Claudia H?usler came in second narrowly losing out to Judith Arndt (Columbia-Highroad) who also took the overall GC win of Emakumeen Bira. Mara Abbott (Columbia-Highroad) was third.
"The team had another very strong day today," said Sports Director Manel Lacambra. "Emilie Aubry was in the first break and while that was going in we brought Katharina Alberti to the front to increase the speed. We did the same in the climbs with Patricia Schwager who gave it full gas, making it very hard for the other teams. In the last climb Patricia started the climb with full speed and then Ryan attacked. During the climb Claudia made a counter attack and was in the lead with Mara Abbott (Columbia High Road). At the top Claudia and Abbott had 15 seconds on Judith Arndt and Nicole Cooke. Arndt closed the gap on the downhill, which was quite dangerous, leaving three 3 riders in the lead as the stage headed into the last 3 km. Arndt won the trio sprint in front of Claudia and Abbott was third. Claudia finished second in the GC."
"Today was quite a hard day as all the girls were already pretty tired from the past couple of days, especially after yesterday’s double stage. But despite that, the teamwork was very strong," said Claudia H?usler. "On the last mountain I attacked together with Mara Abbott and at the top I had a gap on Judith Arndt but in the descent she came back. I tried to go for it in the sprint but in the last meters Judith past me. But my goal today was to move up in the GC, so I gave full gas all the time and I kept my eye on Judith. I think that second place is the best that I can do. After the Tour de l’Aude I had a small break and this was my first race after the break and a good start to work to my big goal, the Giro d’Italia where I hope to have my best performance of the year."
Lieselot Decroix crashed in a corner at the beginning of the race and was taken to hospital to be looked at. She was subsequantly released after being examined and should be okay.
Stage 4 Results:
1st Judith Arndt 3:30:52 35.00 km/h
2nd Claudia H?usler s.t.
3rd Mara Abbott +0.03
4th Nicole Cooke +0.46
5th Christelle Ferrier +1.01
General Classification after Stage 4:
1st Judith Arndt 10:27:00 34.85 km/h
2nd Claudia H?usler +0.17
3rd Mara Abbott +0.28
Website: Cerv?lo TestTeam
