Ladies Tour of Norway: Guarnier wins overall title

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Shelley Olds (Ale-Cipollini) won the second and final stage at the Ladies Tour of Norway on Sunday in Halden. The American sprinter was quickest to the finish line beating Anna van der Breggen (Rabo-Liv) and Emilie Moberg (Hitec Products). It was the second victory of the weekend for Olds, who also won the event's warm-up criterium on Friday.

"The girls made a great race, they have always been present in the most important attacks of the day and have always been in the head of the group," said Ale-Cipollini director Fabiana Luperini. "Shelley, who is in great condition, finalized the work of the whole team. The sprint has been not easy, she succeeded in winning in her own way, with a long sprint. I am very satisfied because we have proven to be a great team, during all these races in Norwey."

Top honours went to Olds' compatriot Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans), who won the overall title of the two-day UCI 2.2 race. The US road champion won the opening stage on Saturday and maintained her lead upon the conclusion of stage 2, where she finished in the main pack in eighth place.

Guarnier finalized her overall win by five seconds ahead of Olds and six seconds ahead of Amanda Spratt (Orica-AIS). It was a great race for the US as Olds also won the sprint classification and Evelyn Stevens (Boels-Dolmans) secured the overall mountain classification. Boels-Dolmans also secured the overall team classification and the young rider award with Amalie Dideriksen.

Boels-Dolmans team manager Danny Stam said, “It is good to see we are still performing strongly at the start of the important last part of the season. I would not say we were dominant in Norway, but Megan is still performing very well and yesterday our plan worked out perfectly. The other teams were in the defensive and luckily Megan and Spratt were able to just hold on to their lead. Today there were many attacks, but Megan could react to that every time in a convincing way. It was really good to see the team secured two other jerseys and the team classification. It gives us confidence towards the World Cup-races in Vargarda and the other races that are waiting for us in August and September.”

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