Teutenberg claims sprint victory

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Columbia-HTC's Ina-Yoko Teutenberg outsprinted the bunch at the end of stage one of the Route De France from Fontenay-le-Comte to Cholet on Monday.

"The last part was very technical, but at the finish [rival Diana] Ziliute started to accelerate very early and we got a good gap. That made a big difference," Teutenberg said.

"I got good support from the team throughout the stage and then they gave me a great lead-out, which all helped."

Teutenberg said she had had an incident-free stage and build-up to the bunch sprint, even though Monday's 108km ride through central France had not been straightforward.

"The stage was tougher than it looked on the race profile. They always say it's flat in this part of France, but in fact it's constantly up and down.

"The hardest part of this year's race are the last two stages, which are really hilly, and together with tomorrow's [Tuesday's] time trial that's where the overall will be decided."

Teutenberg said she felt like her form was improving after a third place on Sunday in the prologue. "I had a bit of a flat period after the Giro d'Italia [in July] and things didn't go as well as we would have liked in Sweden [in the Vargarda World Cup rounds], either.

"But now I've got a stage win here in France and hopefully things will continue to get better, and I can start to build up for the rest of the season."

Diana Ziliute (Safi-Pasta Zara Titanedi) maintained her lead in the overall classification ahead of Svetlana Bubnenkova (Fenixs).