Emma Pooley wins Tour de l'Aude

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Britain's Emma Pooley (Cervelo TestTeam) continued to dominate the toughest women's stage races, sealing overall victory in the Tour de l'Aude on Sunday after nine hard days of racing.

Veteran sprinter Ina-Yoko Teutenberg of HTC-Columbia won the final stage, her third of the race and remarkably her 21st career stage victory in the Tour de L'Aude. Teutenberg beat Marianne Vos and Angela Hennig in Carcassonne.

Pooley finished safely in the peloton to seal overall victory by an emphatic 4:42 on Mara Abbott of the USA, Emma Johansson was third overall at 5:39.

"They were always with me and showed time and again that we were the strongest team. I feel amazing today and very happy with my Tour victory - it is the first time I have won a big stage race, after the Grande Boucle last year. Together, our team will now enjoy the victory and celebrate by having some ice cream."

"We are very pleased about our second stage race victory this season. The team was just awesome. We managed to win the GC, had four stage victories, the mountain jersey, as well as winning the team classification. We will enjoy the victory and focus now on our next main goal - the Giro Donne."

Tuetenberg lost Saturday's sprint to Vos but made up for it on Sunday.

"It's a great way to end a stage race," she said. "The Tour de l'Aude is a tough race and so we were all pretty tired after nine days racing but the girls did a great job in controlling the attacks. Vos went away on the descent but we let her go and then the girls pulled her back and I won the sprint."

"I'm the oldest rider in the race but that's one of the challenges of racing for me. It's an honour to have won 21 stage here. I've actually lost count of the number of my career wins but it's in three figures for sure."

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