June 11/10 14:25 pm - Iurreta-Emakumeen Bira: Stage 2

Posted by Editoress on 06/11/10
 

HTC-Columbia's Judith Arndt has taken her first win of the 2010 season in stage two of the Bira race in Spain on Friday, a  victory which has catapulted the German into second place overall.  Arndt's victory is the twentieth win for the HTC-Columbia women's team this season.

Arndt broke away with Claudia Haussler of the Cervélo squad on the second last climb of a very tough 112 kilometre stage, then outsprinted her rival at the finish.

Arndt was the overall winner of the Bira stage race in 2009.

"This is a really important win for Judith on a lot of levels because she had a really difficult 2009 season with a lot of setbacks and injuries," commented HTC-Columbia team manager Ronny Lauke.  "But she got second in a World Cup race in Spain recently, and that was a sign that her form was on the way up again.  It wasn't an easy win. Today's stage was very difficult, with five classified climbs and narrow, twisting roads, and most of the day it rained, too.  But she got away with Haussler on that climb and they stayed away to the finish with over 90 seconds on the chasing group."

Saturday's stage has two sectors, the first a short but difficult uphill time trial which Lauke says could be decisive for the race.  "With Judith clearly in good shape, we can be optimistic about it. But whatever happens, today's win is a great moment for her and for the team."

HTC-Columbia press release

Claudia Häusler’s (GER) second place finish in today’s second stage at Emakumeen Bira puts her into the yellow jersey. The 93km stage around Lekeitio saw a late stage break with Häusler and Judith Arndt (GER-HTC Columbia Women). Arndt won the stage as the two finished almost two minutes up on the rest of the peloton. Emma Johansson (SWE-Red Sun Cycling) captured third position.

“It was a very hard stage today, right from the beginning, besides the fact that the stage started very late, which is another story altogether. Right from the start it was Marianne Vos (NED) from Nederland Bloeit who set a very, very hard pace, though after 50km she was chased back to the bunch,” explained Egon van Kessel, Sports Director. “Then there was a leading group of 10 riders including our Claudia Häusler. Then, because we had some crashes, we ended up with only one of our riders in the lead. Despite this, we still had a good race because we had three other riders in the second group, and with them we managed to put a lot of pressure on Vos’ team who now had three in the lead group of ten.

“Finally in the last long climb, Claudia Häusler together with Judith Arndt (GER) attacked and they had a gap of two minutes at the end. Though Arndt won the stage Claudia now wears the yellow jersey. So we are in a good position going into the time trail tomorrow. If we can win the time trial with Claudia, then we can also win the overall. I must say we were not so lucky today with 3 crashes and I hope the riders can recover before tomorrow. In the morning we have the time trial and in the afternoon a normal road stage.”

Cervelo Test Team press release