Linda Villumsen took a close but convincing win for Columbia-Highroad in the 3.9-kilometre prologue of Tour de L’Aude on Friday.  On a day where strong winds made racing difficult, Villumsen finished just fractions of a second ahead of Regina Bruins of Holland.

The third last rider to start, Villumsen did not have a long wait before she knew she was both the stage winner and the first leader of the 2009 Tour de L’Aude. “I only knew I’d gotten the best time when I saw a couple of race officials chasing after me when I’d crossed the finish line,” Villumsen recounted.  “I was quite surprised they told me I was the fastest, because I’d wanted to do well but I’ve only ever won one prologue before.  Normally I always seemed to finish somewhere in the top five without ever winning, so I  told the race officials to check their times again.  But when they insisted, I had to believe them!”

The reigning Danish national time trial champion, Villumsen said that although flat, the 3.9-kilometre course that opened up the 10-day Tour de L’Aude was never straightforward.  “The course was very short and partly held on city roads and partly out in the countryside.  The strong winds made it very technical.  The first part was a headwind, then it turned into a tailwind. It was tricky.  Fortunately we’d gone over the course a couple of times in the morning so we knew what to expect.  Then when each of my teammates came in from the course they were very upbeat about all our chances. We supported each other a lot.  In any case, on a course as short as that, you go out and give it everything. No real tactics are possible.”

Coming on the same day that Edvald Boasson Hagen stormed to victory in the Giro d’Italia’s stage seven, Villumsen’s second win of the season gave Columbia-Highroad two reasons to celebrate on Friday.  “I’ll obviously try and defend the jersey for as long as possible, and it’s good because Columbia-Highroad has more options for the general classification than just me. To start with, Ina [Teutenberg] finished fifth in the prologue. But really we’ll have to wait and see until after the team time trial on Sunday. Then we’ll have a much better idea of what we can do overall. This is a very tough race and it’s only just begun.”