two laps southwest of Lyndoch, each with climbing. At the 11-km mark Holden’s Erin Kinnealy broke away, forcing a maximum gap of 1:52 and taking the first intermediate sprint in Lyndoch uncontested.

As Kinnealy neared the Whispering Wall climb set close to the start of the Lyndoch circuits, and with the gap closing, Kirsten Howard (Australia/NSWIS Sydney Uni) lit out after the Holden rider. However, both were yanked back.

A crash one kilometre from the QOM point on Whispering Wall split the peloton. Second in the mountains category but wearing the polka dots, Ensing (The Netherlands) put QOM leader Amanda Spratt under pressure by taking the maximum points.

Ann-Sophie Duyck (Belgium/Drops Cycling) and Lucy Bechtel (Australia/Specialized-SPW) tried their luck on the rolling terrain after Whispering Wall. They wouldn’t survive the descent into Lyndoch for the second intermediate sprint at the 68-km mark, where Hosking padded her sprint jersey lead.

Again Ensing topped Whispering Wall first. The lead group was around 30-40 strong. Orica-Scott took over the front but couldn’t prevent Hosking from earning her first win of the 2017 Santos Women’s Tour. With one stage to go, it will be hard to pull the green sprinter’s jersey from her shoulders. The runner up was Wild.

Canada’s Annie Foreman-Mackey had her best result of the tour, twelfth, moving her up to 34th on GC.

With only Tuesday’s Adelaide criterium remaining, Spratt is in good shape to hold the lead she seized on Stage 1, with 19-seconds back to her nearest rival, Ensing. Spratt was seventh last year.

2017 Santos Women’s Tour Stage 3
1) Chloe Hosking (Australia/Alé Cipollini) 2:21:56
2) Kirsten Wild (The Netherlands/Cyclance Pro Cycling) s.t.
3) Alexis Ryan (USA/Canyon-SRAM) s.t.
12) Annie Foreman-Mackey (Canada/Sho-Air TWENTY20) s.t.

2017 Santos Women’s Tour GC
1) Amanda Spratt (Australia/Orica-Scott)
2) Janneke Ensing (The Netherlands/Alé Cipollini) +0:19
3) Kirsten Wild (The Netherlands/Cyclance Pro Cycling) +0:50
34) Annie Foreman-Mackey (Canada/Sho-Air TWENTY20) +2:33