Cervelo and Tibco share Tour de l'Aude success

May 16th, 10. Cervelo TestTeam won Stage 2 of the Tour de l'Aude today when 21 year old Lizzie Armitstead won the sprint ahead of her breakaway companions but it was Tibco who were in control.

Lizzie Armitstead won Stage 2 ©Cervelo TestTeam

In today's 117 km Stage 2, the first road race of the ten stage tour, a group of nine riders broke free from the peloton after 26km.

US based Team Tibco was the only team to have more than one rider in the break, just as they had planned. 

"We planned to race aggressively today," said Miller.  "With all the wind we thought it would be the perfect opportunity for a break and Emma [Mackie] had a perfect attack to set up the winning break."

"Although we had not been initially planning on going for the sprint jersey, I was in good position as we came into the first sprint, so I attacked and won the sprint. My attack caused a small separation and then Emma launched her strong counter attack. I followed wheels and right away, we had a great break," she said on her team report.

On the windswept course the nine riders steadily increased their lead but two riders from the peloton were able to bridge the 1m04s gap by the 46km mark.

With the additional help the break's gap extended out to past 5min over the next 10km until the peloton began its chase.

They didn't manage to reel in the breakaway where British track champion Armitstead won the kick to the line.  

With two teammates in the break, Kiwi Jo Kiesanowski didn't have to work too hard today. Her role was to protect Tibco's GC hope, Australian Road Champion Ruth Corset, for the mountain stages ahead.  She finished with the main bunch 1m16s later, as did fellow Kiwi Linda Villumsen (HTC Columbia).

Miller was rewarded for her efforts with the Points Jersey and her team Tibco became the leaders of the Team Classification. 

Armitstead will wear the leader's yellow jersey in tomorrow's 32km team time trial, which is bound to disrupt the General Classification rankings.  

Team Tibco will be the last team to leave the starter's blocks chasing Cervelo TestTeam who leave just before them. 

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The Tour de l'Aude is the top women's tour. The ten day tour runs from May 13-23.