Arndt Wins in Giro and Moves Closer to Overall Lead
Strong riding by Columbia-HTC's Judith Arndt and Mara Abbott saw Arndt take the team's third stage win of the race and move into second overall, whilst Abbott is now lying in third place on general classification.
Arndt and Abbott formed part of a five rider attack that went clear on the second major climb of stage six from Cerro al Volturno to Sant'Elena Sannita. Overnight race leader Emma Pooley lost contact on the descent, then over the next 40 kilometres of flatter terrain the four remaining breakaways opened up a gap of four minutes on the closest chasing group.
Arndt then won the final short uphill sprint, and is now at 12 seconds behind new race leader Claudia Hausler of Germany, with Abbott in third, 38 seconds behind.
"It's a close situation overall and anything could happen over the next three days," pointed out Columbia-HTC team director Ronny Lauke. "Two of the upcoming stages are really tough, whilst the third is flatter and shouldn't change much overall. But when the gaps are as small as this you never know."
"Today was a really big step forward for the team," Abbott commented. "The stage win was important because there are time bonuses, but the main objective was to open up a big gap overall and that's what we achieved."
"I finished fourth in the final sprint of four, but I wasn't worried. We'd agreed I'd work harder during the break so Judith could save her energy for the final sprint, and when the three came past me with about 500 metres to go I was happy to see them go!"
"We'd covered the attacks in the first part of the stage, then after the group of five formed Ronny told us to go for it on the descent because Pooley wasn't there. Afterwards it was very hard going, but it was exciting watching the lead gradually go up little by little, from 20 seconds to 25 to four minutes."
With two riders so close to the leader, Abbott says that Columbia-HTC "have two cards to play in the last few stages and that's an advantage."
"My form's getting stronger day by day, so that's good, too. It's certainly a great race!"
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