Teutenberg Takes Third Philly Victory with Fast Field Sprint
PHILADELPHIA, PA – In a turn of the table, the women racing in the 16th annual Liberty Classic passed the men racing the TD Bank Philadelphia International Championship, showing just how fast and hard the women were racing their four laps of the grueling course up the Manayunk Wall. But in the end, it was a similar story with a large field sprint, easily won by Germany’s Ina-Yoko Teutenberg of Team Columbia-Highroad.
“The main thing was to keep it fast so that nobody could attack,” Teutenberg said about the race strategy. “Allison Powers (Team Type 1) went for solo attack because she doesn’t have a sprint, which was great for me — I caught her and then kept going. It was perfect teamwork — my girls were like motorbikes in front of me for the last 15 kilometers!”
In the field sprint, Teutenberg had a significant gap on the rest of the sprinters, enough to sit up and put her arms in the air to celebrate the win, her third here in Philadelphia.
Coming in second was Joanne Kiesenowski (Team TIBCO). “Columbia really had it strung out on the climbs,” she said. “I was waiting for my team to come back but they didn’t, so it was up to me to pull a result for the team. I was able to find Ina’s wheel coming up to the sprint, but she is too strong to come around.”
Kiesanowski said that while the speed was high, the course always makes this race difficult. “This is always a hard race. But it was so much fun on Manayunk, especially on the last lap. There were so many people out there cheering us on.”
Finishing third was Shelley Olds (PROMAN Hit Squad).
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