Tour de Luxembourg

Prologue:  Luxembourg – Ville, 2.659km

By Cathy Mehl

Team RadioShack riders got off to a strong start on Wednesday night in the Tour de Luxembourg’s Prologue opener, taking four spots in the top ten.   Best-placed rider for The Shack was Gregory Rast in third, behind Saur-Sojasun’s Jimmy Engoulvent and Cyril Lemoine who took the first two slots.  Frenchman Engoulvent was 14-th out of the start house with his time of 3:41:99 holding up for two hours as 110 more riders tried to best his time.  Lance Armstrong put up a strong performance with fifth, followed by Daryl Impey in sixth and Andreas Klöden in 9th.  Thirty-year old Engoulvent took the first leader’s jersey in the five-day race. 

After the race Lance said, “I felt good.  It was obviously short and fast, probably not my specialty but I felt pretty good.  There were times when you had to accelerate, to use absolute power and I felt I had that.  I am happy.”

Rast added, “As winner of last year’s prologue I was motivated and gave everything.  I did that steep climb on my outer chain ring.  I needed that to win, but it was a very hard 500 meters.  So steep.  I did what I had to do but Engoulvent must have been really amazing.  Congratulations to him.”

Following tradition, the opener was held Wednesday night in the streets of the capital of Luxembourg.  Engoulvent’s time was finally challenged an hour into the race when Rast took his turn on the short course that contained a last minute pitch near the end.  Rast fell short by 8.2 seconds. The leading time was challenged once more when Engoulvent’s teammate went on course with a half-hour of racing to go and stopped the clock at 8.14 seconds behind the eventual winner.  Starting next to last, Lance gave it a strong effort to slot in to fifth in a race he won in 1998.  Last year’s winner Frank Schleck (Saxo Bank) was well off the pace at almost 17-seconds off the pace

Thursday’s Stage 1 puts the 124 riders on a traditional road stage when the Tour de Luxembourg travels     179.7km in what looks to be a lumpy run to Herperange.

Beyond the Finish Line:  Despite Luxembourg's best efforts to remain neutral in the First World War, it was occupied by Germany on 2 August 1914. On 30 August, Helmuth von Moltke moved his headquarters to Luxembourg City, closer to his armies in France in preparation for a swift victory. However, the victory never came, and Luxembourg would play host to the German high command for another four years. At the end of the occupation, Luxembourg City was the scene of an attempted communist revolution; on 9 November 1918, communists declared a socialist republic, but it lasted only a few hours.

Top Ten Results

1              Jimmy Engoulvent (Fra) Saur-Sojasun     0:03:41.990          

2              Cyril Lemoine (Fra) Saur-Sojasun              0:00:08.140          

3              Gregory Rast (Swi) Team Radioshack      0:00:08.230          

4              Jimmy Casper (Fra) Saur-Sojasun              0:00:09.010          

5              Lance Armstrong (USA) Team Radioshack             0:00:09.110          

6              Daryl Impey (RSA) Team Radioshack       0:00:10.490          

7              Borut Bozic (Slo) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team    0:00:10.680          

8              Aitor Galdos (Spa) Euskatel - Euskadi      0:00:10.810          

9              Andreas Klöden (Ger) Team Radioshack                0:00:12.380          

10            Jempy Drucker (Lux) Continental Team Differdange

Team RadioShack Results

30           Sam Bewley (NZl)   0:00:17.070

40           Björn Selander (USA)  0:00:19.110

59           Tiago Machado (Por)  0:00:22.760

66           Ivan Rovny (Rus) 0:00:24.390

General Classification after Prologue

1              Jimmy Engoulvent (Fra) Saur-Sojasun     0:03:42  

2              Cyril Lemoine (Fra) Saur-Sojasun              0:00:08  

3              Gregory Rast (Swi) Team Radioshack      0:00:08  

4              Jimmy Casper (Fra) Saur-Sojasun              0:00:09  

5              Lance Armstrong (USA) Team Radioshack             0:00:09  

6              Daryl Impey (RSA) Team Radioshack       0:00:10  

7              Borut Bozic (Slo) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team    0:00:11  

8              Aitor Galdos (Spa) Euskatel - Euskadi      0:00:11  

9              Andreas Klöden (Ger) Team Radioshack        0:00:12  

10            Jempy Drucker (Lux) Continental Team Differdange

Team RadioShack on General Classification

30           Sam Bewley (NZl)   0:00:17          

40           Björn Selander (USA)  0:00:19 

59           Tiago Machado (Por)   0:00:23