Dutch rider Chantal Beltman secured a superb victory for T-Mobile's Women's team on Sunday 5th Aug 2007, when she won round seven of the World Cup series in Vargara, Sweden.
Beltman's win, which comes hard on the heels of T-Mobile's success with Judith Arndt in the challenging Tour of Thuringen in Germany, came when she dropped Swiss rider Karen Thurig in the closing kilometres of the 132 kilometre race. Third place went to Italian Noemi Cantale.
“I have just come back from a long trip to China, checking out the Olympic Games course for 2008, so I was quite tired.” Beltman admitted. “On top of that, I hadn't raced for three weeks.”
“But once I got away with Thurig, I really wanted to try and see how far I could go.”
“I dug deep, then made the right attack at the right moment. I was suffering, but I could see Karen was suffering too!”
Beltman and Thurig made their move half way through the action-packed race, and then on the final lap the Dutchwoman moved away to solo to the finish.
“It is our first World Cup win of the season after a string of podium places, so we definitely wanted this win.” commented team manager Anna Wilson.
“I am more than proud of what Chantal has managed to acheive here. She responded well to the pressure of being off the front and brought home a great win for T-Mobile.” Beltman's victory is also T-Mobile's 49th of the season for the magenta squad's men's and women's teams.
Overall in the World Cup series, T-Mobile have moved up to third place in the teams classfication thanks to Beltman's victory.
In the individual standings, Australian Oenone Wood remains T-Mobile's best rider, also in third overall, despite having to pull out of Vargara following a painful crash early on. Fortunately, Wood incurred no serious injuries in the accident.
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