Chloe Hosking (Wiggle-High5) won the women’s La Course by Le Tour de France today, after winning the sprint finale on the Camps Elysees ahead of Lotta Lepistö (Cervelo-Bigla) and Marianne Vos (Rabo-Liv) third – following a crash marred race.
“My team were incredible,” Hosking said after celebrating with her family. “We missed the first break but we had everyone on the front for that move. We never gave up and they protected me and put me in position. I’m so lucky.”
Race Highlights
Today’s third edition of La Course saw 21 teams take the starting line for 13 laps around the Champs Elysees – for a total of 89 kilometers.
What started out as a tightly packed peloton, eventually gave way to a small four-rider breakaway group containing Lucinda Brand (Rabobank-Liv), Chantal Blaak (Boels-Doelmans), Hannah Blake (Canyon-SRAM), and Olga Zabelinskaya (BePink).
However, the peloton was keen to never allow the quartet to stray beyond 10 second advantage. And, with 48 kilometers to go, the escapees were eventually reined in by the chase.
From there, a series of failed attacks got underway, with Tibco-Silicon Valley’s Kathrin Hammes featuring prominently amongst those attempting to ride clear.
At this point, Rabobank became determined to keep Marianne Vos in contention, as they proceeded to shut down any further attacks.
However, during the penultimate lap, Brand decided to attack again, this time taking Amy Pieters (Wiggle) and Lauren Stephens (Tibco-SVB) along with her.
Not long after, a crash toward the end of the penultimate lap took down a number of riders, causing momentary chaos for the peloton.
Meanwhile, back up front, the trio was still holding onto 10 second gap – heading into the final lap.
Once again however, the peloton was plagued with crash during the closing lap, leaving several riders injured on the course.
In the meantime, the escapees were caught during the last 3.7 kilometers.
Shortly thereafter, but another crash would disrupt the peloton during the final 2 kilometers, this time claiming a large number of casualties and reducing the main field to just 30 riders.
With the field now greatly reduced, Ellen van Dijk (Boels Dolmans) decide to attack during the final kilometer.
However, a vigilant peloton was quick to mark the Dutch rider’s aggressions, with Hosking ultimately making her way up through the middle of the group to over-take her rivals by several bike lengths to seize the victory.
Top 25 Finishers
1 Chloe Hosking (Aus) Wiggle High5 2:01:27 2 Lotta Lepistö (Fin) Cervelo Bigla Pro Cycling Team 3 Marianne Vos (Ned) Rabo Liv Women Cycling Team 4 Joelle Numainville (Can) Cervelo Bigla 5 Roxane Fournier (Fra) Poitou-Charentes.Futuroscope.86 6 Pascale Jeuland (Fra) Poitou-Charentes.Futuroscope.86 7 Tiffany Cromwell (Aus) Canyon SRAM Racing 8 Joanne Kiesanowski (NZl) Team Tibco – Silicon Valley Bank 9 Lotte Kopecky (Bel) Lotto Soudal Ladies 10 Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Ita) Lensworld-Zannata 11 Olga Zabelinskaya (Rus) Bepink 12 Leah Kirchmann (Can) Team Liv-Plantur 13 Diana Penuela Martinez (Col) Unitedhealthcare 14 Mia Radotic (Cro) BTC City Ljubljana 15 Sarah Roy (Aus) Orica-AIS 16 Arianna Fidanza (Ita) Astana Women’s Team 17 Emilie Moberg (Nor) Hitec Products 18 Natalie Van Gogh (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg Continental Team 19 Marta Bastianelli (Ita) Alé Cipollini 20 Kelly Van Den Steen (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen – Etixx 21 Eugenia Bujak (Pol) BTC City Ljubljana 22 Sheyla Gutierrez Ruiz (Spa) Cylance Pro Cycling 23 Chantal Blaak (Ned) Boels Dolmans Cyclingteam 24 Kaat Van Der Meulen (Bel) Lensworld-Zannata 0:00:04 25 Ingrid Drexel (Mex) Astana Women’s Team
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