In front of 15.000 estimated spectators, Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara has won the Grand-prix de la Ville de Luxembourg, main race of the 11th Gala Tour de France. At this cycling event, articulated around some of the stars of the Tour de France, the time-trial world champion had only a few centimeters advantage on the two National heroes, Kim Kirchen and Frank Schleck
Already in the first laps, the Luxemburgish riders wanted to show themselves, not only the experienced pro riders, but also the
First break: Scheirlinckx, Didier, Flahaut, Gilbert
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young guns out of the U23 National team: Claerebout, Appelbaum, Wurth and Michely attacked, but without succes. After 6 laps, 4 riders managed to get a small advantage on the main peloton led by Axel Merckx: Scheirlinckx, Didier, Flahaut and Gilbert, who were joined one lap later by Cedric Vasseur. But the Quick-Step rider wasted his power, because the shortly before the first intermediat sprint, the peloton also bridged up. With a perfectly timed acceleration, Benoît Joachim took the first points in the sprint, whereas Cancellara made his effort a little bit too late and he wasn't able to come around the Astana rider.
Shortly before the 20th lap, the public started cheering: Andy Schleck
Andy Schleck together with Michely
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had attacked out of the peloton, together with Kim Michely, who definitely didn't wan't to hide behind the big guns. The very popular Schleck, in the white jersey of best young rider at the Giro d'Italia, was able to snatch the points at the second intermediate sprint ahead of Michely.
Gilberto Simoni leads Fred Amorisson
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But Kim Kirchen had smelled the danger and launched the poursuit together with Simoni and a little bit later also Tossato. The five came together at the front of the race, but the other riders weren't far behind and everything regrouped again.
After Baby-Schleck, it was the older brother who had to show himself. Frank took off in a bigger group together with Mario Aerts, Ivo Lux, David Claerebout, Axel Merckx, Frank Hoj ad Stefan Parinussa, whereas Quick-Step led the main peloton only 50 meters behind them. Simoni, Joachim, Drucker, Willems, Andy Schleck and Didier were the first to bridge up to the front and the double winner of the Giro d'Italia put the hammer down. He took the points in the first intermediate sprint ahead of Amorisson, but Axel Merckx brought the rest of the field back on them again. In his penultimate race as a professionnal bike racer, the Belgian showed once again what an exceptionnal team-mate he is.
One rider who also profited from Merckx's work was Benoît Joachim, the defending champion in the points classification, who seemed to focus mainly on this ranking during the race.
6th sprint: Joachim ahead of Hoj and Poos
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The National champion did this in a very smart way and during several laps, he was at the front of the race again and again, on his own or in little groups like for example with Hoj and Poos.
Kim Kirchen attacks
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He was always up there when the bell rang for another sprint and this work paid of: Ben was able to take three wins in a row.
The race started for real with around 15 Kilometers to go. Kim Kirchen attacked and took a small advantage, but 9 other riders bridged up to him in the next lap: Axel Merckx, Gilberto Simoni, Fabian Cancellara, Philippe Gilbert, Mario Aerts, Frederik Willems, Benoît Joachim and the two Schlecks. Joachim took off once again to take the last intermediate sprint, but Frank Schleck chased him down shortly after.
The two brothers surely were afraid of Kim Kirchen's fast sprint, so they had to be offensive again and again.
Andy Schleck leads Simoni
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Andy accelerated together with Simoni and due to this move, the front group splitted up. Behind the two protagonists of this year's Giro d'Italia, Merckx chased with Kim Kirchen, whereas Benoît Joachim,
Kim Kirchen leads the chase
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who had already battled a lot, lost contact together with Willems and Gilbert. Twenty seconds behind the leaders, Quick-Step and Cofidis had not yet given up their hopes for victory and both teams drove the peloton for their sprinters Rosseler and Chavanel.
Andy Schleck managed to stay in the lead for a while, but the two T-Mobile riders chased him down, even if that meant also bringing back Fabian Cancellara. With the two brothers being very offensive, the prologue winner of this year's Tour de France only had to follow the moves, without having to use all of his strength.
Nobody really managed to break away, and so the race was to be decided in a sprint of 6 riders:
Cancellara wins the sprint ahead of Kirchen
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Andy and Frank Schleck, Fabian Cancellara, Kim Kirchen, Axel Merckx and Gilberto Simoni. Three CSC against two T-Mobile riders and an isolated Saunier-Duval member.
Fabian Cancellara
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Cancellara was the freshest, he started a long sprint. Kim Kirchen also made his move, moved up to him, but had to settle down with second place against the last
jump onto the line from the Swiss rider
Frank Schleck and Gilberto Simoni took the next places, whereas Igor Abakoumov won the sprint of the peloton, around 30 seconds back. Benoît Joachim was the winner of the points classification, whereas Andy Schleck also was invited to the victory ceremony. In fact, the organizers had decided to honour his performances in this year's Giro d'Italia by handling out the first Charly Gaul memorial prize to him.
Gala Tour de France '07 >>
