Columbia-Highroad sprinter Ina-Yoko Teutenberg  scorched to her thirteen victory of the season in stage one of the Tour de L’Aude on Saturday.

Following Linda Villumsen’s victory in the prologue, Teutenberg’s win was Columbia-Highroad’s second in two days in the top French stage race.

Now in the overall lead, Teutenberg also holds the all-time record for stage victories in the Tour de L’Aude -  a total of 16, with the first taken back in the race in 1997. But although she was first across the line on Saturday, the German sprinter paid tribute to all of  the Columbia-Highroad squad in her record-breaking sixteenth win.

“It was a real team effort today,  in the last 40 kilometres all the riders had to work very hard to pull back a break,” Teutenberg said afterwards. “It was a flat stage, but only in comparison to the rest of the stages of the Tour de L’Aude -  this whole race is always hilly.”

“It worked out perfectly. We caught the break with four kilometres to go and then Chantal Beltman led me up to 500 metres to the finish, I followed wheels and took off from there. I knew the finish from other years, this is a stage they have had lots of times in the Tour de L’Aude, so that was an advantage, too.”

Now in the lead overall, Teutenberg said Columbia-Highroad would make every effort to defend her yellow jersey in Sunday’s 27 kilometre team time trial, but that it could be difficult.

“We made a decision before the stage, and result was that half the squad essentially did a team time trial today chasing down the breakaway. But we’ve held the jersey for two days and taken two stages. From now on we could go for more stage victories. I’m sure Luise [Keller] and Linda [Villumsen] will do as well as they can overall, but basically from here on, whatever happens we’ve got nothing to lose.”

In a highly successful weekend’s racing for Columbia-Highroad, the American team has now netted  a total four wins in the space of two days - two in the men’s Giro d’Italia thanks to Edvald Boasson Hagen and Konstantin Sivtsov, and two in the Tour de l’Aude thanks to Villumsen and Teutenberg.