Kirsten Wild (Cervélo Test Team) (Image credit: Gregor Brown)
Cervélo TestTeam's Kirsten Wild has won the five-stage Le Tour du Grand Montréal which finished on Thursday with the Mont-Saint-Hilaire Circuit Race. Wild, winner of three stages at this year's event, led general classification throughout the entire race and finished 46 seconds ahead of Germany's Trixi Worrack (Equipe Nürnberger Versicherung) with the American Lauren Tamayo (Team TIBCO) a further nine seconds back in third place. The Dutch Cervélo TestTeam rider also captured the event's sprints classification.
"This week was great," said Wild. "It was my first race after a break of a month without any races, so I'm very happy with my performance. But without all the super work of the team and the staff it would have been impossible to win here".
The 115-kilometre concluding stage was won by Germany's Hanka Kupfernagel (German National Team), the first time a rider outside of Cervélo TestTeam claimed a stage victory. Kupfernagel out-sprinted Martine Bras (Selle Italia Ghezzi) and teammate Denise Zuckermandel (German National Team) for stage honours on a stage dominated by Wild's team.
"The plan was control the race to win the Tour," said Cervélo TestTeam directeur sportif Manel Lacambra whose team has won each of the three stage races it' s competed in this year. "Today we spent the stage on the front of the peloton at a high speed to block the race. We had some attacks but the team always reacted very well and controlled the race.
"The final sprint was downhill and I said to the riders that after all the hard work all week, it would be better enjoy the overall victory and not take any risks in the final sprint for the stage and possibly crash. Today was also nice for our team because we had a rider from the men's team, Dominique Rollin, supporting the girls at the top of the climb."
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
