“Nettie” nets victory in thrilling finale
It’s been an absolutely thrilling finale to conclude the third and last stage of the 2013 Tour of Chongming Island. By winning the last sprint of the Shanghai East Beach Chenjia Town Cup, Australia’s Annette (“Nettie”) Edmondson of Orica-AIS dethroned by only one second her compatriot and arch-rival Chloe Hosking of Hitec Products UCK who missed out on the final sprint after dominating the two intermediate sprints.
“It’s huge!”, Edmondson reacted after realizing that she had won both stage and overall classifications. “This is the biggest win of my career. I can be called a rookie. This is my first pro year on the road. I’ve never won a yellow jersey before. I was a bit nervous because of my lack of experience. But my team-mates have taught me a lot. Now I pay them back for all they did for me this week.”
Stage 3 was attended by a huge crowd. It was an 8.1km flat circuit including ten curves, to be covered eight times. None of the skirmishes turned into a breakaway, so it all came down to sprinting and calculating time bonuses. Having started the day with the yellow jersey and the confidence after bagging stage 2, Hosking looked at ease again. In the first sprint, she preceded Edmondson and Shelley Olds. She won the second one as well, ahead of Amy Pieters and Edmondson, so she increased her virtual lead on GC to nine seconds over Edmondson and thirteen over Girogia Bronzini and Lucy Garner. Ahead of the final gallop for stage victory, she could only lose the overall classification in case of not making the top 3 and Edmondson winning.
Considering Hosking’s apparent domination, it was highly unlikely but it happened. Perfectly led out by the Orica-AIS team who didn’t repeat the mistake of the previous days that consisted in putting the train at the command of the bunch too early with 2.5km to go, Edmondson won with rage ahead of Italy’s Marta Bastianelli of Faren-Let’s go Finland. Her team-mate Emma Johansson prevented Hosking from taking the time bonus of the third place but the yellow jersey was behind and crossed the line in twelfth position.
“I wasn’t about to position myself very well”, Hosking admitted. “This time I’m disappointed. This will definitely make me mentally stronger and hopefully I’ll redeem myself on Sunday.”
The Tour of Chongming Island stage race is over but the best is yet to come with the Tour of Chongming World Cup. “It’s a longer race, on a different course”, Hosking continued. “We’ll go over the bridge. It could be a different race.”
“It’s going to be my first World Cup”, Edmondson underlined. “I’m hoping to have a good one. We’ll sit down as a team to discuss tactics. Hopefully there’s more to come in terms of victory for us at Orica-AIS.”
Brief results
Stage 3 (80.8km)
1. Annette Edmondson (Aus) Orica-AIS, 1.58.09
2. Marta Bastianelli (Ita) Faren Let’s go Finland
3. Emma Johansson (Swe) Orica-AIS
4. Sara Mustonen (Fin) Faren Let’s go Finland
5. Giorgia Bronzini (Ita) Wiggle Honda, all st
Overall final
1. Annette Edmondson (Aus) Orica-AIS, 6.29.26
2. Chloe Hosking (Aus) Hitec-Products UCK, 0.01
3. Lucy Garner (GBR) Argos-Shimano, 0.17
4. Giorgia Bronzini (Ita) Wiggle Honda, st
5. Emma Johansson (Swe) Orica-AIS, 0.19
Other winners
- Points competition: Chloe Hosking (Aus) Hitec-Products UCK
- Best Asian rider: Kim Eun Hee (Kor) Korea National team
- Team classification: Faren-Let’s go Finland
- Asian team classification: Hong Kong China