Pia Sundstedt

It was a weard stage, kind of 2 stages in 1. We started in Garmisch-Partenkirchen at 7.30 in the morning with a neutralized start. It was such a chaos. There were people coming from behind and suddenly I had at least 100 riders in front of me. I did not panic, because I saw Sally Bigham and Milena Landtwing all the time. I just wanted to keep an eye on them during the whole day to secure my overall victory. As I mentioned we had kind of 2 races today. The first one finished at km 30. From there we had to do a neutealized ride for about 30km. I wanted to stay wi the girls the first ‘race’ so I could keep on controlling everything. I suddenly was in a fast group and I kept on going. Why wait now? I would wait for them during the neutralized ride. The neutralized ride was easy. We were riding in a big group. I had the feeling we were doing a group ride. So I lost a bit my concentration and was completely taken by surprise when Sally accelerated as soon as the ‘second’ race started. I stuck to her wheel and finished the stage in a second place. I am happy about the overall victory.  Last year I had to stop because of a bad crash.  This year I finished the race and more important I finished the race with still good legs.  I will now stay here in Achensee until Monday before I go to Kleinzell im Muehlkreis.  In a week on Sunday the European Championships are beeing held.  I am looking forward to that!