Teutenberg tops the sprint in Forli'

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Ina Teutenberg (HTC-Highroad) claimed her first victory of the 2011 Giro Donne, winning the bunch sprint into Forli at the end of 74km, topping world champion Giorgia Bronzini (Colavita Forno d'Asolo) and Monia Baccaille (MCipollini Giordana).

Race leader Marianne Vos (Nederland Bloeit) finished 10th on the day to easily hold onto her maglia rosa over Gauss rider Sylwia Kapusta.

Teutenberg once again demonstrated her prowess as a sprinter, and was backed up by the strength of her HTC-Highroad team, which put everything into the sprint on today's stage.

"It wasn't really technical because it was a straight shot to the finish line. We had a couple roundabouts but the team did a good job from 3km leading out and keeping it fast, so there wasn't much position problems. The girls delivered me to 200m and I was able to hold off Bronzini for the last 200m," Teutenberg said.

The German champion could, on paper, have a shot at triple stage wins as the next two stages are relatively flat, but, she indicated that the team might have to save itself for the hilly final three stages to help Judith Arndt in the general classification rather than expend its energy to fight for a sprint.

"The next two days are going to be really long, so I think they will end up in long breakaways. The GC is pretty split up, Today we decided to go for the sprint for sure because it waws a short stage to control. We didn't have 120km like tomorrow. The next days are a really big chance for a breakaway to stay to the finish."

It was the 11th win of the season for the German national champion.

After a hilly start to the "flat" stage, the peloton was all together until Marijn De Vriese (AA Drink Leontien.nl) made a solo escape at the 37km mark. With the sprinters' teams targeting this stage as one of the few for a bunch kick, she was only allowed a maximum lead of 15 seconds before being brought back into the fold after a few kilometers.

HTC-Highroad kept the pace high coming into the finish in Forli', but Baccialle tried to launch a surprise early sprint, but wasn't able to hold on for the win, as Teutenberg and Bronzini sped past just before the line.

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