Hosking sprints to win women's cycling cup

Young Australian cyclist Chloe Hosking used her sprinting prowess to telling effect when she won the International Cup women's road cycling event held around the streets of Masterton yesterday.
Hosking, 18, a finalist for last year's Australian Junior Road Cyclist of the Year award, held off the challenge of her more favourite compatriot Rochelle Gilmore.
It was a spectacular finish with the bulk of the field still in the hunt for the major placings as they made the turn into Perry street for the last of the 14 laps of the 8.5km course.
Hosking still looked surprisingly fresh after the race despite the fact she had not only just completed 119km but had also taken part in the NZCT three-day Tour of New Zealand held in Wairarapa from Wednesday to Friday.
However, she conceded the International Cup was hard going right to the end. "It was a sprint finish and there were five or six girls really going for the win & it was pretty fast and furious," the first year senior rider from Canberra said.
"Throughout the whole race we had girls attacking and obviously we had to keep pegging them back. The pressure was always there."
Hosking said it was "very exciting" to come out on top in her first try at a race of this magnitude. It carried 80 UCI points, ranking it behind only the World Cup and world championships on the women's road cycling calendar.
Race director Jorge Sandoval praised Hosking's efforts in staving off the bid from world-class rider Gilmore, who has represented Australia on the international front, being a silver medallist on the track at both world championships and the Commonwealth Games. She also won the 2008 Oceania road race title.
""She (Hosking) is an amazing sprinter.
"For this girl to win this race today she had to show a lot of strength and a lot of speed. She's a really top rider," Sandoval said.
Hosking, who placed second in the first two stages of the three-day tour, heads back to Australia today but she won't be in recovery mode too long as in a month's time she will be in Europe riding for a Dutch team.
Gilmore's second placing also followed on some impressive tour form where she actually won the first two stages while third in the International Cup was Canadian Gina Grain riding for the MB Cycles team, also from Australia.
First Kiwi home was Beijing Olympian Joanne Kiesanowski who finished fifth. She and New Zealand team-mate Rachel Mercer actually had a 40sec break on the field about the half-way mark but they were gathered in by the chasing bunch within two laps.
Meanwhile, Sandoval's thoughts on yesterday's race were positive, and he was especially pleased with the number of people who watched the event evolve.
"It was good to see all the people standing outside watching the race", he said
The weather for the International Cup was ideal with the rains which struck Masterton on Saturday clearing away at exactly the right time as far as the organisers were concerned.
INTERNATIONAL CUP RESULTS: Chloe Hosking (Mercedes Benz Australia) 3hrs 4mins 5secs 1, Rochelle Gilmore (Australia national team) 2, Gina Grain (MB Cycles, Australia) 3, Davina Summers (Handy Rentals team) 4, Joanne Kiesanowski (New Zealand national team) 5, Ruth Corset (Champions Systems team, Australia) 6, Xin Liu (Giant Pro team of China) 7, Lang Meng (Giant Pro team of China) 8, Peta Mullens (Australia national team) 9, Clare Vlahopoulos (R and R) 10.