Teutenberg triumphs

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On another flat and windy stage of the Chinese Tour, HTC-Highroad’s Ina-Yoko Teutenberg took another step towards defending her lead and winning the race for a second year in a row.

The stage was the longest of the Tour - 118.4 km through Chenggaio Town on the western side of the island, a more technical course than yesterday’s. Although the day was overcast, it wasn’t as wet as yesterday’s.

Emma Johansson (Hitec Products) won the first sprint, then before the second sprint, HTC took control of the race and forced a breakaway that included all six HTC riders. Twelve riders were able to make the break with them, including Johansson and her teammate Sara Mustonen, World Champion Giorgia Bronzini (riding for the Italian National Team), Italian Champion Monia Baccaille (MCipollini-Giambenini), Lauren Tamayo and Andrea Dvorak from the USA National Team and Johansson’s biggest rival in the World Cup stakes, Annemiek van Vleuten (Nederland Bloeit) with her teammate Sarah Düster.

Also in the group break was Stage 1 winner, Lizzie Armitstead (Garmin-Cervelo) – but although she won points in the second intermediate sprint, behind Teutenberg and Johansson, she punctured about 15km before the finish, and although her teammate Trine Schmidt worked hard to bring her back, she wasn’t able to make the break to contest the final sprint.

By the end of the race, the group had gained over a minute and a half on the chasing peloton, and in the final sprint, Teutenberg once again proved her sprint dominance, with Annemiek van Vleuten in second place and Teutenberg’s teammate and German road champion Charlotte Becker in third.

"The girls did just an amazing job putting the peloton into the gutter with 45km to go. I was protected all the way and super stoked to finish off their hard work," said Teutenberg.

Teutenberg’s win and intermediate sprint points keep her firmly in the lead for general classification, 17 seconds ahead of Van Vleuten and 20 ahead of Johansson.

Tomorrow’s final stage is a city centre circuit race, 11 laps of a 7.2km loop that contains at least six sharp right-angle turns. The peloton will then have a break of a day, before the most important race of the week, Sunday’s Chongming Island round of the UCI World Cup.