Arndt's season finally gets going

Following an injury-blighted first half of the season, Team Columbia-Highroad's Judith Arndt has taken her first victory of 2009 in stage one of the Bira in Spain. The Columbia-Highroad rider was the fastest in a 19-rider sprint that decided the 78-kilometre stage starting and finishing in Iurreta, and is now race leader of the Spanish event.

Second was Great Britain's Nicole Cooke and third Emma Johannson of Sweden.

"It was a great day's riding by the team and payday for Judith after working so hard to come back ," said team sports director Ronny Lauke. "Mara [Abbott] went for it with an attack on the last climb of the day, and then when part of the race came back together, [Kim] Anderson gave Judith the perfect lead-out in the sprint finish.

"We could see that she was getting better and better after taking second in a one-day race in Spain earlier this week," he added. "Then today it all came together in a big way."

Arndt had a very tough spring, in which she first broke a collarbone and then was unlucky enough to fracture her wrist in a crash in her first race back in April. She returned to racing in the GP Montreal in Canada and since then has made fast progress towards top condition.

Arndt was delighted to have taken her first victory since the Tour of Tuscany last September. "It was a tough sprint because you never know what's going to happen with rivals as tough as Johannsen and Cooke," she said. "But I thought I would give it a try and it all worked out fine in the end."