06-07-2008 21:46:11

Ina-Yoko Teutenberg won the first race for Team Columbia today taking out the bunch sprint in Stage One of the Giro d'Italia Femminile. The win moves her into the Maglia Rosa going into the second stage.

"It's great to take a win on the second day in our new colours," said Team Director Ronny Lauke. "We had great success as Team High Road and we hope to continue that success as Team Columbia."

After placing eighth in the 1.2km prologue yesterday and only one second behind race winner Mirjam Melchers, Teutenberg was able to take the time bonus sprints awarded to the first stage and move into the overall race lead. She now leads the general classification by three seconds to Kirsten Wild.

"I'm happy," exclained Teutenberg after the race. "It was a little bit of a boring race actually. It was pretty slow because of the heat and the headwind so people didn'tt want to waste themselves on the first day.

"The last 10km was pretty sketchy and I'm happy I actually made it in good position to take the win. I had to come from a fair way back on the finishing straight.

"It's pretty cool to wear pink tomorrow," she added. "I've never had the maglia rosa before and having a start like this into the giro is great."