Teutenberg resumes winning ways

German road champion Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (Team Columbia HTC Women) sprinted to victory in the 109.2-kilometre fourth stage of the Giro Donne on Tuesday, besting Kirsten Wild (Cervélo TestTeam) and Monia Baccaille (Michela Fanini Record Rox) in the bunch gallop to the line. Teutenberg's win in Porto San Elpidio was her 20th of the season.

"Today was a pretty crazy, dangerous sprint, there were a lot of obstacles in the finale but I got through ok," said Teutenberg. "It was hot, too, and there was a bit of a climb on the final circuit, but Judith [Arndt] gave me a good lead-out and I was in the right position. The team worked brilliantly for me, as always, and that makes it much easier.

"I got 24 wins last year, which was the most I ever took in one year, so it's good to get to 20 at this point in the season. We'll see what happens now."

Teutenberg said the last few kilometres had not been easy, but that "normally riders try to get on my wheel and they give me a bit more space than maybe they would to other sprinters. That makes it a bit less tricky for me to hold my position when I'm going for the sprint, too."

Teutenberg took four Giro Donne stages last year, but she's not overly optimistic about her chances of doing the same in 2009. "This year's route is totally different from 2008, much hillier overall with five hard days in a row coming up now. Maybe I'll get in a break and try to win that way but it's difficult to say which day is best for that - perhaps the last!"

Cervélo TestTeam's Emma Pooley retained the pink jersey while her teammate Kirsten Wild finished a close second to Teutenberg.

"We were controlling the entire stage and preparing the sprint at the end for Kirsten," said Manel Lacambra, Cervélo TestTeam directeur sportif. "The riders did a great job and were rewarded for their hard work with Kirsten's second place finish. Emma is still the overall leader and we are now focused on tomorrow, which will be a hard stage with one mountain and a very tough final climb - one kilometer on cobble stones with a 16% grade."