Video: Tour of ChongMing Island Stage Race & World Cup - & other race news

ChongMing Island is an alluvial island in the middle of the Yangtze river - it's completely, utterly, totally flat.  You're thinking pancakes?  Well the American style ones are thick, and the European ones can have air bubbles, so this is flatter.  It's all wide straight roads, tight corners, and a Queen of the Mountains point that really is the top of the climb onto a road bridge (it's an incredibly impressive bridge, for sure, but it's not a mountain!).  I can't do this justice, so have a look at Monty's previous previews from 2010 and 2011 - it might not be the same courses this year, but you'll definitely get the idea.  The riders and teams are very, very familiar with this - and if they've never ridden ChongMing before, the three-day stage race will show them, well, the entire island.

Unlike last year, we haven't seen any local video, but luckily Wiggle Honda took their cameraman to record it for us and tell us the story....

Tour of ChongMing Island Stage Race

Stage 1

1.   Kirsten Wild (Ned) Liv-Shimano, 3:05:40
2.   Roxane Fournier (Fra) France, s.t.
3.   Shelley Olds (USA) Alé-Cipollini, s.t.
4.   Annalisa Cucinotta (Ita) Servetto-Footon, s.t.
5.   Giorgia Bronzini (Ita) Wiggle Honda, s.t.
6.   Barbara Guarischi (Ita) Alé-Cipollini, s.t.
7.   Emilie Moberg (Nor) Hitec Products, s.t.
8.   Inga Cilvinaite (Ltu) RusVelo, s.t.
9.   Pascale Jeuland (Fra) France, s.t.
10. Elena Cecchini (Ita) Estado de Mexico-Faren, s.t.

Race reports from Liv-Shimano with Kirsten Wild quotes

Stage 2

OK, there's not much information about the race in there - but I'm still grateful, it's much better than nothing!  Try the Liv-Shimano and Wiggle Honda race reports for more, including on the breakaway fun.

1.   Kirsten Wild (Ned) Liv-Shimano, 2:48:49
2.   Giorgia Bronzini (Ita) Wiggle Honda, s.t.
3.   Shelley Olds (USA) Alé-Cipollini, s.t.
4.   Nina Kesser (Ned) Boles-Dolmans, s.t.
5.   Fiona Dutriaux  (Fra) France, s.t.
6.   Kim de Baat (Ned) ParkHotel Valkenberg, s.t.
7.   Pascale Jeuland (Fra) France, s.t.
8.   Aurore Verhoeven (Fra) France, s.t.
9.   Aizhan Zhaparova (Rus) RusVelo, s.t.
10. Rochelle Gilmore (Aus) Wiggle Honda, s.t.

Stage 3

Final stage, and with Wild eating up the intermediate sprint points, she entered Stage 3 with 15 seconds on Shelley Olds, and +18 to Giorgia Bronzini....  could she keep that?

Stage results

1.   Giorgia Bronzini (Ita) Wiggle Honda, 1:56:46
2.   Kirsten Wild (Ned) Liv-Shimano, s.t.
3.   Shelley Olds (USA) Alé-Cipollini, s.t.
4.   Elena Cecchini (Ita) Estado de Mexico-Faren, s.t.
5.   Charlotte Becker (Ger) Wiggle Honda, s.t.
6.   Barbara Guarischi (Ita) Alé-Cipollini, s.t.
7.   Emilie Moberg (Nor) Hitec Products, s.t.
8.   Annalisa Cucinotta (Ita) Servetto-Footon, s.t.
9.   Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Ita) Estado de Mexico-Faren, s.t.
10. Roxane Fournier (Fra) France, s.t.

Race reports from Wiggle Honda and Liv-Shimano with more information - and yeah, nothing could stop Kirsten Wild - even though this was bizarrely the first time she's won there....

Final General Classification

1.   Kirsten Wild (Ned) Liv-Shimano, 7:50:37
2.   Shelley Olds (USA) Alé-Cipollini, + 00:18
3.   Giorgia Bronzini (Ita) Wiggle Honda, + 00:22
4.   Roxane Fournier (Fra) France, + 00:32
5.   Barbara Guarischi (Ita) Alé-Cipollini, + 00:34
6.   Elena Cecchini (Ita) Estado de Mexico-Faren, s.t.
7.   Charlotte Becker (Ger) Wiggle Honda, + 00:35
8.   Emilie Moberg (Nor) Hitec Products, + 00:36
9.   Marta Tagliaferro (Ita) Alé-Cipollini, + 00:37
10. Annalisa Cucinotta (Ita) Servetto-Footon, + 00:38

Full results

Eagle-eyed Café types will have seen a ton of photographers and news reporters in those clips - prizes if you can find their output!

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Tour of ChongMing Island World Cup

So that was the warm-up....  but today was the main event, and here's the UCI short video to tell us how the race unfolded

and here's Wiggle Honda's:

UPDATE! and here's the 26-minute video from the UCI:

Results

1.   Kirsten Wild (Ned) Liv-Shimano, 3:16:44
2.   Elena Cecchini (Ita) Estado de Mexico-Faren, s.t.
3.   Giorgia Bronzini (Ita) Wiggle Honda, s.t.
4.   Emilie Moberg (Nor) Hitec Products, s.t.
5.   Melissa Hoskins (Aus) ORICA-AIS, s.t.
6.   Shelley Olds (USA) Alé-Cipollini, s.t.
7.   Charlotte Becker (Ger) Wiggle Honda, s.t.
8.   Anna Trevisi (Ita) (Ita) Estado de Mexico-Faren, s.t.
9.   Annalisa Cucinotta (Ita) Servetto-Footon, s.t.
10. Cecile Gotaas Johnsen (Nor) Hitec Products, s.t.

Another race that Kirsten Wild can cross off her list - a win here at last!  Here's the Liv-Shimano report - and race report and full results, and (small) photo gallery, on Cyclingnews. 

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Trofée Maarten Wynants

While Wild was dominating in China, her Belgian team-mate Maaike Polspoel was winning this brand-new UCI race and the 5th round of the Lotto Cycling Cup.  Can't find any reports from it apart from Liv-Shimano's report - and there are photos on the Lotto Cup site.

1.   Maaike Polspoel (Bel) Liv-Shimano, 2:45:30
2.   Amy Cure (Aus) Lotto-Belisol, + 00:01
3.   Liesbet de Vocht (Bel) Lotto-Belisol, + 00:03
4.   Lotta Lepistö (Fin) Bigla, s.t.
5.   Daniela Gass (Ger) Autoglas Wetteren - Group Solar, s.t.
6.   Martina Zwick (Ger) Bigla, s.t.
7.   Hannah Walker (GBr), s.t.
8.   Kaat Hannes (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen, st.t
9.   Sofie de Vuyst (Bel) Futurumshop.nl-Zannata, s.t.
10. Jessie Daams (Bel) Boels-Dolmans, s.t.

Full results

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Battle on the Border

If the general paucity of video is depressing you, let's have a look at Australia, where they're really good at this kind of thing.  The Battle on the Border is one of my favourite races for names - unfortunately the women don't race the men's Stage 1 - Point Danger to Mount Warning - but the Gold Coast has tons to offer, and these videos make me very happy.

Final GC

1.   Tessa Fabry, Jayco/Apollo VIS, 5:23:40
2.   Lizzie Williams, Specialized-Securitor, + 00:09
3.   Anna-Leeza Hull, + 01:05
4.   Jenelle Crooks, Holden Women's Team, + 02:06
5.   Rebecca Heath, Bicycle Superstore, + 02:21
6.   Ruth Corset, Holden Women's Team, + 02:26
7.   Emma Viotto, Suzuki Brumby's, + 02:49
8.   Alexandria Nicholls, Suzuki Brumby's, + 02:53
9.   Kristy Glover, Bicycle Superstore, + 02:54
10. Lisa Keeling, Bicycle Superstore, + 03:04

Race reports and photos on Cyclingnews - full results

The Battle on the Border is part of the Aussie National Road Series - they have really great video of all the races, and you can see them all on the Cycling Australia Youtube, and there is a ton of information about the series so far on the NRS website.  Check out all the races, they're so much fun.

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If you're thinking I'm sounding subdued, it's because I am.  Last year we had a lot more video from ChongMing, and invisible races always depress me - and it's another blow, too, as we've found out that the Giro del Trentino in Italy has had to reduce to just one day.  This race has been having problems for the last few years, going from three days to two, cleverly putting two stages into a day to keep the racing going - so it's hugely disappointing to hear that they are down to just one - read about it on Cicloweb.

It's especially depressing, because this was traditionally a hilly race.  As we've been saying for years (see, eg, my series on how the women's cycling calendar has been changing), the climbers in the peloton are really suffering, because although we're getting new races as old ones collapse, they tend to be in the flat parts of the world.  What do the mountain goats do?  This is something I'd love to see the UCI work on, because while I loved the Women's Tour, and La Course by Le Tour de France, what we really need are some hills, and fast, especially with the Rio Olympics coming up, and a road course made for climbers....