Tour de Luxembourg

Stage 3:  Eschweiler to Diekirch, 191.5km/119mi

By Cathy Mehl

A sprint to the finish produced a winner with a familiar sounding name:  Tony Gallopin of Cofidis.  Tony is the son of Team RadioShack Race Director Alain Gallopin’s brother and a proud uncle celebrated the first professional win of his 22-year old nephew.  Second and third places went to Giovanni Visconti (ISD) and Alexandre Geniez of Skil-Shimano.  The leader’s jersey still sits on the back of Matteo Carrara (Vacansoleil) by a slim one-second lead over Saxo Bank’s Frank Schleck while The Shack’s Lance Armstrong still holds on to third place.  Team RadioShack lead in the Teams classification for the overall and have team riders Andreas Klöden and Gregory Rast in eight and 9th places on the classification, making three riders in the top ten.  Young rider Ivan Rovny is 19th overall and holds third place for the Best Young Rider competition.

“It was hard and hot today,” said Armstrong after the race.  “It was never flat.  They’ve picked every hill in Luxembourg.  But I think it was a good day.  Schleck showed again that he’s the strongest guy in the race.  When he went away on that last climb there was nothing I could do.” 

Asked about his participation in this year’s race, Lance explained that “Luxembourg was a last minute choice but I’m happy with it.  Johan and I have discussed this every day here.  This has actually worked out pretty good and is helpful for the Tour de France.  Now I have five days recuperation between Luxembourg and Switzerland.  My family is here too so I can recover from this with them.  Reconnaissance of some Tour stages will be for after Switzerland.”

It was another hot day in Luxembourg with temperatures near 26C/89F on a hilly profile containing 8 rated climbs.  A break of five riders went away for most of the day and held a high-advantage of more than five minutes at one point during the stage.  By the time the leaders hit the first of three local laps, the gap had come down and the group was all together by the second go-around.  In the final 10km lap Schleck and Carrara broke away in a repeat performance to yesterday’s effort, but a chase group that included Lance, Klöden and Rovny brought them back, setting up the group gallop to the line. 

The Tour de Luxembourg comes to a conclusion in Sunday’s final stage.  It’s a short one at 149.5km/93mi from Mersch to  Luxembourg.  Can Schleck gain the one second he needs to upset Carrara’s lead?  Something tells me Team Saxo Bank is plotting how to do this right now.

Racing Note:  In stage races there are usually finishing time limits imposed on the riders and time cuts are made based on percentages to the winning time.  Recently in the Amgen Tour of California, for example, the time cuts were 5% for flat stages, 7% for hilly stages and 9% for mountain stages.  But in the Tour de Luxembourg a straight 15-minute cut-off from the time of the “peloton” is the rule.  In yesterday’s stage there were many, many groups that came in, but a group of some 30 riders was determined to be the “peloton” and used to determine the time cuts. Team RadioShack’s Daryl Impey and Sam Bewley were among those that missed the cut-off by two minutes, with some of the time loss attributed to being caught up in race traffic on the course…..an unhappy occurrence for our South African and New Zealander.  

Beyond the Finish Line: In Diekirch you will find the National Museum of Military History.  The main topic of the museum is the historical representation of the military operations in the Ardennes  from the American, German, and civilian points of view. Over 3000 square meters of exhibition space and numerous life size dioramas enable an insight of the dramatic and tragic situations that both soldiers and civilians were caught in. Special showrooms feature extensive collections of weapons, uniforms, military equipment of all kind, wheeled and tracked vehicles, in addition to numerous personal soldiers' belongings, photographs, documents, and maps. The museum’s core piece is the detailed mock-up of the night-time Sauer River crossing at Diekirch on January 18, 1945 by units of the United States 5th Infantry Division.

Top Ten Results

1              Tony Gallopin (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne     4:57:28                   

2              Giovanni Visconti (Ita) ISD - Neri                                

3              Alexandre Geniez (Fra) Skil - Shimano                     

4              Serguei Ivanov (Rus) Team Katusha                          

5              Bjorn Leukemans (Bel) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team                        

6              Matteo Carrara (Ita) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team                             

7              Steve Houanard (Fra) Skil - Shimano                         

8              Eduard Vorganov (Rus) Team Katusha                     

9              Juan Antonio Flecha (Spa) Sky Professionel Cycling Team                               

10            Jérémy Roy (Fra) Francaise des Jeux

Team RadioShack Results

11           Gregory Rast (Swi)

18           Andreas Klöden (Ger)

22           Lance Armstrong (USA)                                  

23           Ivan Rovny (Rus)

26           Tiago Machado (Por)

76           Bjorn Selander (USA)  0:05:35

General Classification after Stage 3

1              Matteo Carrara (Ita) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team            14:41:58                

2              Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxobank        0:00:01  

3              Lance Armstrong (USA) Team Radioshack             0:00:30  

4              Juan Antonio Flecha (Spa) Sky Professionel Cycling Team              0:00:34  

5              Serguei Ivanov (Rus) Team Katusha                          

6              Bjorn Leukemans (Bel) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team       0:00:35  

7              Alexandre Geniez (Fra) Skil - Shimano    0:00:39  

8              Andreas Klöden (Ger) Team Radioshack                0:00:50  

9              Gregory Rast (Swi) Team Radioshack      0:00:51  

10            Sandy Casar (Fra) Francaise des Jeux      0:00:52

Team RadioShack on General Classification

19           Ivan Rovny (Rus)  0:01:07

66           Tiago Machado (Por)  0:15:05

74           Bjorn Selander (USA) 0:16:01