June 1/06 10:56 am - Tour du Grand Montréal: Stage 4 & Final GC

Posted by Editoress on 06/1/06
 

Tour du Grand Montréal

Final Stage Goes To Judith Arndt While Christine Thorburn Wins The Tour

Thanks to the unflagging effort made by Christine Thorburn and her Webcor-Platinum teammates, the American was able to remain cumulative ranking leader and win the Tour cycliste du Grand Montréal.

Thorburn finished fifth in the Mont Saint-Hilaire road stage today with Judith Arndt of Germany winning the 115 km race in 2 hours 58 minutes 57 seconds. Over 50 km into the race, Thorburn went on a ceaseless chase to catch up to American Kristin Armstrong (Lipton) (only 12 seconds behind the all-around ranking leader) and seven other racers in a breakaway that had an over 1 minute lead on her. The long range breakaway threatened to propel Armstrong to first place and Olivia Gollan (Nobili) of Australia to second place in the final all-around ranking.

With only 20 km left, Erinne Willock (Webcor-Platinum) slipped from the breakaway group to help Thorburn and teammates Felicia Gomez, Betina Hold and Katheryn Curi. With the pack reforming with 15 km to spare, Trixi Worrack's team Nurberger, second in cumulative ranking, tried to control the pack's head in order to avoid any breakaways before the finish line. Katie Mactier pulled ahead 9 seconds, but without success.

T-Mobile was able to place Judith Arndt in a good position to negotiate the final sprint while Trixi Worrack of Germany and Sigrid Corneo (Nobili) of Italy finished second and third place, respectively, 1 second behind her.

Trixi Worrack finished second in all-around ranking while Judith Arndt jumped from fifth to third position, thanks to her performance in Mont Saint-Hilaire.

The final stage was also worthwhile for Judith Arndt, who managed to take the point ranking jersey from Olivia Gollan (Nobili) and the best sprinter jersey from Trixi Worrack. Annette Beutler (Helk Haus) kept her best climber jersey until the end while Anne Samplonius ended the tour wearing the best Quebecer jersey despite a fall in the last kilometre of the race. T-Mobile wins the team ranking, followed by Lipton and Webcor-Platinum.