The Tour of Chongming Island 2025 was won by a Dutch rider, but not by the expected winner Anne Knijnenburg. The VolkerWessels rider managed to break away in the finale with six other attackers, crossed the line third, and that proved enough to dethrone Sofie van Rooijen from the leader’s jersey and claim the overall victory.
Before today, the last Dutch overall victory in the Tour of Chongming Island dated back to 2019, but a successor to Lorena Wiebes seemed to be emerging. After her double win on Wednesday’s stage, Sofie van Rooijen started the final stage as the race leader, which also perfectly suited her strengths. The 111.4-kilometer stage in Chongming was as flat as a billiard table, setting the stage for another sprint finish.
Attack after attack
However, Van Rooijen needed to stay alert as attacks sprung up repeatedly along the way. Due to the high pace and numerous accelerations, the peloton briefly split into two groups, but UAE Team ADQ—the team of the Dutch GC leader—quickly restored order. In fact, Van Rooijen also capitalized en route by picking up two bonus seconds.
Van Rooijen’s lead over her closest rivals seemed comfortable, but she hoped to put the finishing touches in the final sprint. First, however, it had to come down to a sprint, which several attackers tried to prevent. Tiril Jørgensen made a move to escape the sprint in the finale, but the Norwegian of Team Coop-Repsol was reeled back in.
The ultimate turnaround
The threat of attack was far from over, as in the last kilometers seven riders launched one final assault: Elynor Bäckstedt, Josie Talbot, Mieke Dockx, Daniele Campos, and the Dutch attackers Riejanne Markus, Quinty Ton, Karlijn Swinkels, and Anne Knijnenburg. Surprisingly, this group was granted enough space and stayed out of the peloton’s reach.
In the ensuing sprint, Knijnenburg played the surprise card by launching her sprint from very far out. The VolkerWessels Dutch rider opened a gap and held strong for a long time, but in the last hundred meters was overtaken by Talbot and Markus. The Australian timed her effort best to claim her fourth professional win, ahead of Markus and Knijnenburg—but the latter also had cause to celebrate.
After the necessary calculations, Knijnenburg was declared the overall winner of the Tour of Chongming Island, though the final result took a long time to confirm. The queen of the mountains managed in the last moments to overtake her compatriot Van Rooijen in the leader’s jersey. Van Rooijen herself crashed hard during the run-in to the sprint for the podium places but, despite being somewhat battered, still made it to the finish line.
Tour of Chongming Island| Rank | Rider | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 02:34:19 | |
| 2 | " | |
| 3 | " | |
| 4 | " | |
| 5 | " | |
| 6 | " | |
| 7 | " | |
| 8 | " | |
| 9 | " | |
| 10 | + 15 |
