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The year is about to finish and December is the month of the retrospectives. For the ACC Contern, 2005 brought lots of emotions: from March to October, we followed intensely the huge performances of the three professional riders licensed at our club, the Schleck brothers and Kim Kirchen. There were also our 5 cycling events organized throughout the year and which knew various fortunes. Whereas the cyclo-sport race La Charly Gaul was a nice popular success with almost a thousand of participants under a brillant sky, the Gala Tour de France was drowned under pouring rain, but illuminated by the extraordinary and symphatetic personality of its biggest star Ivan Basso as well as by the home riders who did not hide themselves behind the international guests. The Grand-prix Ostfenster and the Grand-prix de la Commune of Contern in cyclo-cross were equal to themselves, whereas the disappointments of the year were undoubtedly a deceiving Grand-prix François Faber and the Grand-prix Comat in women's cyclo-cross who had to be cancelled for lack of participants.
As usual, after our
General Meeting and our traditional trip to the
cyclo-cross world championships, the Grand-prix Ostfenster in Berbourg acted as first big appointment of the year and, as usual also these last years, the riders from Differdange
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dominated the race in spite of the presence of some French and Belgian teams. After the victory of Johansson in 2004, the riders from CCID carried out this year a double victory with Vincenzo Centrone and Hakan Nilsson on the first two steps of the podium. An impressive number of 130 riders lined up at the start, among them the favourite and champion of Uzbekistan Serguei Krushevsky. Already in the first lap, a group of 14 riders broke clear and took an option on victory. The few spectators then witnessed an elimination race on the difficult course around Berbourg. The leading group got smaller and smaller and in the penultimate lap, after an attack of Nilsson which condemned Krushevsky, only three riders remained in the lead. Opposed to the two riders from Differange, Centrone and Nilsson, Pascal Triebel was too isolated and he had to settle down with third place after an ultimate and deciding attack of Centrone with two kilometers to go.
In 2005, for better integration in the international racing schedule, the
Gala Tour de France in Luxembourg-town was transferred to the month of August,
more calm in major events than September. This change allowed us to attract some international stars as well as the Luxemburgish professional riders into the avenue de la Liberty, despite a relatively small budget. The condition was to cut down our program, so that some of the riders were able to chatch a plane in the afternoon that took them to the Tour of Germany for the next day.
The Grand-prix François Faber was therefore deferred to September and replaced by small races for young riders from 6 to 10 years. The 21 champions-to-be carried out their laps on the same circuit as the pros and their happy faces during the award ceremony in the presence of Ivan Basso proved that the change in program was a nice success. Ivan Basso, smiling and available, was undoubtedly the big star of the event. The second of the Tour de France made honor to his status and won the criterium without discussion after 61 km, with a few seconds advance on Philippe Gilbert and Frank Schleck. In spite of the absence of a wounded Kim Kirchen, the Luxemburgish riders did very well with all of them being among the five best at the finish (3rd Frank, 4th Benoit Joachim, 5th Andy Schleck). In addition, a very offensive Benoît Joachim gained the points classification and Andy Schleck finished third of the one-lap-time-trial, behind Jurgen Van de Walle and Rene Jörgensen. The big negative point of the day was the rain which did not cease falling during all day, disturbing the various demonstrations of Inline-Skate and redoubling in intensity during the final laps of the criterium. And this happened in the middle of the summer, whereas with some exceptions, the Gala Tour de France often had nice weather in September
After some reversals, the
81st Grand-prix François Faber thus took place on
Saturday, September 17, in Contern as a trime-trial of 1,9 km on an uphill course over the climb of "Bärbelkraiz" between Moutfort and Contern.
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It must be said that the formula didn't have much success, neither with the spectators, nor with the riders who were only 19 to show up. A little bit sad for a race with a glorious past, but let us hope that on April 29, 2006 in Niederanven, the 82nd Grand-prix François Faber will find back part of its ancient glory, when it will be organized in combination with the GP Ostfenster the following day in Berbourg. The winner of the 2005 edition fully merited his succes since he was the actual champion of Luxembourg against the clock Pascal Triebel. Opposed to much younger riders than him and in particular the runner-ups Herman and Gastauer, Triebel was able to surpass himself to finally win with over 10 seconds of margin and write his name in the palmares of the prestigious race more than 15 years after his first participation.
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The day after the Faber
, Contern was again in agitation, this time because of the cyclo-sport race
"La 16ème Charly Gaul".
928 riders took possession of the streets of the small village to get ready for the start at 9h30 o'clock in the morning. The weather was nice and everything was in place for a great day. The competitors started towards North, joining Larochette and Medernach, then turned towards the East and, after a trip through the wineyards of the Moselle, returned to Contern. After 106 km, the competitors of the B-race fought out the victory and Belgian rider Peter Schroen, who is used to good performances at the Charly Gaul, took the flowers with 23 seconds advance on the Luxemburger Pierre-Paul Gruen. The riders of category A had to do an additional loop of 47 km which surprised more than one by its difficulty. Frenchman Johan Villiger, at the head of the race since the very first kilometers, showed on this very selective final part that he was strongest in the pack, but due to an error on the course, he was overtook by the young and surprising Ben Gastauer, very at ease on uphill courses.
The separation of riders A and B caused us many problems this year since at the end of the course, the riders of the longer loop passed a second time at the separation crossroads, and some of them took the wrong way, heading out for another lap of 47 km. Finally, Villiger and Gastauer were declared as ex-aequo winners, whereas the third step of the podium was asserted by a former winner of the race, Frenchman Jean-Charles Martin. Unfortunately, this would be one of the last public appearances of Charly Gaul, since he is
deceased on December 6, 2005, a few months after the Monte Bondone has been renamed in "Monte Gaul" by the Italians, in rememberance of his legendary victory in a stage of the Giro nearly fifty years ago.
The Grand-prix de la Commune de Contern
began rather badly since a few days only before the event, we were forced to cancel the opening race of the afternoon, the
Grand-prix COMAT for Ladies. In spite of some financial efforts, we were not able to gather a number of competitors worthy of an international race. But the disappointment had quickly disappeared since the ingredients for an exciting men's race were there. Splendid weather with blue sky, sun and 10 degrees more than at the Gala Tour de France in August, a fast but nevertheless selective course and several contestants for the victory in the absence of a big favorite. The race held its promises and remained undecided until the end. A group of 20 riders broke clear on the 2nd lap, and after accelerations of Lukes, Willemssens, Daelmans and Vantornout, it got smaller and smaller as the race went on. Finally, on the very last laps, the race turned into a duell between Klaas Vantornout, the young and promising Belgian and the surprising German Sieckmuller, followed at small distance by Daelmans and Willemssens. These people crossed the finishing line in the same order, before an excellent Gusty Bausch in fifth position. The champion of Luxembourg had shown himself at his advantage and he was able to play for the victory until half-race approximately.
Retrospective 2005 (part II)
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