Ster van Zeeland (V)

20-06-2009 19:49:34

The final stage of the RaboSter Tour in Holland saw Columbia-Highroad women’s team make a clean sweep of all top three places on the overall classification.

The three-day event was won for the second year running by Ina-Yoko Teutenberg, taking her eighteenth victory of the season. Second was Chantal Beltman, just three seconds behind, whilst prologue winner Linda Villumsen was third at 11 seconds.

Columbia-Highroad also finished first in the teams classification, whilst Teutenberg was top rider both in the intermediate sprints and the points competitions.

"It was a typically tough Dutch race, one where you have to be on the front all the time and watching out all the time," Teutenberg commented. "In the last stage it was all good. Chantal got in a break which was great, because she would have won the overall, so we didn’t need to chase. To be honest I would have preferred not to have won the intermediate sprints competition, because going for those sprints meant a lot of work during the stage, but I needed to go for them.

"It was tough going, very windy and some very late finishes as well, but I came through ok and managed to get the victory.”

"Taking all three podium places is a sign of how well all our team were working together," commented Columbia-Highroad’s sports director Petra Rossner. "For example, Chantal was in a four-rider break in the last ten kilometres, and even though Linda and  Ina knew their chances of overall victory would disappear if Chantal got a good gap, they were still cheering her on over the radio."

In the lead after Friday,  Teutenberg faced numerous attacks in the race’s final 134 kilometre stage starting and finishing in Westkapelle.

"It was not at all easy going, a long stage and with a lot of moves," Rossner said. "Finally we managed to get all three top places. It’s a really exceptional result."