Hosking Podiums Sprint Finish in Ardèche

Aussie takes third place on stage 3, Ganzar spends day up the road.

Chloe Hosking finally got the bunch sprint she has been waiting for at the Tour de L'Ardèche and finished in third place on stage 3, while Emma White retained her purple jersey as the leader of the intermediate 'rush' sprints classification. 

It was a complete team performance that delivered the day's result, team director Joanne Kiesanowski explained.

"Leading into the final we were in a great position because Leigh Ann Ganzar spent the whole stage in the breakaway. She put us in the armchair position of not having to work in the bunch. When the peloton caught her break move with 10km to go, we had Emma and Heidi [Franz] shepherding Chloe around the bunch." 

Ganzar was one of the last remaining riders to be caught by the bunch with 10km remaining.

Trek-Segafredo and Canyon SRAM contributed to the late chase to ensure a field sprint - allowing Hosking to coast in the bunch behind.

"I was surfing wheels into the super technical final," said Hosking. "It had a few corners with just a couple of hundred meters to go and I knew from reconning it that I needed to go into the penultimate corner in the first position, but I just missed the jump of Cordon-Ragot. I went into that corner third and stayed third."

Hosking explains the tricky final corners.

"I was a bit disappointed not to finish off the girls' really hard work today, but I'm feeling confident in the peloton, the team's riding really well and we'll be able to get on the top step soon, we just need to keep doing what we're doing and ticking those boxes. After six months of riding solo, it feels great to be back with my elbows out in the peloton." 

Sara Poidevin stays ninth on GC after finishing just behind the main group. 

Trek-Segafredo's Audrey Cordon-Ragot won the stage with Barbara Gurischi of Movistar in second. It will be back to the mountains tomorrow, as the race heads for a summit finish on Mont-Lozère. 

Top three: Audrey Cordon-Ragot, Barbara Guarischi, and Chole Hosking.

Stage 3 Results
1. Audrey Cordon-Ragot (Trek-Segafredo)
2. Barbara Guarischi (Movistar Team)
3. Chloe Hosking (Rally Cycling)

General Classification After Stage 3
1. Mavi Garcia (Alé BTC Ljubljana) 6:56:38
2. Anna Kiesenhofer (Austria) +0:05
3. Lauren Stephens (Team Tibco - SVB) +0"42
9. Sara Poidevin (Rally Cycling) +7:45

Rush Classification After Stage 3
1. Emma White (Rally Cycling) 14pts
2. Marie Le Net (FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futurescope) 8pts
3. Leigh Ann Ganzar 8pts 

READ THE ORIGINAL STORY ON RALLY CYCLING NEWS

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