Columbia’s Judith Arndt tightened her grip on the overall lead of the Giro della Toscana - Memorial Michela Fanini after taking a fine win in Saturday’s mountainous stage.

Following a break-neck descent from the final climb of the day, Arndt outsprinted two other riders for Columbia’s fifth stage win of the race. Arndt said afterwards that knowing the climb and the finish in the town of Capannori from previous years racing had been a huge advantage.

“I won here last year on the same finish, so I was aware of what was coming up.” Arndt pointed out.

“I could do the last sprint exactly the way I wanted.”

“There was a corner with 300 metres to go and I knew I had to be the first rider to reach it. If I was leading there, I would win the stage.”
Earlier on, Columbia had worked hard to set Arndt up to break away  after pulling back a dangerous break.

“The move had 12 riders in it, including [team-mate Emilia Fahlin] and went from very early, maybe five kilometres after the race had started.”

“Then after we’d pulled that back, there was a five kilometre climb and lots of attacks started going. [Rival]] Trixi Worrack made a move, and I went after her with another rider.”

“Worrack had 11 seconds at the summit and there was only 10 kilometres from there to the finish.”

“But we did a great descent, finally we caught Worrack and I could win the sprint.”

Arndt said she was particularly pleased to win because “my team-mates had worked so hard to pull back that break.”

“I had felt bad that after all their work Worrack had dropped me on the climb.”
Just one stage remains, a 106 kilometre leg from Quarrata to Firenze, but Arndt is cautious about her chances of winning overall.

“I known must look simple because we’ve won so much in this race, but it’s never easy. There will be lots of attacks and we will have to be very careful.”