Tough weather conditions couldn’t prevent First Endurance rider Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (Colombia) from sprinting to victory in stage four of the Ladies Tour of Holland.  At the end of the 85 kilometre stage from Dedemsvaart to Hardenberg, Teutenberg scorched to her second win – and Columbia’s third -  in four days.

“The weather was not pleasant  – very windy and heavy rain and the whole stage was pretty stressful as a result,” Teutenberg said later. “But fortunately I had no problems myself, no punctures or mechanicals and the poor weather conditions made winning feel even better when it happened.  The strong winds meant you had to calculate your strength quite carefully.”

“I got on somebody’s wheel with 75 metres to go, got past them quickly, then went for it. We’d been through the finish a couple of times when we doing some laps on a finishing circuit, and I knew it wasn’t too complicated. There was just one left-hand corner in the final kilometre, which was flat in any case, and then you were there.”

Teutenberg thanked the Columbia team for leading her out for her 20th win of the season “with no problems whatsoever, the whole squad worked perfectly for me. We’d been working hard throughout the stage,  moved up with five kilometres to go so no more breaks would go, and then it was up to me to do the rest.”

In what is proving a highly successful race for Columbia Teutenberg was the winner of stage one, team-mate Anke Wichmann took stage three and Teutenberg has now  added a second win to her total.  The Holland Ladies Tour’s last day of racing round Valkenberg is hilly, but Saturday’s stage, a circuit through the town of Boxtel, may also end in another bunch sprint.