Ina-Yoko Teutenberg sprinted out of a six person break on Sunday to win her eighteenth career stage of Tour de l’Aude and her third win at the 2009 race but dedicated her win purely to the work of teammate Chantal Beltman.

“Without Chantal in the break with me today I would not have survived,” Teutenberg explained. “ She worked hard all day in the group and at the end she rode the last five kilometers from the front covering all the attacks.”

A break of three that consisted of Beltman, Teutenberg and  Loes Gunnewijk (Flexpoint) escaped only 8km into the race and was joined 12km later joined by Emma Johansson (Red Sun) and two Bigla riders Noeme Cantale and Modesta Vzesniauskaite(Bigla). The group of six worked well together fighting against the chasing Cervelo team over five climbs and rolling terrain to finish with only 15 seconds to spare.

“The group worked really well together,” said Teutenberg, “then over the final climb Bigla started attacking, which was when Chantal had to work really hard to keep the break together. She did the perfect job and delivered me to the line for the sprint.”

“I’m totally exhausted. The course was really tough [with five categorized climbs] and it was really hot. Even after drinking about six litres of water today I feel dehydrated, but it’s nice to finish Tour de l’Aude with a win.

Team director Ronny Lauke was also pleased with the outcome. “We won the prologue with Linda (Villumsen) and two sprint stages with Ina,” he explained. “Then the rest of the week our plan was to attack and go for stage wins. I think Ina was definitely the most aggressive rider of the race. She was in a break nearly every day. Today it finally worked today and with the help of Chantal she was able to take her 16th win of the season.”

The women’s team now heads to Montreal for the next round of the Women’s World Cup.