Lach wins stage 2 in Tour of Chongming Island as Ceratizit-WNT claim podium sweep

FOURMIES, FRANCE - SEPTEMBER 10: Marta Lach of Poland and Team CERATIZIT-WNT Pro Cycling celebrates at finish line as race winner during the 4th GP de Fourmies / La Voix du Nord Feminin 2023 a 117.8km one day race from Fourmies to Fourmies / Women Elite / on September 10, 2023 in Fourmies, France. (Photo by Luc Claessen/Getty Images)

Marta Lach delivered a powerful sprint finish to win the second stage of the Tour of Chongming Island, leading Ceratizit-WNT to a remarkable 1-2-3 podium sweep. Her teammates Mylรจne de Zoete and Kathrin Schweinberger took second and third place respectively, marking a dominant display from the German squad in China.

The stage began on the island of Changxing, with riders crossing the Shanghai Yangtze River Bridge after just 9 kilometres. The flat 129-kilometre route snaked around the eastern side of Chongming Island before finishing at the Chongming New City Park. Breakaway attempts punctuated the race, but none were able to hold.

The first serious move came after the initial intermediate sprint, where Hao Zhang made a bold attack and gained a small gap, but her effort was neutralised by the peloton. Later, Tamara Dronova launched a solo move, but like Zhang, she too was reeled in.

With 23 kilometres to go, Aurela Nerlo made the most successful breakaway attempt of the day, quickly building a lead of up to 48 seconds. However, her hopes of holding off the peloton faded as the sprintersโ€™ teams turned up the pace, and she was caught just under four kilometres from the finish.

In the final kilometres, Ceratizit-WNT began to organise their lead-out, with Sandra Alonso setting up the perfect platform for her teammates. At 500 metres to go, Schweinberger took over, driving the pace, while De Zoete and Lach waited in her wheel for the final sprint.

In the closing metres, Lach and De Zoete made their move, sweeping past Schweinberger on either side. Lach had asked De Zoete earlier in the race if she should go for the win in such a situation, to which De Zoete agreed: โ€œI asked her to pass me because I donโ€™t care if we could do that, the order doesnโ€™t matter,โ€ she explained after the race. โ€œIt was an amazing result indeed.โ€

Lach took the win, followed by De Zoete and Schweinberger, making it a clean sweep for the team. โ€œThis is something unbelievable, and it feels amazing to stand on the podium with the teammates, and I will never forget this,โ€ Lach told Cyclingnews. โ€œItโ€™s something that we never thought about before the race, and it came out perfect for us.โ€

De Zoete retained her yellow jersey as the overall race leader, with Lach now just three seconds behind her in the general classification. Lach hinted that the team may not be done yet: โ€œWe will try to hopefully be with three on the GC podium. Weโ€™ll try our best to take as much as possible from this.โ€

Elsewhere in the race, Karolina Kumiega and Tereza Neumanova finished inside the top 10, with Kumiega retaining her Polka-dot jersey as the leader of the mountain classification.

2024 Tour of Chongming Islang Stage 2 result

Results powered by FirstCycling.com

Main photo credit: Getty