It was still a little bit chilly when the 370 riders took of at 8h45 o'clock for 160 difficult kilometers, but the weather quickly warmed up and was just perfekt for a day of cycling. On the relatively easy first part of the course, the peloton took up some speed with 45 kilometers covered in the first racing hour, but despite the high rythm, a duo with Enzo Mezzapesa animated the race and took a minute of advantage on its way to Diekirch.

On the first big climb of the day, in Gralingen, the compact peloton exploded behind the two leaders, but it was as expected in Wahlhausen where a first decision was made. Feike Loots, a Dutch rider who likes big mountains, feeled very strong and took of alone in the chase of the leading duo. Loots is in big shape this summer and he took the victory on the Gran Fondo Eddy Merckx held in the Belgian Ardennes, but most of all, he took a sixth place in the La Marmotte, "the" cyclo-sport reference race with 5.500 meters of change in altitude on a 175 kilometer course, including the climbs of Galibier and Telegraphe

RIVELLA

At the top of Wahlhausen, Loots had reached Mezzapesa in the lead, whereas around 30 riders were chasing behind them, including defending champion Philippe Herman as well as some more Luxemburgish riders: Hendel, Kohn, Engelmann, Diseviscourt and Laterza. Peter Schroen, former and double winner of the B-course at the "La Charly Gaul" also managed to bridge up solo to the front, as well as a little bit later 4 more riders. So with about 50 kilometers to go, they were 7 riders in the lead: Feike Loots and Bas Canoy, two Dutch riders of the team Teams Gaul! named after Charly, another representative of the Netherlands with Olieman, Mezzapesa and Diseviscourt the Luxemburgish riders as well as the Belgians Schroen, Derwa and Plescia.

Feike Loots ahead of Mark Olieman

The last kilometers back to Contern were less selective and despite several attacks, the group stayed together until the very last kilometers. With around 8 of them to go, the young Mark Olieman accelerated in the côte of Hakenhaff and took the lead alone. With just 19 years of age, the Dutch seemed to be able to take the victory, but in the very last climb to Contern, Feike Loots attacked out of the chasing group and managed to bridge up to Olieman before beating him in the sprint for victory. 14 seconds later, Peter Schroen arrived at the finish in third place, whereas Mezzapesa was fourth, 32 seconds down. The first bigger group was 2 minutes late and led over the line by Matthieu Louis.

Sione Jongstra

In the ladie's race the winner was not an unknown name, because Sione Jongstra took the victory for the third year in a row. She is a very successfull triathlete who has already won medals in European- and Worldchampionships in the long distance as well as 7 Dutch National titles. This year, Jongstra has already on her account three wins and a third place in the Lanzarote Ironman and just as last year, she was able to drop her most serious opponennt on the climb of Barbelskraiz, just one Kilometer from the finish, to take the victory in the "La Charly Gaul" race. Because even if Sione put the hammer down in the climb of Wahlhausen early in the race, she wasn't able to get rid of Ilona Valkenburg until the very end. Both of them were riding in a group of male riders at around 100th place in the scratch classification until the last climb, where Jongstra took the necessary seconds for the win ... before switching into her running shoes and taking off for another hour of run training as preparation for the Hawaii Ironman. German Daniela Wargold completed the podium, 8 minutes late on Jongstra and Valkenburg.

Pascal Jodocy and Bruno Beckers

On the B-course of 90 kilometers, it was clear that the first deciding moment would be after around 40 Kilometer the climb of Ermsdorf. Until then, the course was nearly completely flat and the leading group was of course still very big, despite the high speed. Around 15 riders broke away from the others on the climb with among others the defending champion Jean-Michel Thimister and the Luxemburgish riders Pierre-Paul Gruen, Pascal Jodocy and Tom Meyers. 7 more riders were just behind this group and after more than 20 kilometers of chasing, they were able to bridge up to the front. So that after the climb of Graulinster, we had 23 riders up front, with more than two minutes of advantage on the next group. On the flat and windy roads leading to the climb of Mensdorf, there have been several attacks with none of them being sucessfull. But around 10 Kilometers from the finish, three riders managed to break away and they took enough advance to fight out the victory among themselvers. Bruno Beckers was the fastest in the final sprint ahead of Pascal Jodochy, whereas Cédric Engel had lost several seconds in the last climb of Bärbelskraiz and finished in third place. Pierre-Paul Grun, who has already had several Top Ten placings at La Charly Gaul, was the strongest of the chasers, but he was around 30 Seconds late on the leaders and had to settle down with fourth place, at the foot of the podium.

Christine Majerus