Ina Teutenberg (Specialized-lululemon) took her second victory in two days as she won the Rund um Schleiz, the second stage of the Thüringen-Rundfahrt. The former German champion was once again the fastest to the line at the end of the 103km stage, ahead of race leader, Swedish champion Emma Johansson (Hitec Products-Mistral Home), with current German champion Judith Arndt (Orica-GreenEdge) third.
Time bonuses on the finish line, and at intermediate sprints on the course meant that defending champion Johansson slightly increased her overall lead, with Arndt moving into second place.
"We had the perfect situation," said Teutenberg. "Three of us up the road forcing Green Edge to chase. Clara and I were able to sit on the chase and wait for the finish. Our group caught the break shortly before the finish and the girls put me in position for the sprint.
"It wasn't all that fast today at the beginning but it was hard again because of the wind and the persistent hills. The sprint was a little scary too but it worked out well. Adrie [Visser (Skil-Argos)] went flying into the corner and I had to back off but I managed a good line around the corner and got a gap."
With a strong wind blowing at the beginning of the stage, Johansson’s Hitec Products-Mistral Home team kept control of the peloton for the first half of the stage. After 44.6km the first mountain sprint was taken by Valentina Carretta (MCipollini-Giambenini) ahead of Claudia Häusler (Orica-GreenEdge) and Petra Dijkman (Kleo Ladies), which gave Häusler the lead in the classification ahead of prologue winner Hanka Kupfernagel (RusVelo).
Shortly afterwards, Lizzie Armitstead (AA Drink-Leontien.nl) beat Johansson and Kupfernagel to the line in the first intermediate sprint of the day, which saw the Swedish champion move further ahead in the general classification. The peloton had broken up on the climb, and for the sprint, but reformed again and was together at the 50km point.
At that point though Liesbet De Vocht (Rabobank) attacked, and the Belgian time trial champion managed to open up a lead of 1’25” over the Hitec Products-Mistral Home led peloton, putting her into the virtual lead overall. De Vocht took first place over the next climb, and the next sprint - ahead of Häusler and Kupfernagel respectively - but she was steadily closed down by the peloton and was caught with 11km to go.
Häusler took the final climb, securing her mountains jersey lead, and the Specialized-lululemon and AA Drink-Leontien.nl teams began to increase the pace shortly afterwards. The two teams managed to force a group clear, but this was caught by a chase group, leaving just 23 riders coming into the finish together, and Teutenberg was the fastest once again.
Result stage 2
1. Ina Teutenberg (Ger) Specialized-lululemon
2. Emma Johansson (Swe) Hitec Products-Mistral Home
3. Judith Arndt (Ger) Orica-GreenEdge
4. Elizabeth Armitstead (GBr) AA Drink-Leontien.nl
5. Adrie Visser (Ned) Skil-Argos
6. Malgorzta Jasinska (Pol) MCipollini-Giambenini @ 2s
7. Martine Bras (Ned) Dolmans-Boels
8. Joelle Numainville (Can) Canadian National Team
9. Trixi Worrack (Ger) Specialized-lululemon
10. Olga Zabelinskaya (Rus) RusVelo
Standings after stage 2
1. Emma Johansson (Swe) Hitec Products-Mistral Home
2. Judith Arndt (Ger) Orica-GreenEdge @ 5s
3. Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (Ger) Specialized-lululemon) @ 7s
4. Elizabeth Armitstead (GBr) AA Drink-Leontien.nl @ 9s
5. Hanka Kupfernagel (Ger) RusVelo @ 12s
6. Trixi Worrack (Ger) Specialized Lululemon @ 21s
7. Adrie Visser (Ned) Skil-Argos @ 24s
8. Claudia Häusler (Ger) Orica-GreenEdge @ 34s
9. Olga Zabelinskaya (Rus) RusVelo @ 41s
10. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Hitec Products-Mistral Home