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In 2007, the ACC Contern has welcomed a new rider among its members: the cyclo-cross specialist has transfered his license to our club, as he is busy on his last season as U23 rider. During the summer the professionnal riders licensed at ACC Contern continue to provide us with outstanding performances, notably the second position of Andy Schleck at the Giro d'Italia or the excellent results of his brother Frank in the Ardennes classics or of Kim Kirchen at the Tour de France. Regarding our organizations, they have been rather traditionnal with the usual races, all of them held under splendid weather conditions: a good Charly Gaul in September, a cyclo-cross with only few spectators in October and a big event in the summer, regrouping Gala Tour de France, Ostfenster and Faber in Luxemburg-capital.
The 83rd Grand-prix François Faber and the 16th Grand-prix Ostfenster have thus taken place on August, 5, 2007, as prelude for the Gala Tour de France near the central station of Luxembourg-town.
The two races have been held as criterium on the traditionnal course of the Gala, the Grand-prix François Faber for women, novices, juniors and masters and the Grand-prix Ostfenster for U23 and elite riders. During a marathon day, around 50 riders have lined up at 12h30 for the GP Faber, behind the 4th "City on Wheels" for inline-skaters and the "Team-Trophy" for corporate teams. After a very quick start, the peloton quickly split up into several parts and masters rider Pascal Kess collected most of the points during the intermediate sprints. Five riders broke away on the last laps, Kess, Dias Dos Santos, Splinter, Hermes and Klein, and Vincent Dias Dos Santos was quickest in the final rush for the line. But due to the points collected earlier in the race, Pascal Kess was declared final overall winner of the 83rd Grand-prix François Faber, with just a single point advantage on the best junior rider Dias Dos Santos. Olivier Wies was first in the novice category and Suzie Godart was best lady in the race.
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Shortly after 14 o'clock, 44 riders took the start for 60 laps of the Grand-prix Ostfenster. The speed was also very high at the beginning and after an attack from Tino Fernandez, about 10 riders broke away from the peloton. A little bit later, Evgheni Utalov and Gerard Wietor have left the other riders of the break behind them, whereas Gusty Bausch and Joel Zangerlé left the peloton and bridged up to the two leaders. Bausch took most of the points in the intermediate sprints and, even if Zangerlé was first on the line in the last lap, the cyclo-cross specialist had enough points to writ his name into the palmares of the 16th Grand-prix Ostfenster ahead of Zangerlé and German rider Selmikeit.
The biggest race of August 5 was of course the 11th Gala Tour de France for professional riders, which took place after the inline-skate events, the Team-Trophy, the crits for all categories and the Yuppi Trophy for young riders between 6 and 10 years of age.
40 riders took off at 18 o'clock for 80 laps of tremendous racing.
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The stars were all there in the avenue de la Liberté and they didn't hesitate to show themselves in front of a large audience, estimated at 15.000 fans. After accelerations from Merckx, Gilbert and Vasseur, national hero Andy Schleck took the lead for the first time. The splendid white jersey from the Giro d'Italia broke away together with young Luxemburgish rider Kim Michely, but Kirchen, Simoni and Co initiated the chase to bring him back to reason again. Brother Frank also tried something, just as Kirchen, Joachim, Amorisson, Simoni, Aerts and lots of others, but it was only with 20 laps to go that the race entered its deciding moment. 9 riders took off from the rest, a group that has soon decreased to six only. Andy Schleck and the double Giro winner Gilberto Simoni made a promising move, but they were caught again with just two laps to go, leaving the decision to a sprint among Simoni, Merckx, Kirchen, two Schlecks as well as Fabian Cancellara, and the time-trial world champion took the win with a very narrow margin on Kim Kirchen and Frank Schleck.
The cyclosport-race La 18ème Charly Gaul was held in 2007 on its traditionnal date in mid-september. 882 riders lined up in Contern under splendid sunshine, which isn't far away from the record edition of 920 contestants in 2005.
The A-course was once more hilly with 11 uphills and 1750 meters in change of altitude during 160 kilometers, with among others the climbs of
Gralingen, Wahlhausen and Ermsdorf, and it had attracted 370 brave riders.
It was on the côte de Gralingen, first real difficulty of the day, that the peloton exploded after a fast first hour of racing.
On the côte de Wahlhausen, Feike Loots took the lead of the race together with Mezzapesa, joined a little bit later by Canoy, Olieman, Diseviscourt, Schroen, Derwa and Plescia. 3 Dutch riders, 3 Belgians and 2 Luxemburgers that worked well together until 8 kilometers from the finish, when Mark Olieman launched a deciding attack. The young Dutchman took over the lead alone, but he was joined and passed by Feide Loots in the very last kilometer, on the ultimate climb to the finish. Thriathlete Sione Jongstra took the women's classification for the third year in a row by dropping her main opponent Ilona Valkenburg, in the last, very steep uphill. The B-race has seen 500 riders at the start for quite an easy course with 750 meters of change in altitude on 90 kilometers. 3 riders managed to break away at about 10 kilometers from the finish, after having been in the big lead group of 23 riders that formed on the climb of Ermsdorf, main difficulty of the day. Bruno Beckers, Pascal Jodocy and Cédric Engel battled out the victory in the last kilometer and crossed the finish line in this order. Christine Majerus won the ladies race by dropping Monique Ludovicy by more than 30 seconds on the last climb in Contern.
The cyclo-cross Nationals were planned for January 2008 in Contern and so the 32nd international cyclo-cross of the ACC Contern headed to Niederanven, where it was held under the denomination 1st Grand-prix de la Commune de Niederanven.
The day was placed under the sign of Kim Kirchen, since his fanclub organized the support act in his hometown, including a training ride with Kim and races for kids supported by the 2nd of the Tour of Switzerland. Once again, the weather was excellent and the course fast fast and technical, leaving the suspense until the very end. The first cyclo-cross in Niederanven was a huge success, only the crowd didn't show up very numerous on that Sunday.
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A lead group of 8 riders formed in the firs laps with Birkenfeld, Sickmüller, Commeyne, Van den Bosch, Suarez, Chrobak, Derepas and the new member of the ACC Contern, Jempy Drucker. Drucker was eliminated due to a mechanicla, but the rest of the group stayed together for a moment, despite repeated attacks from Birkenfeld, Chrobak and Derepas.
With two laps to go, Johannes Sickmüller, the runner-up of two years ago, accelerated and took over the lead alone. He likes these fast courses and managed to stay at front until the end. Sichmüller won the 1st Grand-prix de la Commune de Niederanven 18 seconds ahead of Derepas and 22 ahead of his team-mate and German champion René Birkenfeld. In the 19th Grand-prix Comat for youth categories, the winners were named Vincent Dias Dos Santos (juniors), Bob Jungels (novices) and Christine Kovelter (ladies)
Even if there hasn't been any great victories in 2007, the performances of the professionnal riders licensed at the ACC Contern were once again impressive, like for example the second place of Andy Schleck at the Giro d'Italia. Already in January and February, Kim Kirchen was in good shape and showed it at the Tour of Quatar (7th in a stage) and the Tour of California (12th overall), whereas Frank Schleck finished third of the Vuelta Valencia.
Kim Kirchen continued with a third place in Milano-Torino in the month of march, followed by an excellent 2nd position overall at Tirreno-Adriatico, a second position that he gained due to an excellent time-trial, where he finished third behind Schumacher and Klöden, plus a 7th place in the queen stage. Kim also was good in Milano-San Remo, where he finished 13th and impressed in the Poggio, just like Frank Schleck. The Schleck brothers had ridden Paris-Nice as preparation, where Frank had taken 8th overall. The three of them were ready for the spring classics, and Kim Kirchen took third position behind Freire in the Brabantse Pijl behind Oscar Freire. Frank Schleck did well in the Critérium International (4th at a stage) and at the Vuelta al Pais Vasco (8th overall). In the Ardennes classics, the CSC rider did a really good score: 10th at the Amstel Gold Race, 7th in the Flèche Wallonne and 3rd at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. These results should have been even better if a heavy crash during the Amstel hadn't caused him some harm in Valkenburg and in Huy. In the Doyenne, Frank had no pain any more and he was maybe the strongest rider in the race, but was beaten by a smarter Danilo Di Luca in the final sprint. Kim Kirchen tried his luck in the Flèche Wallonne with a long break that finished only at the foot of the Mur de Huy, and he finished 14th at the Amstel and 10th in Liège.
And Andy Schleck? The youngest of the family quietly prepared for his main goal of the season, during the month of May. The last race showed his good form, since he finished 8th overall at the Tour de Romandie. At the Giro d'Italia, Schleck showed his tremendous skills. He was already in a good position after the opening team-time-trial and made his first appearence during the fourth stage, on top of the Montevergine where he finished fourth in the same time than the winner Danilo di Luca. On the slopes of Santuario Nostra Signora
Della Guardia, several days later, Andy made it even better, since it was himself who attacked the group of the favourites on the final climb behind Piepoli, and only Di Luca was able to bridge up to the Luxemburgish rider and beat him for second place. After 10 days, Schleck was in a good position overall (12th behind leader Noé) and had already taken the white jersey of best young rider. The next battle for the overall victory took place in the Alps and, if Di Luca seemed very strong, Andy was also tremendous again by taking 3rd place behind Di Luca and Simoni in Briançon. The next day, in the mountain time trial, the CSC rider was noted in 10th position and he moved up to 3rd place overall, less than 2 minutes late on the pink jersey held by Di Luca. Most of the people waited for a big setback for the young, inexperimented rider, but Andy had only a small moment of weakness during the stage of Tre Cime di Lavaredo, where he lacked of support from his team and lost a minute to Di Luca, but managed to keep the white jersey and the third position overall. Everyone waited for the Zoncolan to come, this terrible, steep slope that the riders had to tackle at the end of stage 17. On this extreme climb, Andy was yet again fantastic and behind the two star climbers Simoni and Piepoli, the Luxemburgish rider took 3rd place at the finish, even gaining some time on Di Luca. After the last mountain stage, Schleck was second overall, 2'24" late on Di Luca. During the last time-trial, Andy again showed his great abilities and took 6th position, thus maintainig the second place overall until the finish in Milano. On the end of may, Kim Kirchen and Frank Schleck also resumed racing after some weeks of recuperation, and a 10th place in the mountain time trial of the difficult Volta Catalunya for Kim and a 4th place overall for Frank at the Bayern-rundfahrt showed that they didn't have lost much of their form since the spring classics. Both of them continued their season at the Tour de Suisse,
where Frank Schleck scored double on day three: stage victory and golden jersey. The overall classification on that night had a severe Luxemburgish touch: Frank Schleck first, Kim Kirchen third with only Efimkin between the two. After two days in yellow, Schleck had to hand over the leader jersey to Dekker and on the following stages, he wasn't quite as strong as in the beginning of the week, whereas Kim Kirchen continued to be brilliant in the mountains: after a third place on the Grimselpass, he moved up to second overall, 24 seconds behind leader Efimkin. But on the final time Trial, Vladmimir Karpets was just too strong for the Luxemburgish rider and the Russian took the overall victory with a minute advantage on Kim Kirchen, Frank Schleck being noted in 7th position.
The Luxemburgish National championships were not quite successfull and none of the riders claimed a title, but Frank and Kim did an excellent Tour de France in July. On the first days already, Kirchen showed himself and never finished outside the Top 30, he even took 4th place behind Pozzato on the very hilly 5th stage. In the Alps, Kirchen worked for his team-mate and yellow jersey Linus Gerdemann and lost some time, but with an 8th place on the Galibier stage on the last day, he showed that his Tour was far from over.
The Galibier didn't turn out as good for Frank Schleck, who had been tremendous on the day before, when he took fifth place in Tignes. On the way to Briançon, Frank lost three minutes on the slopes of the giant mountain. The first day in the Pyrenees wasn't a good one for both of the Luxemburgish riders, but on the next day, Kim Kirchen attacked at the beginning of the stage. He had an epic day at the front of the race, passing five cols in the lead group, even if he was dropped by Vinokourov on the last climb. But several months later, Kirchen was declared winner of the 15th stage of the Tour de France 2007 between Foix and Loudenvielle-le-Louron, since the Kazakh rider was eliminated for doping. After a 15th place on the mountain top finish at col de l'Aubisque and a solid 13th position in the final time trial, Kim ended the Tour de France as 7th overall on the Champs Elysees. Frank Schleck also did very well on the Aubisque, he was in the lead group until only few kilometers from the finish and crossed the line in 13th position. In the final overall classification, Schleck arrived in 17th position, wich was a little bit lower than the expectations, given his results during the rest of the season. After the Tour de France, the Luxemburgish fans could admire their heroes on the Gala criterium in Luxemburg-town, before serious things began again at the Tour of Ireland or the Tour of Germany for the Schlecks and at the Benelux-Tour for Kim Kirchen.
In this race that he has won several years ago, Kim did well by finishing 7th on the Amstel Gold Race stage and then 10th in the final time-trial. Another race that he has already won is the Tour de Pologne, that is often decided on the very last day in the mountains. Kim surely reminded himself of good souvenirs in Karpacz and maybe was the strongest rider on that day, but he was victim of the tactis: he had to settle down with third place behind the break consisting of Van Summeren and Gesink. Despite a crash several days before, Frank finished in 7th position overall (6th of the last stage). If the motivation of Kim Kirchen was beginning to fade after a long season, the Schlecks still had some goals for the final part. Frank continued with the 3-Länder-Tour in Germany, where he was in the good group on the second day and finished 5th, which brought him a 4th position overall at the end behind Thomas Dekker. A good sign for the world championships in Stuttgard, where Luxemburg did some perfect team-work with Kim Kirchen in an early attack and the Schleck brothers waiting until the end. But in the last kilometers, Paolo Bettini simply was the strongest, even if Frank was the only one able to follow the Italian on the last climb. But Schumacher, Evans and Kolobnev bridged up again, Schleck tried his luck several times in the last kilometers but had to settle down with an unlucky fourth place in the sprint to the line. In the automn classics in Italy, Schleck showed again tremendous form, he finished 2nd at the Coppa Sabbatini behind Visconti before winning the Giro dell'Emilia in impressive manner, by dropping none other than Davide Rebellin on the final climb. But Schleck was unlucky in his favourite race, the Giro di Lombardia which he finished in 13th position, after having had a crash with 6 kilometers to go,
when he was still in contention for the victory. Brother Andy stepped in, being also present in the leading group. The younger Schleck finished fourth at the end, 10 seconds only behind the winner Damiano Cunego. After the race of the falling leaves, the road season 2007 was finished, a season or which people will remind the fantastic Giro d'Italia of Andy, the performances of Kim in the Tour de France and the extraordinary regularity of Frank Schleck. But for the ACC Contern, the year wasn't over yet, since its new member Jempy Drucker had promised to make our hearts beat during the cyclo-cross season. Jempy did very well and surely belonged during the months of november and december to the very best U23 riders in the world, in the world cup (6th in Hofstade) as well as in the Superprestige (2nd in Asper-Gavere, 3rd in Gieten, 4th in Veghel), in the GVA Trofee (3rd in Hasselt, 5th on the Koppenberg, 6th in Loenhout) and in other races (7th in the European championships in Hittnau, 3rd in Neerpelt). Two races stand out among the others, that was in Leudelange at the beginning of December, where Jempy took the victory in impressive manner at an international Elite race ahead of Jan Soetens, and in Diegem at the very end of the year, where he would have won his favourite cyclo-cross if he hadn't crashed on the last lap while being in the lead.
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