Columbia-HTC’s Ina-Yoko Teutenberg saw off the opposition in Route De France’s stage one from Fontenay-le-Comte to Cholet on Monday to claim a convincing bunch sprint win.

“The last part was very technical, but at the finish [rival Diana] Ziliute started to accelerate very early and we got a good gap, that made a big difference,” Teutenberg said later.

“I got good support from the team throughout the stage and then they gave me a great lead-out, which all helped.”

Teutenberg said she had had an incident-free stage and build-up to the bunch sprint, even though Monday’s 108 kilometre ride through central France had not been  straightforward.

“The stage was tougher than it looked on the race profile. They always say it’s flat in this part of France, but in fact it’s constantly up and down.

“The hardest part of this year’s race are the last two stages, which are really hilly, and together with tomorrow’s [Tuesday’s]  time trial that’s where the overall will be decided.”

The Columbia-HTC sprint star said her stage win and third place in Sunday’s prologue showed that after a few weeks where she had not felt in such great shape, he condition was now improving.

“I had a bit of a flat period after the Giro d'Italia [in July] and things didn’t go as well as we would have liked in Sweden [in the Vargarda World Cup rounds], either.

 “But now I’ve got a stage win here in France and hopefully things will continue to get better from now on and I can start to build up for the rest of the season.”