Women’s Tour Down Under: Chloe Hosking wins final stage, with Amanda Spratt the overall winner

AUSTRALIAN sprinter Chloe Hosking won the final stage of the Santos Women’s Tour Down Under with a perfectly-timed move in the criterium in Adelaide last night.

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AUSTRALIAN sprinter Chloe Hosking won the final stage of the Santos Women’s Tour Down Under with a perfectly-timed move in the criterium in Adelaide on Sunday night.

Her team Ale Cipollini controlled the tempo for the final lap of the 40.6km race before Hosking unleashed her powerful sprint to win from Italian Giorgia Bronzini (Cylance Pro Cycling) and Annette Edmondson (Wiggle-High5).

Australian Amanda Spratt (Mitchelton-Scott) survived a mid-race crash to win the TDU overall but the night belonged to Hosking who proved why she is one of the top sprinters in the world.

Overall winner Amanda Spratt riding for Mitchelton-Scott high fives the crowd. Picture: Sarah Reed

The race featured an attack right from the gun when Adelaide’s Carlee Taylor attacked on the first lap and soaked up the applause from her home crowd as she inches closer to retirement, but it was short lived as the peloton reeled her back in.

While the ochre jersey was never really under threat on the city circuit, there was all-out attack on the green sprinter’s jersey which Spratt also owned.

Katrin Garfoot started the stage just five points adrift of the green jersey and got on the front foot by taking the first immediate points on lap five.

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Stage winner Chloe Hosking riding for Ale-Cipollini. Picture: Sarah Reed

There was carnage at the next intermediate sprint when a clip of wheels saw about 20 riders crash at high speed, including race leader Spratt and second place Lauren Stephens.

While Garfoot avoided the pile-up and took maximum points, Spratt went down and was brought back to the peloton by her teammates.

UniSA-Australia and Tasmanian Institute of Sport occupied the front of the bunch for the middle part of the race and Garfoot again proved too strong at both the third and fourth intermediate sprints before the race for the finish line.