GP of Wales World Cup wrap

Arndt takes points for Wood

By Kristy Scrymgeour

Judith Arndt (Nürnberger), donning the rainbow jersey of World Champion, led her team to victory in Wales today, the first World Cup series race to hit British shores. Riding primarily to help her teammate Oenone Wood maintain the series lead, Arndt's win took possible points away from Suzanne Ljungskog (Buitenpoort - Flexpoint), preventing her from taking back the lead.

On a course obviously designed for hometown hero Nicole Cooke, who prefers tough steep climbs, it was ironic that Cooke couldn't start today due to an ongoing knee injury. Organizers did a good job in making the course tough however, described by Olivia Gollan of Nürnberger as "bloody hard." The 114km incorporated three laps of 38 km each. Within each lap was a very hard 4.5km climb at Wentwood followed b a steep, fast descent, and another climb to the finish of over 1km. The final climb was extremely steep, climbing 500m to start with before dropping slightly and climbing again before flattening out with 300m to the finish.

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