Wiggle High5 dominate Madrid Challenge

Wiggle High5 pair Jolien D’hoore and Chloe Hosking finished first and second in the Madrid Challenge by La Vuelta.

Chloe Hosking, Jolien D'Hoore and Marta Bastianelli. Source: Velofocus

The race consisted of 15 laps of a 85km city circuit in Madrid. Marta Bastianelli of Ale Cipollini came third.

Claudia Lichtenberg (Lotto-Soudal) and Simona Frapporti (Lensworld-Zannata) held a 24-second lead on the peloton but were reeled in with just over 3km to go before Wiggle-High5 went on to claim the win.

“It was quite a fast and nervous race, like a crit should be!” D’hoore said. “It wasn’t totally flat, it was a but up and down, and that made it hard in the end. We decided that I should do the sprint, and that Chloe would lead me out, and that’s what we did.

“But I lost Chloe’s wheel just before the last corner, with 400 to go or something, and then I tried to steak in on the inside of the corner; there was a gap on the right side so I just started my sprint.

“I can’t remember the sprint really, but I just went full gas on my big chainring, and I just went.”