Hosking produced a mix of power and canny tactics in the final sprint to win her first race in just under a year. She was first through a series of bends that led into the finish line and was then just able to hold off Coryn Rivera (Team DSM) and Chiara Consonni (Valcar Travel and Service) in the dash to the line.
There was no hiding the emotion and the tears after the stage win for Hosking, who claimed her first victory of the season, also her first with Trek-Segafredo.
“I am just so proud of myself, and I am so thankful for the Team throughout the whole process, who always told me there’s no pressure Chloe, come back when you’re ready,” said a teary-eyed Hosking. “So, to finish with a win in a WorldTour stage race…wow! I’m just…it was all worth it, I guess.”
“I definitely did not expect a win here. I could see in my training that I was coming up and coming up, but I was really looking at Norway to help me build for the races that are coming later. But honestly, I love this race, I love this stage, I have finished 4th, 5th, 6th on this stage before, so I think this is my fourth try, and I finally got the line right.”
Lucinda Brand provided a strong leadout for Hosking, manoeuvering her sprinter to the front through the twists and turns of the final kilometre. She did almost two kilometres on the front of the race to lead Hosking into the final 700 metres of the race. Team DSM came over the top, with Hosking accelerating to stay near the front before taking the lead into the final series of bends that came just before the finish line.
“I had Lucinda Brand with me, and she’s definitely one of the best bike handlers in the peloton, and for a super technical circuit like this, that’s who you need in front of you," said Hosking. "But she was on the front early, so I knew I had to surf wheels. I sensed people were coming up and kept upping my pace.
“Coming into the final s-bend, I said screw it! I am just gonna go and take up all the road and hope no one can come past me.”
She held on with a powerful final few hundred metres acceleartion to hold on for the victory, a significant one in the career of the prolific Australian sprinter who had made her comeback from five months without racing at the Tour of Norway. Hosking had contracted COVID-19 and then also had to deal with heart problems and a forced lay-off from racing.
“It was more mentally tough,” explained Hosking about her break. “I was never physically super sick, but I was being told that I had to take it easy. Australia is so far away, and it’s even further when we can’t get in, and my family can’t come here. So I felt alone – really alone – for a lot of the time.”
Fellow Australian Sarah Roy (Team BikeExchange) finished fifth in the sprint.
Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) won the overall Ladies Tour of Norway as she finished safely in the bunch after her dominant display on the summit finish to Norefjell on Stage 3. Ashleigh Moolman (SD Worx) finished second overall, with Mavi Garcia (Ale BTC Ljubljana) tumbling off the podium and down the standings after getting caught up in a crash, with Kristen Faulkner (TIBCO-SVB) filling the final spot on the podium.
