Columbia-Highroad’s Ina-Yoko Teutenberg sprinted to win Ronde Van Gelderland in the Netherlands on Saturday. The win is Teutenberg’s 11th victory of the season.

In strong winds, the race split after only 20km on the narrow roads along the Dutch dikes. 13 riders made the front group including Teutenberg and her Dutch teammates Ellen Van Dijk and Chantal Beltman. The group remained away until attacks unsettled the group later in the day. With 40km remaining the front group had split into two with Beltman in the front group.

With 25km to go Columbia-Highroad had lost the advantage in the break and therefore started the chase from behind, bringing back the break with 10km remaining in the race. Teutenberg won the sprint from Rochelle Gilmore (Lotto Belisol) and Emma Johansson (Red Sun).

“It was kind of an adventurous race today,” explained Teutenberg. “It was tough all day in the wind but with two strong Dutchies in the team, we were okay with that.”

“We thought the break was really good, but the attacks in the break started too early which stopped the momentum. In the end things weren’t looking good anymore so we decided to bring it back. The team worked really hard to get it back and then put me on the right wheels for the sprint, so it worked out really well for us.”

Team Director Ronny Lauke was very happy with the result.

“The girls gave everything today,” he said. “When our first plan didn’t work they regrouped and went into plan B. They executed the chase perfectly and took Ina to the line.

“Unfortunately we also had a few crashes today. Ina, Ellen and Emilia [Fahlin} all had small crashes during the day with no consequences but Judith Arndt crashed in her first race back after recovering from a broken collar bone. She fell on her wrist and will need more testing tomorrow to see if it’s broken.”