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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, 2005 in Luxemburg near the station, on a course of  950 m around Avenue de la Liberté and boulevard de la Pétrusse, with start and finish in front of the ARBED-ARCELOR building at the Place des Martyrs („Rousegaertchen“).

 

For this anniversary edition, the event for professional riders will be divided in two parts: An individual time-trial of 1 lap (950 m) as presentation of the main riders of the Gala Tour de France 2005 at first, and then a classic criterium over 65 laps, the Grand Prix de la Ville de Luxembourg!

 

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 Alps. Recently, Yvan Basso was a league on his own at the Tour of Denmark, where he won 4 out of the 6 stages and the overall classification.

 

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 will bring along some of his team-mates like the Schleck brothers, but also Lars BAK, the actual Danish National road-race champion or Lars Michaelson, 5th of Paris-Robaix and winner of the Tour of Qatar 2005 as well as winner of Gent-Wevelgem already 10 years ago. Other riders form the red and white team will be Kurt-Asle Arvesen, three times Norvegian National champion, winner of the Tour of Denmark 2004 and 2nd behind Paolo Savoldelli at the Tour de France stage between Pau and Revel this year and finally Allan Johansen.

 

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.

 

Kim Kirchen has had a tremendous begin of the season with victories in the Trofeo Laiguelgia and in the Grand Prix Città di Chiasso, followed by a stage win at the Settimana Coppi e Bartali and a second place at the Fleche Wallonne. But after that, he had known the biggest disillusion of his career so far because he had to abandon the Tour de France, the most important race of the season. Kirchen has resumed racing in a very convincing manner at the Hamburg Cyclassics, but had a severe crash in the Benelux-tour. After a few days of rest, he wants to come back to Luxemburg to defend his title of last year and 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. These last days, he has acted as team-mate of overall winner Bobby Julich at the Benelux-tour and will certainly be in very good form, so that he can confirm in front of the Luxemburgish public his excellent 4th place of the last Tour de Suisse.

 

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 la Région Wallonne.

 

Rik Verbrugghe, 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 !!!

 

From the Belgian riders, the most renown will be without doubt Rik Verbrugghe, who has been in the spotlight for several days recently as leader of the Benelux-tour. After having won the prologue, the rider from the region of Liège has lost the overall victory to Bobby Julich only in the finishing time-trial. The best year of Rik Verbrugghe is certainly 2001, where he won the Flèche Wallonne, the prologue in the Giro d’Italia and stage nr 15 of the Tour de France between Pau and Lavaur.

 

Numerous other international riders like the Scandinavians Stefan Adamsson and René Joergensen (Barloworld), 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: Luxembourg City Inline - Skate Event and  3rd City on Wheels!

 

Like in the years before, the organizers ACC Contern and the Municipality of Luxembourg have planned a large program around the main race:

 

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 Luxembourg.

 

Released by ACC Contern on August 10, 2005

 

10ème Gala Tour de France >>

www.acccontern.lu