June 2, 2004 – With solid help by her two remaining teammates, German Judith
Arndt (Nurnberger-Versicherung) managed to hold on to her yellow jersey and
win the final victory in the Tour of Greater Montreal in Terrebonne,
a Montreal suburb. Regina Schleicher (Safi-Pasta Zara Manhattan) won the
stage, outsprinting Norwegian Anita Valen (S.A.T.S.) and 20-year old Laura
Yoisten, of the Canadian Development team.
The 15 first finishers were credited with the same time – 2 hours,
1 minute and 8 seconds, for an average speed of 39.62 km/h.
Arndt won the overall with a slim five-second lead over Anita Valen, who
climbed
up from fourth to second spot, and a 10-second lead over third-place
Canadian Lyne Bessette (Quark). Fifth in the final stage, RONA’s Katrina
Grove finished the Tour in sixth place overall, 16 seconds behind Arndt.
Geneviève Jeanson and Erinne Willock, finished respectively 15th and 17th,
30 and 35 seconds down.
Genesis Scuba won the team general classification with a16 second margin
over Team RONA who were second.
The Terrebonne stage, raced on a 10-kilometre course, offered no serious
difficulty and always ends in a massive sprint. Arndt started this last
stage of the Tour with an 11-second lead over Dede Demet Barry and 12-second
over Lyne Bessette. With a possibility of 19 bonus seconds for any one
rider, between the intermediary sprints and the stage win, the race was far
from over.
Petra Rossner, Arndt’s teammate and one of the best sprinters in the world,
won the three intermediary sprints – and a total of nine bonus seconds – thus
minimizing the take for the contenders. It then behooved Arndt to prevent
any serious break to form. She had to chase down several attempts to
leave the pack. The race was not particularly aggressive, but a few riders
attacked several times. Among those who did were Erinne Willock and
Katheryn Curi (RONA), Amy Moore (Quark), Arantzazu Azpiroz (Spain) and Lyne
Bessette, who tried in vain to generate a break during the last 20
kilometres. But each time the pack prevented anything from materializing.
Regina Schleicher won the final sprint. “I knew I could win that, she said.
My teammate Diana (Ziliute) led me out from the last turn, shortly after the
200-metre mark. Then I passed Anita at the last moment.”
For her part, Arndt was as relieved and was happy. “We made it”, she
said, referring to her minimal team. I’m cooked in my head. Small gaps
like that are tough on the nerves. Anita was making up seconds in the
sprints, but my teammates were amazing.”
“We had plans to lead out Katrina (Grove) into the final sprint”, said RONA’
s Anna Milkowski. I came to the front with Erinne. But sprinting is not a
RONA specialty and I’m not really comfortable holding my position with a lot
of strong, aggressive riders. Somebody came in front of me, and then I was
not in the right position.”