
Team Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling Team has started its Tour of Chongming Island campaign in the best way possible. After excellent teamwork from her teammates, Mylène de Zoete crossed the finish line in first place, also claiming the leader’s jersey in the race on the island near Shanghai.

“It is super exciting to win today in China,” De Zoete said after her victory. “We are here with a strong team and have several fast riders. It was only at the end that we decided I would be the team leader. I’m happy I could finish it off for the team.”

Second place went to Tereza Neumanová from UAE Team ADQ, while Silvia Zanardi from Human Powered Health finished third.

Several fast sprinters chose to compete in this year’s Tour of Chongming Island. After winning the women’s World Tour race last year, UAE Team ADQ returned to China with top-favorite for this year Eleonora Gasparrini. She was expected to face competition from Daria Pikulik (Human Powered Health), Sofie van Rooijen (VolkerWessels), and local favorite Xin Tang (Winspace). However, it was the Dutch sprinter from Ceratizit who claimed the gold, while Tang was taken to the hospital following a crash on the wet roads on the island.

Numerous riders attempted to outsmart the sprinters' teams with attacks in the early phases of the race, but the leading teams kept everything under control, and ultimately, there were barely any breakaway attempts worth mentioning. A large peloton, therefore, made its way swiftly to the finish line in Chongming New City Park.
Before that, the two intermediate sprints in the ‘Chongxi stage’ were heavily contested, as some of the fastest women in the world had their sights set on the green sprinter’s jersey. With her victory, and coming across the line at one of the intermediate sprints in first place, De Zoete also claimed the lead in the sprint classification.

There was also one KOM sprint early in the stage. Karolina Kumiega was the fastest climber and was crowned the Queen of the Mountains. She will line up for the second stage tomorrow wearing the famous polka-dot jersey. “As a team, we made this jersey one of our goals for this race,” she said after the finish. “I’m happy that we could take it on day one.”
With multiple fast women in the team, including semi-favorites Kathrin Schweinberger and Sandra Alonso, Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling Team was able to dictate the final kilometers of the race. After two and a half hours of racing, the peloton was storming toward the finish line when Marta Lach made an attempt to break away on behalf of the German team. She was unsuccessful, but her effort allowed her teammates to sit up and time their final push perfectly.
Even though De Zoete got boxed in “more than I had hoped for” and had to “start my sprint late,” no one was able to beat her. “We didn’t have a designated leader, and we contested the intermediate sprints with different riders,” De Zoete said after the ceremony. “The goal is to keep the jersey in the team now and bring it to Europe.”

Tomorrow, the Tour of Chongming Island continues with the longest stage this year, 129 kilometers. Ceratizit will be aiming to defend their leader’s jersey.