Columbia's Ina-Yoko Teutenberg won the final stage of the Giro d'Italia Femminile. Her win marked her fourth stage win of the Giro, in which she also captured the points jersey.
"I think this week was something that happens once in a lifetime," said Teutenberg. "I've never won four stages in a tour before and I'm pretty sure it won't happen again. It was a great week and it's really nice to finish in the Points Jersey," said Teutenberg.
The final stage started with a climb and went directly into seven relatively flat sections around the city of Desio. "We wanted to race aggressively to get a break up the road," said Teutenberg of her Team Columbia's race plan. "Our back up plan was to go for a bunch sprint if the breaks weren't sticking."
After consistent attacks throughout the race, Bigla's Zulfia Zabirova and Julia Martisova from Gauss RDZ Ormu had a 50 second advantage over the field with one lap to go. That's when Team Columbia put themselves into pursuit mode at the front to reel in the duo.
"It was the perfect chase and lead-out," said Teutenberg. "The girls were amazing. We caught the break with 1.5km to go and the sprint ended up being pretty straight forward."
Fabiana Luperini (Menikini - Selle Italia) won the overall for her fifth-ever Giro general classification win.
Sue George is an editor at Cyclingnews. She coordinates all of the site's mountain bike race coverage and assists with the road, 'cross and track coverage.
