15th Grande Boucle Féminine - 2.9.1

France, August 5-18, 2001

Stage 1a - August 5: Bilbao (Spa) ITT, 9.9 km

Somarriba starts with a bang

Defending champion Joane Somarriba (Alfa Lum) managed to live up to every expectation in Bilbao today by winning the 10 km opening time trial and donning the race leader's yellow jersey. In the test against the clock, Somarriba averaged nearly 45 km/h to beat German specialist Judith Arndt and Russian Olga Slioussareva (Carpe Diem) by 3 and 18 seconds respectively.

Somarriba was last to start, but managed to catch Severine Desbouys (GAS Sport) for a minute in the short distance, which passed by the Guggenheim museum.

Results

1 Joane Somarriba (Spa) Alfa Lum            13.33 (44.91 km/h)
2 Judith Arndt (Ger) German National Team    0.03
3 Olga Slioussareva (Rus) Carpe Diem-Itera   0.18
4 Elena Tchalykh (Rus) Carpe Diem-Itera      0.29
5 Mari Holden (USA) Alfa Lum                 0.31
6 Dori Ruano (Spa) Junkers-Noja              0.33
7 Alessandra Cappellotto (Ita) GAS Sport     0.39
8 Rasa Polikeviciute (Ltu) Acca Due O        0.44
9. Chantal Beltman (Ned) Bik - Toscany       0.45
10 Zinaida Stahurskaia (Blr) GAS Sport       0.49
...
13 Fabiana Luperini (Ita) Edil Savino        0.51
16 Jeannie Longo (Fra) Swam Team             0.52
24 Severine Desbouys (Fra) GAS Sport         1.08
48 Svetlana Bubnenkova (Rus) Edil Savino     1.38
66 Sylvie Riedle (Fra) Team C-F 24           2.08