Trust House Women’s Cycling Tour of New Zealand 2007

WCN quicklink >>   Stage 6    Stage 6 Full   Stage 5   Stage 5 Full     Stage 4    Stage 4 Full   Stage 3    Stage 3 Full    Stage 2   Stage 2 Full    Stage 1   Stage 1 Full

                             Startlist Announced for Tour    Australians send 2 teams across the Tasman    Sarah Ulmer & NZ team sign up    

                             Cheerwine on the way   T-Mobile to Wellington     Flexpoint confirm

Previous coverage of the Tour of New Zealand in Wellington  >>  2010   2009    2008    2007    2006    2005  

On this page >>  Write-up      Comments     Results      General Classification     Photos

In-Yoko Teutenberg (T-Mobile) secured her second win of the tour with a resounding attack just after the half way point of the race. She increased her lead over a period of 15 laps to 39 seconds ahead of a small group of chasers that included Sarah Ulmer (Trust House–NZ), Loës Gunnewijk (Team Flexpoint) and Laura van Gilder (Cheerwine). 

Right from the start the pace was extremely high, set initially by AIS rider Nikki Egyed. The first lap was completed in 1 minute 17 seconds. It was not long however before the attacks started. By lap 4, a small group of 5 riders, led by Olympic Champion, Sara Carrigan (Australian National Team) and included Loës Markerink (Team Flexpoint), Teutenberg, van Gilder and Ulmer. This group managed to get a 6 second lead before the peloton brought them back. Almost immediately there was another attack from Madeline Sandig (Team Flexpoint) which was countered again by Teutenberg. On their tail though, were Ulmer and Olivia Gollan (Australian National) and Egyed.  

The first sprint points on offer went to Ulmer, who just managed to jump past Teutenberg on the line. The bunch came back together at this point, led by Team Flexpoint’s Loës Markerink. As soon at is had regrouped, Toni Bradshaw (Trust House- NZ) attacked, a small group of riders went with her, including race leader Arndt. They could not stay away, the bunch led by Amanda Spratt (AIS) reeled them in almost as quickly as they had got away. 

Linda Villumsen (T-Mobile) turned up the speed [in a repeat of the counterattack move she did in stage 4] and attacked in lap 16, three riders managed to go with her including Carrigan, Ulmer and Egyed. Charlotte Becker (German National Team) bridge the gap to the group, and the five managed to gain a 7 second gap before Susanne Ljungskog (Team Flexpoint) moved to the front of the chasing peloton and pulled them back in.  

T-Mobile attacked again, this time it was Australian Criterium Champion Alex Rhodes who created the gap. Carrigan did not let her go, though, and brought with her a small group. A lead group of 10 riders formed, including Egyed, Lorian Graham (Australian National Team), Michelle Hyland, Jo Kiesanowski, Rosaro Joseph (Trust House–NZ), Annette Beutler (Team Flexpoint), Arndt and Markerink.

Within one lap this group had splintered, in part by the speed of Rhodes, leaving Rhodes, Carrigan and Beutler with a small lead. They maintained a 9 second gap but were brought back by the efforts of the AIS rider, Jenny Macpherson.  

The race was becoming a race of attrition, the high speed maintained by the front caused a number of riders to drop back and ultimately get pulled by the officials before being lapped.

The winning move of the race was made on lap 30 when Teutenberg rapidly increased her speed and quickly gained space between her and the peloton. Three other riders broke away from the bunch to chase but they were unable to catch her, Ulmer, van Gilder and Gunnewijk tried hard to catch Teutenberg but could not match her speed.  

After two further sprint rounds, the remaining sprint competition points were shared between Teutenberg and Ulmer. Ulmer did enough to secure the overall sprinters jersey.

With 3 to go Teutenberg put in one of the fastest laps in a time of 1 minute 13 seconds and had a 34 second lead on the chasers and 54 seconds back to the main bunch. Teutenberg won the stage. In the chase for second and third, Ulmer won ahead of van Gilder. Macpherson led the bunch sprint across the line.

Judith Arndt (T-Mobile) won the overall Trust House Tour jersey and was gracious in support of the efforts of her team this week. “It has been a really good week for the team, I am very happy. There were large crowds here today in Wellington, I liked that.” 

Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (T-Mobile) powered her way to the finish today in an awesome display of riding. She joked with the commentators as she collected her prize. Apparently they had commentated that she wasn’t a time trial rider, after her performance in the morning stage finishing 2 minutes 50 seconds behind the leader. She told them, “I thought I would prove you wrong.” Chatting to WCN, she said of her break, “When you are away for 10 minutes of an hour race, I think I broke them mentally [referring to the bunch]. They didn’t get close because they didn’t ride steady. Once I had created the lead  it was pretty much holding on for dear life, you get motivated to hold them off, then its pure power.” Teutenberg reflected on her team tactics, “The other riders new that if they caught me, we would have something else up our sleeves. We have been pretty strong this week, but there have not been the depth of riders we will experience in Europe. We can’t leave here thinking we will dominate in Europe, we have seven victories already, so this is definitely good for the team motivation, it makes us work a little calmer when we get to Europe.”

Leigh Hobson (Cheerwine) won the mountains jersey after her performance on stage 4. “I am very happy with this win, today was really hard today, especially after yesterday. I was really tired this morning and today was anaerobic intervals for the whole race which were agony, you have to stay up there otherwise you lose stuff. Laura [van Gilder] rode a great race today; it worked out perfectly and got her on the podium. We are overwhelmed by our performance in our first year together as a team. It is a big surprise to come away as the leading team today.” 

Laura van Gilder (Cheerwine) worked hard today to protect her GC position and that of her team mate Hobson. Their performance and that of team mates Catherine Cheatley and Betina Hold, to finish in the top half, with Brooke Ourada and Rachel O’Donnell, secure the team prize for Cheerwine. This is seen as great result in the teams first year as a UCI professional team and van Gilder reflected on this. “Our goal was to protect Leigh [Hobson] today rather than the stage win, but the podium is a nice place for me to be, especially as Leigh will be there to receive the mountains jersey. We are really pleased with the team performance this week”

Sarah Ulmer (Trust House-NZ) won the sprint jersey and was pleased with her performance. “That was great, it was a great way to finish, the jersey was our team goal today, Marian [Duvnjak] was in the lead before the start but I was in the right position during the race to secure the points.”