Columbia-Highroad’s Linda Villumsen and Ina-Yoko Teutenberg won their respective National Road Titles this weekend in Denmark and Germany. For Villumsen is it her sixth Danish title including three Time Trial Titles but for Teutenberg it was her first ever Senior Road Title, having won multiple National Titles as a Junior.

Villumsen was relieved the race was over and that she’d managed to live up to expectation.  “The pressure was on before the race because everybody was expecting me to win so I was really nervous,” she said. “On top of that, it was super slow which increased my nerves. Two riders went away early and took seven minutes on the field.  Then we did one lap super fast and brought back the break. Trine [Hansen] and I continued to push the pace to split the field because we knew that quite a few of the young ones are quite fast in the sprint. Trine attacked and I took the risk to let her go. I gave her 20 seconds and then I bridged across. We rode the last 20km together.”

“There were two climbs in the last 20 km. On the first climb I tested her legs and saw that she was suffering a little so we rode together until the last climb with one kilomtre to go and I attacked. It was a really long sprint.  It feels good to become Danish Champion again. It gives me confidence for the Giro coming up. It is one of my big goals to be good there.”

Teutenberg was also one of the favorites on the flat course but her Columbia-Highroad team of three was clearly outnumbered.  “It was a really exciting race,” said Teutenberg afterward.  “It was aggressive from kilometre zero. For me it was really exciting to see how much [teammates] Judith [Arndt] and Luise [Keller] really did and that we were outnumbered, but they were able keep it under control so that we could win this race.  It makes it even better.”

“It went fairly perfectly for us today. We were hoping we could make it but we knew the chances were not that high.  The race was extremely fast. Nuernberg attacked from the beginning and Judith and Luise covered everything. They were both also in a couple of good breaks but none of that stuck. At one point Lui was in a break with two others and it could have been good for her, but Nuernberg wasn’t happy with it and it eventually came back.”

Teutenberg, who this season has already racked up 18 wins, join Columbia-Highroad’s nine current national champions, adding,  “It’s exciting. I’ve never been road national champion so it’s great that I’ll be able to wear the jersey for the next year.”