Ina Yoko Teutenberg wins opening stage of 2011 Internationale Thuringen Rundfahrt der Frauen
HTC-Highroad women team’s Ina Yoko Teutenberg showed her brilliant performance in the opening stage of 2011 Internationale Thuringen Rundfahrt der Frauen in Jena on Monday, July 18.
The 36-year-old elite road bicycle racer took a total of 4 minutes and 34 seconds to cover the distance of 3.4 kilometres.
Her team-mate, Judith Arndt, was the runner-up and Amanda Miller finished in the third spot.
Amber Neben was in the fourth position. Elizabeth Armitstead of Garmin-Cervelo was in good form and tried her best to catch the four leading cyclists, but failed to hold her pace and grabbed the fifth place with a difference of 7 seconds, ahead of Iris Slappendel
(Garmin-Cervelo) and Emma Pooley (Garmin-Cervelo).
The Sports Director, Jens Zemke, said, "It is great to have such a strong lead right out of the prologue, with such a short distance, the seven seconds is a lot. Judith Arndt did an excellent job pulling for the girls today.”
Recently, Teutenberg took the overall lead in Tour of Chongming Island and also took the Island World Cup. She also took overall lead in the second and third stage of San Dimas Tour in 2009.
A group of four HTC-Highroad women cyclists made their first breakaway which included Judith Arndt, Amanda Miller, Ina Yoko Teutenberg and Amber Neben. All of them gained a lead of few seconds over other cyclists.
Amanda Miller and Amber Neben launched the attack, but failed and Teutenberg increased her pace and managed to cross the finish line first, ahead of the other cyclists.
Jens Zemke further added, "Tomorrow is a one hundred and nineteen kilometer course, and we will have to be smart with our strategy on how to keep this lead. Even though it is a significant amount of time that does not mean we want to waste any of it."
Amy Pieters (Skil-Koga Cycling team) took the title of Young Rider Classification with 4 minutes and 45 seconds. Her team-mate, Esra Tromp, was in the second place and Anne De Wildt was in the third spot.
The next stage will start in Gera and all the cyclists will cover the distance of 120 kilometres.
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