T-Mobile's battle of the sexes

By Susan Westemeyer

The women are winning the battle of the sexes at Team T-Mobile. The combined teams have victories in 30 UCI ranked races so far this season, with 18 of those going to the women's team. The women also have eight wins in non-UCI ranked races.

The trend continued last week in North America. In Le Tour du Grand Montréal Judith Arndt won one stage and Oenone Wood won two stages, giving herself the overall Tour win. Down in Pennsylvania at the Philadelphia Triple Crown, Ina-Yoko Teutenberg achieved a hat-trick and won all three races in Reading, Lancaster and Philadelphia. She was the first woman to pull off such a hat-trick. By contrast, T-Mobile's Bernhard Eisel won the first two races in the series (Lancaster and Reading) but he finished only third in the finale in Philadelphia.

Four individual riders have won 17 of the 18 UCI ranked races for the women's team, with one being the victory in the Tour de l'Aude team time trial. Arndt has the most wins with seven. For the men, the 12 wins are divided between five riders, with British sprinter Mark Cavendish outpacing his teammates with five wins.