San Luis Obispo, CA – 8th July 2010 – HTC-Columbia’s Evelyn Stevens rode solo for 50 kilometres to claim HTC-Columbia’s fifth stage win out of a possible seven in Italy’s Giro Donne on Thursday. Stevens soloed away on the mountainous stage seven from Como to Albese Cassano and held off a chasing group, containing teammate Judith Arndt, by 42 seconds at the finish.

While Arndt moves up to second overall, US National TT Champion Stevens claimed her seventh win of the season, the 33rd of the year for the HTC-Columbia women’s team. “It was a really classy win. She took off a long way from the finish with one very hard climb to go, and she managed to stay away,” said HTC team manager Ronny Lauke. “It was touch and go at some points. The last climb was about eight kilometres long and had sections of 12 to 14 percent, and at the summit she only had about 20 seconds on the chasers. She did a good descent, though, and even increased her time in the last part of the course. That was impressive.”

Lauke was equally pleased for Arndt, second overall after one of the Giro Donne’s toughest stages and in a position to challenge for the overall lead. “She’s less than 30 seconds behind [leader Marianne] Vos and there are still two hard days remaining. The race definitely isn’t over yet.”