Hosking beats Vos

Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling’s Chloe Hosking has taken her long-awaited first Uci victory of the 2015 season at the Marianne Vos Classic, in Aalburg, Netherlands. The 24-year-old Australian outsprinted former World Champion Vos (Rabo-Liv) herself at the end of the tough, attritional 121 km race, ahead of Amy Pieters (Liv-Plantur) and Emma Johansson (Orica-AIS). Hosking’s Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling teammate Elisa Longo Borghini took fourth place, three seconds behind, as an elite leading group began to split in the final kilometres.

“It’s so nice to put my hands up in the air, rather than watch Jolien [D’hoore], Gio [Bronzini] or Elisa do it,” Hosking laughed. “It’s been so fantastic this year, the team’s had so many wins, and I’ve been there for a lot of them but it has’t been me! It’s really, really nice to be on the top step.”

Following a fast start, which saw several riders lose contact at the rear of the peloton, a group of 13 riders got away after 23 km, containing many of the race’s big names. Hosking and Longo Borghini also had Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling teammate Eileen Roe for company, but Vos also had Roxane Knetemann and Moniek Tenniglo, Pieters had Julia Soek, Johansson had Chloe McConville, and there were three riders from Parkhotel-Valkenburg in Janneke Ensing, Chanella Stougje and Natalie van Gogh.

By the time it crossed the finish line for the first time, after 35km, the group was more than a minute and a half ahead of the next group on the road. On the flat, windy parcours McConville, and then Stougje, lost contact with the others, however, leaving 11 up front. The gap continued to grow, to almost three and a half minutes as the leaders began the first of three 11.3 km finishing circuits, which meant that the winner was almost certain to come from this group.

Result

1. Chloe Hosking (Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling)

2. Marianne Vos (Rabo-Liv)

3. Amy Pieters (Liv-Plantur)

4. Emma Johansson (Orica-AIS)

5. Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling)