Visser breaks away for stage win

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HTC-Highroad's Adrie Visser blasted to a hard-fought victory in stage three of the Energiewacht Tour in Holland on Saturday with the Dutchwoman stealing overall honours from teammate Ina-Yoko Teutenberg.

A breakaway of 11 riders formed at the 25 kilometre-mark, including the race favourites, although World Champion Giorgia Bronzini (Colavita Forno d'Asolo) was missing from the group.

Visser broke away with Loes Gunnewijk (Nederland Bloeit) and Olga Zabelinskaya (Diadora - Pasta Zara) about 10 kilometres from the finish in Aduard, and it was the woman from HTC-Highroad who prevailed to take both the stage and the overall lead.

After Teutenberg's win on Friday's stage, Visser's win is the second for HTC-Highroad in the Dutch stage race - and the first for the Dutchwoman this season.

"Adrie is very pleased because she's managed to get her first win of the season on home soil here in Holland," commented team manager Ronnie Lauke. "And I'm absolutely delighted with the way that she and Ina rode today.

"It was very windy so we knew it was going to be hectic from the start, and after 25 kilometres there was a break of eleven with only Adrie and Ina in it from our team whilst our main rivals, Nederland Bloeit, had four.

"I was pretty upset that we'd not got any more riders from our team in the break, and we knew Bloeit was going to start playing cat and mouse and get the attacks going.

"But Adrie and Ina handled all the attacks brilliantly, and they even managed to turn it around and take control."

Finally a move of three went clear, with Visser present for HTC-Highroad.

"When Adrie got away with the other two riders, we had Ina controlling the break behind and Adrie could drive the break and got both the lead and the stage win."

"Between the two of them, they handled the race perfectly."

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