Tour de Luxembourg

Stage 1:  Luxembourg to Hesperange, 179.7km/112mi

By Cathy Mehl

After yesterday’s short and snappy Prologue, times are close for the overall classification in the Tour de Luxembourg. Two stages of racing have been completed but only six-seconds separate the top ten riders.  Today’s difficult up-and-down stage resulted in a sprint finish won by Giovanni Visconti (ISD), followed by Yauheni Hutarovitch (FdJ) and Borut Bozic (Vacansoleil) to round out the podium.  A re-shuffling for the GC resulted in new race leader Cyril Lemoine (Saur-Sojasun), followed by Team RadioShack’s Gregory Rast and Lance Armstrong in second and third.  Team rider Andreas Klöden is in sixth place and Team RadioShack leads in the overall for the Teams competition.

Lance commented on the stage at the end of the day, saying, “I felt surprisingly good.  It was a nervous day, lots of up, down, left, right.  Also on the local circuits with the hill.  It all went very well.”  He continued with, “We chased today but that was also to stay out of trouble by being in the front of the peloton.  Secondly we feel like we can win the race.  We have a couple of guys who can win the overall.  I can be one of them but honestly my ambition here is to make progress and avoid problems.  Tomorrow is the Queen stage, as far as I can trust Franck Schleck.  And I do!”

Post-race Team Director Dirk Demol said, “When you have four riders in the top ten and you come to a race with stars like Klöden and Lance, then you know other teams look at you to work.  Honestly Saur-Sojasun worked hard in the first 100k but then they lost three riders.  It was over and out for them.  As the breakaway of three got 6 minutes we decided to take our responsibility and worked until the end.  Fortunately ISD also helped us a bit in the end.  We worked to save our chances for the overall win and we got rid of (former race leader) Engoulvent.  Now we still have Lemoine in front of us but we are confident since today’s stage - though hard - was the easiest one.”

An early attack included Anthony Charteau (Bouygues Telecom), Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil) and Morten Knudsen (CT Differdange). Good weather greeted the 123 riders with sunny skies and temperatures near 24C/75F.  The gap grew to six minutes while Team RadioShack did a fair amount of patrolling the front of the peloton to keep the time advantage reasonable.  Big crowds of enthusiastic fans gathered on the climbs to cheer the peloton.

By the time the leaders reached the local loops for the first of two times, the gap was just over 1:20 with the catch coming at 15km to go, leaving The Shack clearly in command of the peloton.   A sprint for the finish ensued with Visconti the best on the line.

Friday’s Queen stage takes the peloton 202.7km from Schifflange to Differdange in a lumpy, bumpy day that will shake out the top of the leader board to see who really has the legs to win this year’s Tour de Luxembourg.

Beyond the Finish Line:  In 1796 French revolutionary troops took possession of Hesperange Castle. In 1798 the French authorities declared Hesperange Castle to be national property and sold it through auction. Later on several plots on the castle grounds and its ruins were sold separately and in 1820 there were already 7 houses situated in and around the ruins. The ruins of Hesperange Castle were declared National Heritage in 1984. At present the ruins are still situated on private grounds. The ruins themselves cannot be visited but you can walk through the dead end street that gives access to the houses situated in and against the ruins.

1              Giovanni Visconti (Ita) ISD - Neri               4:29:55                   

2              Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) Francaise des Jeux                         

3              Borut Bozic (Slo) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team                     

4              Sebastian Siedler (Ger) Vorarlberg - Corratec                       

5              Aitor Galdos (Spa) Euskatel - Euskadi                       

6              Ian Stannard (GBr) Sky Professionel Cycling Team                              

7              Serguei Ivanov (Rus) Team Katusha                          

8              Oscar Gatto (Ita) ISD - Neri                           

9              Michal Golas (Pol) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team                                  

10            Manuel Ortega Ocana (Spa) Andalucia - Cajasur

Team RadioShack Results

28           Gregory Rast (Swi)

30           Andreas Klöden (Ger)

50           Lance Armstrong (USA)

76           Bjorn Selander (USA)  0:00:39

84           Daryl Impey (RSA) 0:00:47

100         Tiago Machado (Por)      0:05:15 

105         Sam Bewley (NZl) 0:09:40          

General Classification after Stage 1

1              Cyril Lemoine (Fra) Saur - Sojasun            4:33:45                   

2              Gregory Rast (Swi) Team Radioshack                       

3              Lance Armstrong (USA) Team Radioshack             0:00:01  

4              Borut Bozic (Slo) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team    0:00:02  

5              Aitor Galdos (Spa) Euskatel - Euskadi                       

6              Andreas Klöden (Ger) Team Radioshack                0:00:04  

7              Giovanni Visconti (Ita) ISD - Neri               0:00:05  

8              Kevin Ista (Bel) Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne                              

9              Juan Antonio Flecha (Spa) Sky Professionel Cycling Team              0:00:06  

10            Sandy Casar (Fra) Francaise des Jeux

Team RadioShack on General Classification

41           Ivan Rovny (Rus)  0:00:16

68           Daryl Impey (RSA) 0:00:49                             

69           Bjorn Selander (USA) 0:00:50

100         Tiago Machado (Por)  0:05:29