Double day for Swedish champion as break takes five minutes on hilly stage
Emma Johansson (Hitec Products-UCK) won the second stage of the Thüringen-Rundfahrt, the Rund um Greiz, as she outsprinted the rest of a nine-woman breakaway. The Swedish champion beat Vicki Whitelaw (Australian National Team) into second place, and Amy Pieters (Skil-Koga) into third at the end of the 105.5km stage.
The original break was made up of thirteen riders, which got away after around 25km. The group consisted of: Johansson, Whitelaw and Shara Gillow (both Australian National Team), Pieters, Linda Villumsen and Trixi Worrack (both AA Drink-Leontien.nl), Judith Arndt and Amber Neben (both HTC-Highroad) Noemi Cantele and Emma Pooley (both Garmin-Cervélo), Claudia Häusler (German National Team), Fabiana Luperini (MCipollini-Giambenini) and Sylwia Kapusta (Gauss).
With virtually all of the strong teams in the race represented the group steadily increased its lead over the peloton. When they were 2’20” clear though, after around 70km, Arndt, Pooley, Worrack and Kapusta were dropped and rejoined the peloton.
The remaining nine riders continued to build their lead, which was up to 2’38” as Johansson led them over the finish line to start the 27km local circuit.
With 15km to go, and the lead group’s advantage at 4’30” the Russian National Team duo of Svetlana Bubnenkova Natalia Boyarskaya attacked the peloton in pursuit. They began to close the gap on the leaders, but had left it too late, and Johansson comfortably outsprinted the rest at the finish.
Bubnenkova led Boyarskaya over the line 1’34” behind the nine-rider group, with Lisa Brennauer (Hitec Products-UCK) winning the peloton sprint some 5’52” back.
With stage one winner Ina Teutenberg (HTC-Highroad) finishing in the peloton Johansson takes over the yellow jersey. She leads Teutenberg’s teammate Neben by seven seconds, thanks to a total of 14 seconds picked up in the two intermediate sprints and on the finish line.
Result stage 2
1. Emma Johansson (Swe) Hitec Products-UCK
2. Vicki Whitelaw (Aus) Australian National Team
3. Amy Pieters (Ned) Skil-Koga
4. Shara Gillow (Aus) Australian National Team
5. Claudia Häusler (Ger) German National Team
6. Linda Villumsen (NZl) AA Drink-Leontien.nl
7. Amber Neben (USA) HTC-Highroad
8. Fabiana Luperini (Ita) MCipollini-Giambenini
9. Noemi Cantele (Ita) Garmin-Cervélo
10. Svetlana Bubnenkova (Rus) Russian National Team @ 1’34”
Standings after stage 2
1. Emma Johansson (Swe) Hitec Products-UCK
2. Amber Neben (USA) HTC-Highroad @ 7s
3. Amy Pieters (Ned) Skil-Koga @ 13s
4. Noemi Cantele (Ita) Garmin-Cervélo @ 14s
5. Vicki Whitelaw (Aus) Australian National Team