Ten of the UCI women's teams entered the race, each featuring five or six riders. They were joined by eight national teams containing either four or five riders, bringing the total entry up to 93 riders.[1]
The route changed from previous years. The race started at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center and took place almost entirely on wide, straight highways, with corners predominantly being expansive ninety-degree bends. The course initially followed the Middle Ring Road, the Huaxia Elevated Road and the G1501 Shanghai Ring Expressway, before entering the 10-kilometre-long (6.2 mi) tunnel under the Yangtze river to reach Changxing Island, shortly followed by a 8-kilometre-long (5.0 mi) bridge to Chongming Island, from where the route followed the course of previous years, along slightly smaller roads to the finish.[2]
Closing towards the finish in a bunch sprint, Wiggle–Honda had intended Chloe Hosking to be the sprinter to try and win, but she got caught up behind a crash in the final kilometre, and so Giorgia Bronzini acted as a lead-out for Annette Edmondson.[4] She had initially intended to move out from behind Kirsten Wild (Team Hitec Products) for a sprint with around 700 metres (2,300 ft) to go, but there was no room, so she stayed in Wild's draft. She then found that Edmondson had not been able to follow her, and opted to defend her position and launch a late sprint to pass Wild.[6] Bronzini won, followed by Wild and Fanny Riberot, riding for the France national team. The first 74 riders were all designated the same time.[7]