Hosking takes final stage, Worrack her first Tour of Qatar

German rider Trixi Worrack of SRAM-Canyon Racing won the Ladies Tour of Qatar with a 17 second advantage over Romy Kasper of Boels Dolmans, even as Chloe Hosking of Wiggle High5 sprinted to victory in the fourth and final stage of the Ladies Tour of Qatar yesterday.
Finishing the 73km race after 11 rounds of the 5.7km long Doha Corniche circuit, the Wiggle High5 rider defeated four-time winner Kirsten Wild of Hitech Products and Monique Van De Ree of Lares-Waowdeals Women Cycling Team in a traditional bunched sprint on the Doha waterfront capturing her first stage success this year.
“I’m very happy to get my first win of the year here. It’s a big satisfaction for me to cross the line first today. My team was absolutely phenomenal on the last two laps, so I’m very pleased,” said Hosking, after second stage win in Qatar.
Having missed much of the end of last season with a hand injury, Hosking was looking forward to the return to the top level of the women’s peloton and targeting a rainbow jersey in the UCI World Road Championship Doha 2016 in October.
Hosking won the opening stage here in 2013 and finished in second, third and second place overall in the last three editions. The successful track record has convinced her that the world championships are a wiser option than the Olympics.
The sprinter won’t seek Rio selection as she believes the hilly course will not suit her.
“Rio is not on my radar,” said the 25-year-old Hosking, who finished outside the allowable time limit in the road race in horrendous conditions at London in 2012.
Hosking finished sixth in her only world championships appearance in 2011 at Copenhagen said: “It’s not a secret that I love cycling in Qatar. It [Qatar] is going to be flat and windy and that’s right up my alley and with today’s victory I think I am back in the reckoning.”
It was an important win for Wiggle-High5 too, considering their line-up — Elisa Longo Borghini and Emma Johansson — had failed to make the race-deciding split that formed in the opening 2kms of the stage.
Worrack finished safely inside the bunch to seal the overall victory.
Worrack, who maintained second and third places in the first and second stages and claimed the golden jersey after Stage 3 at Madinat Al Shamal, controlled her race leadership well winning the 8th edition of the event ahead of Kasper and former champion Ellen Van Dijk.
“We are really, really happy because it’s the first tour of the season and we didn’t know what to expect.  It was a really great team performance, and really exciting for the year to come,” Worrack said.
The 34-year-old rider, who claimed a stage success in Qatar several years ago, and clinched four UCI World team time-trial titles, conquered the overall event for the first time in her career.
“We thought they would attack a lot more and we would have to do something and work more, but it was ok today,” said the German.
After a rather quiet start, the pace went up on the lap before the first intermediate sprint. At 27km, fourth passage on the line, Van Dijk claimed the sprint ahead of Anouska Koster of RBW and Chantal Blaak of DLT. Thanks to her second spot and two bonus seconds, Koster virtually caught up with Lauretta Hanson of AUS in the lead of the best young rider standings.
After several breakaway attempts, Coryn Rivera of UHC managed to pull away from the pack at 36km. The American saw her lead reach 22 seconds with five laps to go, while Anna Trevisi of ALE, followed by Yixian Pu of GPC took off on a counter-attack. The second bonus sprint was claimed by Rivera with a 30 second advantage over Trevisi and Pu, and 1minute 20 seconds over the pack. With two laps to go, the gaps had dropped down to 20 seconds on the first chasers and 48 seconds on the bunch. While Trevisi and Pu were caught at the 62 km mark, Rivera managed to hang on until the 67km before being gobbled up by the hungry pack.
Led by teams Hitec Products and Wiggle HighFive, the main field remained bunched until the final sprint. On the last straight, Hosking powered to glory ahead of Wild and Van Der Ree. Comfortably settled in the pack and well protected by her Canyon-SRAM team mates, Worrack crossed the finish line in 14th position.
The points classification’s silver jersey was won by pre-tournament favourite Wild, while Koster claimed the best young rider jersey.