84th Grand-Prix François Faber - April 29, 2006 - Hostert/Niederanven
Brief report
Differdange dominates again
CCI Differdange, who has lined up with a complete team for the ACC Contern week-end, has once again dominated the Grand-prix François Faber in Hostert/Niederanven, despite the big effort of the young Luxemburgish talent Ben Gaustauer. The rider from Schifflange has done very well against the continental riders from CCID and only in the last climb of the côte de Bourglinster, Morten Knudsen has manged to get rid of him. Behind Knudsen and Gastauer, other riders of Differdange have taken the next positions with Johansson and Forner, who were the best out of a group with among others former professional rider Julien Laidoun and the actual National champ elite without contract Daniel Bintz, another positive surprise on Luxembugish side.
The race lap per lap
km 0 119 riders take off near the Football ground of FC Hostert for 5 laps and 100 kilometers
1st lap The race starts quickly and the speed is high from the beginning. In the main difficulty of the course, the peloton splits already.
1st lap The peloton is still split in several groups, but the gaps are very small.
2nd lap Finally, 12 riders manage to break away: as usual, the riders from Differdange are dominating in the group with Morten Knudsen, Frederik Johansson, Frank Dressler and Eddy Forner. There are also two Luxemburgish riders with the National Champion Daniel Bintz and the young Ben Gastauer, two Swiss riders with Laurent Beuret and Patrick Sala, the Frenchmen Julien Laidoun and Benoît Drujon as well as the Belgian Laurent Mars and Rudy Rouet.
3rd lap The 12 riders work well together and increase their lead on the main pack to over a minute. Morten Knudsen makes a big impression in the côte de Bourglinster. At the back of the pack, there is a serious crash as some dropped riders have taken big risks in the donwhill of Gonderange and hit a car. Ralph Diseviscourt from LC Kayl is most seriously hit and he is taken to hospital.
4th lap The gap is now two minutes. Morten Knudsen once again accelerates in the côte de Bourglinster and only one riders manages to follow him. It is the young talent Ben Gastauer, who is in his first year as U23 rider, after having been in the junior category only last year.
4th lap Gastauer and Knudsen work together in the lead, but the rider from Schifflange is doing most of the turns because he is afraid of being caught again by more riders of CCI Differdange.
5th lap Still Knudsen and Gastauer in the lead, with a little bit less than a minute advance on a chasing group composed of Johansson, Forner, Bintz, Laidoun, Mars, Beuret, Sala and Rouet. Frank Dressler has fallen back into the main group which still is two minutes late.
5th lap In the côte de Bourglinster, 2,7 km with 4% of average slope, the race enters its deciding moments. Once more, Knudsen attacks. He jumps out of the wheel of Gastauer who isn't able to follow. On top of the climb, ther rider from Differdange has 10 seconds of advance and there are still 7 km to go.
5th lap Behind them, Johansson has also attacked in the chasing group. He will try to catch Gastauer in order to provide a double victory to CCI Differdange
Finish Morten Knudsen celebrates a solo victory in the 84th Grand-prix François Faber. It is the first victory for the Danish rider this season. Less than a minute later, Ben Gastauer finishes brillantly in second place after having managed to hold off Frederik Johansson.
Finish Eddy Forner beats Julien Laidoun in the chasing group for fourth position and completes the good results of the riders from Differdange.
Finish Daniel Bintz has realized a nice performance in 10th position with the red-white-blue jersey on his back.
