Teutenberg wins in Locmine

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Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (HTC-Columbia) won stage one of the Route de France in Locmine, besting Giorgia Bronzini (Gauss RDZ Ormu) and Annemiek Van Vleuten (Nederland Bloeit) in the field sprint concluding the 116.4km road opener. The victory was Teutenberg's 21st win of the season.

Van Vleuten took over the race lead from prologue winner Sarah Düster (Cervelo TestTeam). Düster trails the Dutchwoman by four seconds while Olga Zabelinskaia (Safi-Pasta Zara) holds third place, 11 seconds back.

"I wanted to lead out Adrie [Visser] for the sprint but I actually went too hard with 300 metres go and we lost contact," Teutenberg said. "I ended up closing a gap on some other riders, and then could hold off [Giorgia] Bronzini to get the win.

"It was a pretty flat finish, fairly straightforward, but I didn't feel too great doing the sprint. The sprint hurt a lot more than it usually does. I haven't raced since the Giro and I was suffering a lot on that last hill. I was about to get dropped."

The German expressed HTC-Columbia's goals for the seven-day stage race. "We want to go for GC here, and there's a time trial on Thursday, where Judith [Arndt] could be going for yellow. So we'll take it day by day and see how it goes."