Just a few short weeks after winning the overall classification at the Tour l'Aude, Swede Susanne Ljunskog headed to Spain where she came up with another big win for her Flexpoint team at the Emakumeen Bira. Ljunskog was able to hold onto a 25 second lead over reigning World Champion Marianne Vos - a lead she took in the opening team time trial and held through to the finish. "Last year I was second in both these races, but this year the balance swung in my favour,'' said Lunkskog after the race.
The former two-time World Champion credited her team with the win, saying, "I have to give thanks to them - you can't win this kind of race if you don't have a strong team at your side. For instance the team time trial that started the race - that gave me the margin that I ultimately was able to hold to the end."
