GALA
TOUR DE FRANCE 2005
10th edition of the
cycling criterium «Gala Tour de France» :
« L’ambiance
du Tour » in Luxemburg-town on Sunday, August 14,
2005
For
the tenth time, the cycling club ACC Contern will
organize his international criterium « Gala Tour de France -
Grand Prix de la Ville de Luxembourg ». It will take place on Sunday, August 14,
For
this anniversary edition, the event for professional riders will be divided in
two parts: An individual time-trial of 1 lap (
Since
the first edition of the Gala Tour de France in 1996, some famous riders have
joined the palmares, with victories of Bjarne Riis (1996), Johann Museeuw (1997), Marco Pantani
(1998), Richard Virenque (1999), Viatcheslaw
Ekimov (2001), Laurent Jalabert
(2000/2002), Alexander Vinokourov in 2003 and Kim Kirchen in 2004.
Ivan
BASSO, the big star of the Gala Tour de France 2005 !
The
big star of the Gala Tour de France 2005 will be without doubt Italian rider Ivan
Basso, since two years leader of the CSC squad of former Tour de France winner
Bjarne Riis !
Ivan
Basso has just finished his 5th Tour de France as runner-up of seven
times winner Lance Armstrong after having been 3rd already in 2004, with
a prestigious stage win that year in front of Lance Armstrong in the Pyrénées between Castelsarrasin and
la Mongie, halfway up the Col du
Tourmalet. Earlier on, in the Italian team Fassa-Bortolo, Ivan Basso had already shown his potential
for the Grand Tour races by finishing 7th in 2003 and 11th
in 2002 with the white jersey of best young rider that same year. Favourite of
this year’s Giro d’Italia, Basso has dominated all
his rivals in the first mountain stages in the Dolomites, before loosing all
his chances for the overall win in just one day due to a stomach-ache. But he went
on and was rewarded with two beautiful stage wins later on in the
Team
CSC with strong line-up !
Absent
of last-year’s Gala Tour de France Team CSC will be present with a strong
line-up this time because Ivan Basso, recent winner of 4 out of the 6 stages at
the Danmark rundt, will
bring along some of his team-mates like the Schleck
brothers, but also Lars BAK, the actual Danish National road-race
champion or Giovanni Lombardi, famous sprinter and former lead-out for Erik
Zabel in the massive-sprints.
All the Luxemburgish professional
cyclists will be at the start !
For
the first time in 10 years, the Gala Tour de France will see all the Luxemburgish professional cyclists line up with Kim Kirchen, last year’s winner, Benoît Joachim, 2nd in
2000, and the two brothers Andy and Frank Schleck, Luxemburgish
National champions in the time-trial respectively in the road-race.
After
his abandon in the Tour de France, Kim Kirchen is currently preparing his
next goals for the season in the Benelux-tour and he wants to confirm his
victory of last year and at the same time take a little revenge for the
National Championships on Frank Schleck, who will wear his
tri-coloured National jersey for the first time on Luxemburgish
soil at the Gala Tour de France 2005. The battle between Kirchen,
winner this season of the Trofeo Laigueglia
and the Grand Prix de Chiasso, and Frank Schleck, 4th of the recent Tour of Switzerland will
surely bring some additional action!
Benoît
Joachim who is currently preparing the Vuelta of Spain, remembering those two days last year where
he wore the Amarillo leader’s jersey as first ever Luxemburgish
rider will be present as well as Andy Schleck, the younger of the Schleck brothers who showed his talents and offensive
skills once more recently at the Tour de
Markus Ljungqvist, Philippe Gilbert and
more…..
Some
other riders well-known in Luxembourg will also line-up in the avenue de la Liberté on August 14 like from Sweden Markus Ljungqvist of the Italian Liquigas team, winner of the
Tour de Luxembourg in 2002 or talented Belgian rider Philippe Gilbert , 3rd
of the Cyclo-cross in Pétange
on January 1st, 2005. Since then, Philippe
Gilbert (La Française des Jeux) has realized some nice performances mainly on French
roads where he is the actual leader of the Coupe de France. Gilbert has won
this year at the Tour du Haut Var
and the Trophée des Grimpeurs
after a victory early in the season at the 2nd stage of the Tour Méditerranéen in front of … Frank Schleck
and Kim Kirchen !!!
Numerous
other international riders like the Skandinavian
Stefan Adamsson, René Joergensen
(Barloworld), Allen-Bo Andresen, Allan Johansen, the
Germans Klaus Mutschler, Andreas Schulze and Erik Weisspfennig, the Belgian riders Christophe
Detilloux (Française des Jeux), Thierry Marichal (Cofidis) and Christophe Brandt (Davitamon Lotto) will complete the line-up of the Gala Tour
de France – Grand Prix de la Ville de Luxembourg 2005. The participation of
some of the Best Luxemburgish Amateur riders will
also be possible this year.
More
events on that day:
Like in the years before, the
organizers ACC Contern and the
The circuit of the Gala Tour
de France (av. de la Liberté / bd. de la Pétrusse) will be open during the morning between 10.00 and
12.00 o’clock to all the fans of « Inline Skating » and
« Rollerblades », an event supported by the campaign SPORT
POUR TOUS of the municipality of Luxembourg.
From 12.00 to 13.15 o’clock,
we will have the « 3rd City on Wheels » Inline-skate
race and just after that, young cyclists from 6 to 10 years will have the
possibility to participate in a series of 5 races in the categories Bambi an Benjamin on the closed circuit.
At 14.45, the official
presentation of the riders of the Gala Tour de France 2005 – Grand Prix
de la Ville de Luxembourg will take place, followed by the race
itself on 15.15 o’clock.
Please remind that the
spectators can follow all these events FOR FREE, on August 14 in the town of
