Teutenberg tops opening stage in Emakumeen Bira

German champion Ina Teutenberg (Specialized-lululemon) won the opening stage of the 2012 Emakumeen Bira, beating American Shelley Olds (AA Drink) and her own teammate Trixi Worrack to the line to claim the race leadership.

The 97km stage featured two sprints and one classified climb to establish leaders in the secondary classifications. Valentina Scandolara (Michela Fanini) won both sprints to take the sprint jersey, while Christel Ferrier (Hitec Products - Mistral Home) was first over the day's climb.

"It's obviously a great way to start the Tour," said Teutenberg. "We were all looking forward to a solid four days of racing here and so far it's going well.

"The final sprint was technical and wet and pretty scary but the girls lead me perfectly into it with Trixi doing another perfect final lead-out."

Teutenberg will head into the second stage in the race's overall lead, but may find the stage not to her liking: it features four classified climbs, the last of which is crested just nine kilometers from the finish.

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