Beaumont, CA - The Team Vera Bradley Foundation women demonstrated their strength on the hills of Banning and Beaumont today, helping Alison Powers win both of the Queen of the Mountains hot spots and taking the climber's jersey at Redlands. HTC-Columbia's Ina Teutenberg sprinted for the win over TIBCO's Brooke Miller and Webcor's Joelle Numainville. Teutenberg's victory, along with her intermediate time bonuses, moved her into second place on GC. Powers held onto 5th place overall, with Robin Farina still in 7th place.
Today's stage began with a 5.7 mile roll-out on the flat roads of Beaumont. The riders then turned towards the hills as they approached the Banning Bench climb. As they approached the first QOM, Powers moved towards the front. "No one was really going for the QOM, so I just went for it," Powers said. Powers took the points with Webcor's Katheryn Mattis taking 2nd. Intermediate sprints for time bonuses were contested fiercely, with Peanut Butter and Co/Twenty12 rider Coryn Rivera claiming the first sprint and Teutenberg taking second. After the sprint, there was a flurry of attacks, but no break would last, as the teams were content to finish in a bunch sprint. "We basically rode tempo during the race," said Farina. "We covered a lot of moves and tried to get a break going, but no one seemed willing to work hard." As the peloton approached the second QOM in Bogart Park, VBF's Kristin Sanders took charge and led Powers out to claim the top points. "Kristin did a great job for me today," said Powers. "The whole team did a great job!"
On the approach to the finish, the field was all together, with HTC-Columbia setting up their lead-out train for Teutenberg, who took the win by a wide margin over Miller and Numainville. Team Vera Bradley Foundation's Alison Testroete came in 7th. "Today was a great day for the team," commented team director, Lisa Hunt. There are no QOM sprints tomorrow, but there are time bonuses on the line. "It'll be a fun day tomorrow!"
Watch for race updates on the team's Twitter and Facebook pages.
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