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Home » Top Stories » Road » Tour of Flanders

Teutenberg takes women's Flanders

By VeloNews.com
Published: Apr. 5, 2009

Ina Teutenberg (Columbia-Highroad) sprinted to victory in the sixth women's Tour of Flanders, held over the cobblestones in the heart of Flanders from Oudenaarde to Ninove.

Coming across the line second in the second round of the women’s World Cup series was Kirsten Wild (Cervélo TestTeam) with Emma Johansson (Red Sun) rounding out the podium in third.

“I never thought I could win this because it’s a pretty hard race, but I got over the (key climb of) the Geraardsbergen in a group with (rival) Kristin Armstrong, and I thought maybe it was going to come back together,” Teutenberg said in a team communique. “It was a perfect scenario for me and so I tried to take advantage and enjoy it.”

Marianne Vos was on the attack, but was caught with less than 5km to go to set up a reduced bunch sprint. Reigning world and Olympic champion Nicole Cooke (Vision 1) crossed the line fourth.

The victory is Teutenberg’s ninth victory of the season, and the 14th by the Columbia-Highroad women’s team in 2009.

Teutenberg added, “When (teammate) Mark Cavendish won Milan-San Remo, I joked with him about taking up the challenge and winning a monument as well. Now I’ve done it, so now we’re even.”

For Columbia-Highroad, Teutenberg’s win was the team’s second consecutive victory in the Tour of Flanders, following Judith Arndt’s first place in 2008.