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Thüringen Rundfahrt, 2009

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Linda Villumsen (Team Columbia HTC) followed a break created by Sarah Duster (Cervelo Test Team) then broke away from the chasing bunch after the final climb and quickly gained momentum on the chasing group. She held almost 2 minutes on the bunch with 10km to go and held it to the line. A lone chase from Sarah Duster (Cervelo Test Team) clinched second ahead of a bunch sprint for third won by Eva Lechner (Gauss RDZ Ormu-Colnago)

The day started off in terrible weather. The rain that has daunted the Thüringen race for many years came back again for stage 3. The bunch rolled together until just before the first climb when Villumsen tried to attack but she was quickly brought back to the bunch. At the first climb at Ruppersdorf the group were together. It was the Mountain leader Tina Liebig (DSB Bank) who was first to the top ahead of Virginia Hennig (German National Team) and Petra Dijkman (Red Sun Cycling Team). The peloton regrouped and fought out the sprint at Leutenberg at 39.1km completed.

Today marked a special day for the race, as it completed 10000 km’s in the history of cycling racing in the Thüringen region. To mark the occasion, the sponsor Sparkasse Altenburger Land gave the first rider to pass the 10000km in Hockenroda, Monica Holler (Bigla) 10000 cents. This prize was also awarded to the last rider across the point Nathalie Lamborelle (Team Uniqa-ELK).

At the sprint at Leutenberg, Marianne Vos (DSB Bank) secured an additional 3 points in the sprint classification ahead of Martine Bras and her team mate in yellow Luisa Tamanini (Selle Italia Ghezzi).

At the second climb at Kamsdorf, Liebig was the first over again, followed by Eva Lutz (Equipe Nürnberger Versicherung), Emma Johansson (Red Sun Cycling) and Duster. Again the peloton regrouped on the decent. However the conditions had taken their toll on the peloton and it was considerably splintered into groups.

The final climb to Hutten was the decisive point in the race. Liebig led Villumsen and Irene van den Broek over the climb and on the decent Duster attacked. Duster quickly gained a 9 second advantage when Villumsen took off after her. Then the Danish counter attacked and took off in heavy rainfall during the final hour's racing. The pace of the race splintered the bunch further and from Possneck to the first passage of the finish line, Villumsen increased her lead. At 8 km to go her lead was 2 minutes. Duster sprinted away from the chasing group and managed to quickly gain space. She could not catch Villumsen who used her considerable Time Trailing experience to take her to the line.

Duster cross 1 minute 22 seconds behind and the first of the splintered bunches crossed the line led by Eva Lechner (Gauss RDZ Ormu-Colnago) 1 minute 36 seconds back. Race leader, Tamanini, experienced a mechanical in the final 5km and rolled in 3 minutes 42 seconds back.

Vos remains in the U23 and sprinters jerseys, Liebig in the Mountain jersey. Villumsen was awarded the Most Aggressive jersey.

Linda Villumsen (Columbia HTC) took off in a courageous solo attack that earned her both the stage win and the lead, "Wow" said Villumsen as she came to a stop after the finish line. Villumsen said of being in yellow, “It feels good. We worked hard as a team today like other days but today this makes it very special.” Asked if she thought that she would be able to stay away, she said an emphatic “No, it was super hard today and there were so many climbs.”

Petra Rossner (Director Columbia HTC) was all smiles after the race, "Linda did brilliantly.  The bunch caught up with her once, but she just broke away again and kept going right to the finish," said Rossner.  "She first went about 35 kilometres from the line, and that didn't work out.  After that, she managed to go clear and had an advantage of about 24 seconds for quite some time.  Then the gap suddenly lifted to 40 seconds and we realised she could move into the overall lead as well.  The situation was very good for us because we had Kim [Anderson] and Luise [Keller] in the chase group behind. That made the other teams hesitate.  So we kept on yelling 'go,go,go' to Linda form the team car and she finally made it to the finish line alone." 

Rossner said later that Villumsen's victory was particularly pleasing because the team had been in the thick of the action for the first two days races, but had not taken any wins. "We've been in the breaks, looking for success, and it hadn't worked out.  So we had a team meeting this morning and decided we'd continue attacking regardless."  Rossner said Villumsen's first challenge as race leader will come on Friday, with a 23-kilometre time trial in Treibes. "First she has to recover from today's big effort, and then we'll see what happens. But in any case, this was an amazing victory."

Sarah Duster (Cervelo Test Team) initiated the break and then managed to counter attack to gain second on the stage and overall. “At the moment I went, I thought that everyone would go with me because I always have someone on my wheel. I looked back and I was alone, so I thought ok now it’s a time trial. On the decent into the town I knew I had second. I was happy,” said Duster. “The stage was really difficult today because of the rain and the wind made it even harder. The whole time was up and down, up and down. It was hard from the start. Tomorrow will be tough too, with the big climb. It isn’t like a normal time trial, I will try my best” added Duster.

Eva Lechner (Gauss RDZ Ormu-Colnago) was very happy with her third place, “I am so happy. I did not believe that I would be up towards the front on this stage. The last 500m was really fast and difficult but I managed to find a way through on the right, so I am very happy,” said Lechner.

Marianne Vos (DSB Bank) stayed in the sprinters and young riders jerseys after the tough stage. “We tried so hard to stay in a good position for the yellow. It was a difficult day. Linda [Villumsen] was just too good today. It wasn’t a good day today but I have managed to stay in the sprinters and young riders jerseys. Tomorrow is the tough time trial so we will see what happens,” said Vos.

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