Lisa Brennauer has opened CANYON//SRAM Racing’s campaign after sprinting to second place on stage one at the International Ladies Tour of Thüringen last night in Gotha, Germany. The former German national road champion was second in a bunch sprint behind Marianne Vos (RLT) with Coryn Rivera (UHC) in third place.

The shortest stage of the seven day tour at just 67km was an evening race and identical to the opening stage of the 2015 edition which Brennauer won. “I knew the stage from last year and that it would be  hectic and fast finish. We had a very fast run down into the finishing town of Gotha. It was a long and technical descent leading in to the final kilometres but I was well positioned all the time and also going into the last kilometre.”

“Vos was the one who opened up the sprint quite early with a fast jump and I managed to get second on the cobbled finish. I came out of the last corner second and stayed in that same position. I’m feeling good and our team is motivated for the next days!”

Brennauer is now second on the general classification, five seconds behind leader Vos with six stages remaining. Stage two tomorrow is 103km around the city of Erfurt, the same region where the recent German National Road Championships were held.

Erfurt adopted local, Trixi Worrack knows the course well. “There are a few climbs on the stage but there isn’t anything really hard. Then we pass the finish line and do one small city lap, about 10km and there is one really steep climb around 14% and 1.3km long. It will make the finish of the stage interesting.”

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