Arndt wins a third stage for High Rad at l'Aude

Photo: courtesy
T-Mobile Women

Photo: courtesy
T-Mobile Women

High Road’s Judith Arndt outsprinted the breakaway group of four on Sunday to take victory in the final stage of Tour de l’Aude.  The win was the final touch on a successful tour for Arndt and High Road with Arndt taking second place overall and winning the mountain classification and the team taking three stage wins and claiming the yellow jersey early on after a strong Team Time Trial.

“I think we should be happy about the tour,” said Arndt. “It was a very tactical race. We were not the strongest team for the mountains and we had some bad luck with Luise [Keller] crashing early in the week, but overall we did well.”

The final stage consisted of a two difficult climbs early in the race. Trixi Worrack went on the offensive with the aim of gaining back her third place in the overall classification after losing it in stage 7. Her attack on the second climb of the day split the field and led to the break of four which included Arndt, Worrack, Nicole Cook and race leader Susanne Ljungskog.

“Trixi drove the break for 40km as she was the one who had the most to gain,” explained Arndt. “ I didn’t really want to work because we had Ljunskog in the group who was a danger for Ina’s [Teutenberg] Points Jersey.”

It came down to a sprint between the four riders with Arndt taking the win from Cooke and Ljungskog. Ljungskog’s ride ensured her the overall win off the Tour.

“It was a little disappointing after the race as Cooke protested the sprint and that doesn’t feel good,” explained Arndt. “But I’m happy with our overall tour.”

Team director Ronny Lauke was pleased with the results of his first European Stage race for Team High Road. “We said before the race that we wanted to improve on last year’s performance in the overall. We almost did that,” he said smiling. “We won three stages, second in the overall and the we won the mountains jersey. I’m happy it worked out like it did.”

After a couple of days rest, the team heads to Montreal for the next round of the Women’s World Cup. Arndt currently leads the series from Marianne Vos.


Misschien ook interessant: