Hosking wins third stage of Women's Tour in Warwickshire

CHLOE Hosking sprinted to victory in the packed streets of Leamington Spa on stage three of the Women's Tour 2017 on Friday.

The race, which took in large swathes of the Stratford-on-Avon district, saw another dominant show from the Wiggle High5 rider, but it was a result that meant Poland's Katarzyna Niewiadoma had done enough to retain her overall lead.

Uttrup Ludwig (Cervelo-Bigla Pro) and Grace Elvin (OricaScott) led a breakaway group of five, which also included Amy Pieters, the Dutch Boels Dolmans rider who had claimed victory on stage two in Stoke-on-Trent, along with Martina Ritter (Drops).

But they were eventually chased down with five kilometres left.

There was, though, a crash as the peloton closed in, which saw Pieters caught up along with Marianne Vos (WM3), who had been in second place overall, and Dani King (Cylance Pro).

Australian Hosking, however, got her positioning right heading into the narrow rising finish, where she edged ahead of Alice Barnes and Ellen van Dijk (Team Sunweb) with Giorgia Bronzini (Wiggle High 5) in fourth place.

Niewiadoma (WM3) managed to stay clear of any trouble to keep the overall lead in the general classifications, although her advantage dropped to one minute and 31 seconds as van Dijk moved up to second.

Alice Barnes is in joint third alongside fellow British rider Hannah Barnes (Canyon-SRAM), who had finished Wednesday's stage in second place, and Vos on the same time, all 1 min and 46 secs off the pace.

Saturday's fourth stage runs over 123.1 kilometres around Chesterfield, includes the most climbing with over 2,000m of ascent.