Results:
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Kim Kirchen
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winner
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Kim Kirchen has defended his Luxemburg National time-trial champion title in the category elite with contract, in a race where there hasn't been any real opposition for him. Frank and Andy Schleck had indeed decided to skip the race due to some health problems and Kim was the only representative of the ACC Contern on the mostly flat course next to Differdange, to be ridden three times. Christian Poos seemed to be the most dangerous contender for Kim since he has already won the title five times in the past. But the rider from Differdange didn't have his best legs today and, after 5 kilometers, he was already twenty seconds late on Kirchen, having set nearly the same intermediate time than Laurent Didier. The son of Lucien Didier and grandson of cycling legend Bim Diederich showed that he is progressing every year in all the disciplines and, on the second lap, he was clearly faster than Christian Poos. After two out of three laps, a very constantly riding Kim Kirchen had gained around 30 seconds on Didier and fifty on Poos. Kim also stayed very focused on the last lap and he finally won the time-trial championships in 22'27" for 17,4 km, meaning 46,5 km/h average speed on a very twisty and narrow course with lots of rythm changes. Laurent Didier at 51 seconds and Christian Poos at 1'36" completed the podium of a race without any suspense. This was not the case in the elite without contract category where old fighter Pascal Triebel was only a few seconds late on the new champion Ralph Diseviscourt.
21.06.2008 8. Berne - Berne (38,5 km ITT)
Cancellara, who else?
Résultats:
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Fabian Cancellara
Fabian Cancellara
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15th at 2'37”
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24th at 8’08"
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3rd at 9 P.
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DNS
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27th at 3'01"
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9th at 4'04"
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6th at 28p.
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Who else than Fabian Cancellara could have won the final time-trial of the Tour de Suisse, on home soil in Bern ? In front of massive and excited crowd, the Swiss rider dominated his opponents and won both the stage and the overall classification with a big margin. The course was very tough with lots of rythm changes and two small climbs on each of the two laps in the suburbs of Bern. The first intermediate times confirmed that it was a course for very complete contenders since the classic riders Haussler, O'Grady, Ballan and Hushovd all did very well and the two best times before the last series of 30 riders were held by Markus Burghardt and Sylvain Chavanel. Among the best in the overall classification, Thomas Dekker quickly set a new reference mark in 47'41", whereas Andy Schleck also showed a good ride at 47,53 km/h average speed. The Luxemburgish rider clocked in 48'36", which placed him in ninth position in the provisional classification at that moment and was worth a 15th spot in the final stage rankings, 2'37" late on the winner. The big favourite, as for him, showed a tremendous start and at the first intermediate timing, Cancellara was already 27 seconds ahead second placed Tony Martin and he was virtually in yellow. Kim Kirchen also had a quick start, he was near to Thomas Dekker after the first lap, but lost a lot of time on the third quarter of the race, more than a minute. After two laps, the big winner was of course named Fabian Cancellara, the team-mate of Frank and Andy Schleck had even passed Roman Kreuziger, who started two minutes ahead of him, and he has won the stage in 45'59", which means a tremendous 50,23 km/h average speed. During his fabulous ride, the olympic champion took 1'27" advantage on second placed Tony Martin, 1'43" on Thomas Dekker in third position and even 4 minutes on poor Tadej Valjavec, who couldn't do anything against him. Cancellara also takes the final overall win in a race that was tailor-made for him, 2'02" ahead of the surprisingly strong Tony Martin and 2'24 ahead of defending champion Roman Kreuziger. The best Luxemburgish rider overall is Kim Kirchen, the national time-trial champion hasn't lost too much time in the last kilometers today, but nevertheless finished on a disappointing 27th place, 3 minutes behind the winner (average speed 47,1 km/h). He didn't gain any overall position, instead he lost one and finished 9th in the overall rankings, 4'04" late on Cancellara. But he should be happy with his Tour de Suisse, since he showed that he is again among the best in the world and his stunning stage victory on an uphill finish also boosted his self confidence ahead of the upcoming Tour de France, where he will be fresher than ever. Andy Schleck should also be content with his Tour de Suisse, despite working a lot for the team, he still finished a respectable 24th, 8 minutes late on his team-mate and friend. Frank Schleck was very strong, however, he had some problems with a knee injury from the Amstel Gold Race that woke up in the cold and rainy weather. He didn't show up at today's time-trial, in order to avoid taking any risks with his damaged knee, but hopes to be fine again very soon.
20.06.2008 7. Le Sentier - Crans Montana (182 km)
Tony Martin rewarded for agressive riding
Results:
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Tony Martin
Tadej Valjavec
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43rd at 3'56"
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28th at 5’35"
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3rd at 9 p.
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10th at 2"
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31st at 6'19"
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8th at 50 p.
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5th at 2"
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8th at 1'07"
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5th at 13 p.
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German rider Tony Martin has been rewarded for his offensive riding during this year's Tour de Suisse, by winning the 7th stage to Crans Montana and continuing the incredible series of Team Columbia stage victories. Today was in fact the last chance for the climbers to take Fabian Cancellara and take some ground on him before the deciding time-trial of tomorrow. But their chances were very limited since they had only the tough final climb as playground, the rest of the stage being relatively flat. The stage was expected to be decided on the last climb, even though Hervé Duclos-Lassalle, Lars Boom, Pavel Brutt and Marcel Wyss tried to prove the contrary by breaking away early. But despite having had up to 6 minutes of advantage during the stage, they were not able to battle for the stage win and were caught again before the assault on the ski station. On the final climb, Saxo Bank set a huge tempo at the head of the group with a very strong Andy Schleck, and later on also Frank Schleck. The goal was to have a fast, but steady pace, which suits Cancellara much better than the constant rythm changes of the typical climbers, and to avoid too much attacks. It all worked out very well since only Kreuziger and, after him, Zaugg were able to jump away from the Schleck group, but the two of them were caught again later. On the second part of the climb, Frank Schleck did a tremendous work in the lead and the group of the favourites was quickly melting, so that they were only 13 riders still together when the steepest slopes were finished and the climb eased up a bit, among them Kim Kirchen. He also prefers climbing at a steady pace, so maybe he wasn't unhappy with the Saxo Bank tactics. Kim rode most of the time at the back of the group and each time when a rider was dropped, he passed him and came back into the wheels. In the last kilometer, Maxime Montfort opened a series of attacks, but it was his team-mate Tony Martin who managed to break away shortly before the finish and who crossed the line as stage winner, with a narrow margin on an upcoming Damiano Cunego. 2 seconds later, Cancellara led the first group over the line, in which Kirchen finished in 5th position and Frank Schleck in thenth. Before the deciding time trial, the Swiss rider is more than ever favourite for the overall win, since he still is only four seconds on leader Valjavec, whereas the other strong time-trailists like Martin or Klöden are at least 30 seconds further back. Kim Kirchen is now 8th overall and can possibly move up some more places tomorrow on a course that suits him well. The ambitions of Frank Schleck on the other side, who is now 28th overall, should be rather low and his time-trial will probably be a mere last test for the upcoming Tour de France. The same counts for brother Andy, who has lost more than three minutes today and crossed the finish line in 43rd position, with the satisfaction of having done some brillant team-work.
19.06.2008 6. Bad Zurzach - Vallorbe Juraparc (204 km)
KIM KIRCHEN is back again
Results:
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Kim Kirchen
Tadej Valjavec
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27th at 41"
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14th at 1’41"
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3rd at 9 p.
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96th at 5’18"
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43th at 6'19"
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winner
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11th at 1'07"
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On a course that was tailor-made for him and in rainy weather, Kim Kirchen has won the sixth stage of the Tour de Suisse, showing that he is back on top again after a very long period of bad luck. The longest stage of this Tour de Suisse didn't present any topographic difficulties ... until 15 kilomters to go. The finish in Vallorbe actually was situated at 1.030 meters above sea-level of altitude and at the end of a 3 kilometer climb with 7 % average gradient. Nothing to be really afraid of for the big names, but several riders of course wanted to anticipate the climb by being in an early break. The speed was again very high in the first racing hour, before José Rojas, Markus Burghardt, Damien Gaudin and Gerald Ciolek managed to escape from the group on the wet roads. But their attempt didn’t have the success they had hoped for and, even if they knew up to 6 minutes of advantage during the stage, the four riders were caught as the final difficulties were
just about to begin. Roman Kreuziger was the first of the favourites to jump out of the box, followed by Albasini, then later on Montfort and Kirchen. The Luxemburgish rider was very strong, he has timed his move perfectly and was the only one capable of bridging up to last year’s overall winner. He jumped Kreuziger on the line and took the fifth stage victory for his Columbia team at this race. 2 seconds after him, the Czech rider had to acknowledge Kirchen’s tactical masterpiece and finished second whereas the first bigger group of around 15 riders was 7 seconds late and led over the line by Peter Velits. The Schleck brothers have lost time today after having worked a lot for Fabian Cancellara on the first part of the climb. The Swiss rider was again impressive today by finishing in 6th place and is currently moving up to the big, big favourite for the overall title, since there is still at time-trial to come on the last day. Cancellara is still second at 9 seconds from Valjavec overall, where there haven’t been much changes today, except Kirchen moving up to 11th place, a little bit more than 1 minute back, and the Schlecks moving down a bit. Andy has limited the damage and finished 27th today, less than a minute late on Kim Kirchen. He is still inside the Top 15 overall, whereas Frank lost more than five minutes today and crossed the line in a small group together with three of his team-mates. The hero of the recent Tour de Luxembourg is back to 43rd position overall now, leaving his chances to team-mate Cancellara.
18.06.2008 5. Oberriet - Bad Zurzach (178 km)
Fourth stage win for Columbia
Results:
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Michael Albasini
Tadej Valjavec
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105th at 0”
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13th at 1’07"
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3rd at 6 p.
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98th at 0"
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14th at 1'08"
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46th at 0"
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15th at 1'24"
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Today was less difficult on paper than in the previous days with one climb of second category and two of third category. A transition stage though with the usual cat and mouse game between the sprinter teams and a break having a go for the stage win. After several attacks on the first climb, just after the start, it was however only one rider who was allowed to get away after around 40 fast kilometres. Just like his team-mate Hungerbühler yesterday, Reto Hollenstein tried his luck with a long solo ride and, as the peloton recovered from the tough stage begin, he took up to 8 minutes of advantage. But after mid-race, the gap ceased to grow
and little by little, Hollenstein started to loose ground: he had still 4 minutes with 50 kilometers to go, but 30 kilometres later, after 3 hours in the lead, his lone adventure at the head of the race was over. The last moments of the stage were completely controlled by the sprinter teams and it was George Hincapie who opened the rush for the line out of the last turn, with Hushovd and Mark Cavendish on his wheel. The Manxman didn’t fail to his reputation and won the sprint with a bike length advantage on Freire and Gavazzi. Kim Kirchen, Frank Schleck and Andy Schleck have also finished in the big bunch at the places 46, 98 and 105, and so they keep their respective positions in the overall rankings, where Tadej Valjavec has lost some seconds of his advantage on Cancellara, who was busy collecting bonus seconds today on the way to Bad Zurzach.
17.06.2008 4. Stäfa - Serfaus (202 km)
Columbia again with Albasini
Results:
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Michael Albasini
Tadej Valjavec
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25th at 1’05"
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13th at 1’07"
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2nd at 2 p.
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7th at 0”
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14th at 1'08"
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11th at 0"
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15th at 1'24"
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Arrival in Austria today with the first of three mountain top finish in Serfaus, and the three Luxemburgish riders were up there at the front. With two climbs of first and two of third category, the course was quite selective, but one rider had a strange idea of resisting all alone to the peloton during the 202 kilometers. Pascal Hungerbühler was very motivated to arrive on the home soil of his Vorarlberg Team and he broke away right after the start for a long solo ride with a maximum gap of 10 minutes. On the long climb up to the Albergpass, the advantage of the lone rider melted however like snow in the sun, since the peloton had accelerated considerately. Five riders went in the chase, Capecchi, Camano, Sörensen, Voeckler and Casar, but they were caught again on the descent, just like poor Hungerbühler. Burghardt and Schröder tried their luck on the flat, but the decision was to fall in the final ascent up to Serfaus. Attacks from Taaramae and Velits immediately split the peloton and about 20 riders remained in the lead, among them yellow jersey Valjavec, Cancellara, Kreuziger, Klöden, but also the complete Luxenmburg delegation with Frank Schleck, Andy Schleck et Kim Kirchen. In the last kilometres, Tony Martin attacked several times, just like Taaramae, again, and Valjavec. It was Saxo-Bank that made most of the word behind the attacks with Frank Schleck and Sörensen, but suddenly they had a moment of panic when they saw that Andy had surprisingly lost contact to the leading group. The stage victory was finally decided in a sprint with Michael Albasini being faster than Cancellara and Cunego. Frank Schleck arrived at the finish in 7th position in the same time than the winner, just like Kim Kirchen in 11th spot. The Luxemburgish rider had to battle hard to hold on to the group in the last kilometres, when several other riders were dropped, and he found himself in the last position at one moment and couldn’t move up quickly enough at the end to participate in the sprint for the win. Tadej Valjavec showed a solid performance today and retained his yellow jersey, with now 14 seconds advantage on Zaugg and Cancellara. Further behind, Luxemburg’s rider are situated all together at the positions 13 to 15, a bit more than a minute late. Even if Andy Schleck has lost a minute today by arriving in a second group of about 10 riders, he remains our best contender ahead of brother Frank and Kim Kirchen, who has moved up by more than 40 places in the overall rankings today.
16.06.2008 3. Biasca - Stäfa (197 km)
Andy Schleck in successful break
Results:
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Matti Breschel
Fabian Cancellara
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6th at 0"
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2nd at 2"
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Leader
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25th at 1'04"
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33rd at 1'08"
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19th at 1'04"
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52nd at 1'24"
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It was a very interesting stage from the beginning, which is partly due to the action of a very offensive Andy Schleck. After the start, the riders actually had to climb during about 20 kilometres to arrive on the Passo di San Gottardo, the roof of the Tour of Switzerland 2009 at 2108 meters above sea level. The young Luxemburgish rider used the opportunity to get into a big break with his team-mate Matti Breschel and riders like among others Zaugg, Haussler, Chavanel, Martin, Iglinsky, Van Summeren, Efimkin, Valjavec, Rohregger or Velits. This was an explosive mix of GC contenders and offensive riders going for the stage win and, whereas several teams in the peloton didn’t have any clear idea about the tactics to adopt with this group of 27, the gap quickly grew to over three minutes. On the long downhill from the Gothard, the main group accelerated a bit and towards mid-race, when there were still a climb of second category and lots of flat
waiting for the riders, the advantage of Schleck and Co had decreased to two minutes. On the climb to Sattelegg, the group exploded into several parts and only the strongest remained in the lead: Breschel, Zaugg, Iglinksiy, Efimkin, Valjavec, Rohregger, Velits, Kiserlovsky and Andy Schleck, who worked a whole lot. The peloton, that had reduced the gap to less than one and a half minute at a moment, lost some ground again on the following kilometres. Columbia started to chase seriously in the peloton with 15 kilometres to go, but it was too late for the stage win. This one went to Matti Breschel in the sprint, ahead of Iglinskiy and Valjavec. The peloton with Kim Kirchen in 19th and Frank Schleck in 25th position arrived in Stäfa 1'04" later, so that the battle for the yellow jersey was very close. Due to the bonus seconds, Tadej Valjavec finally took it with 2 seconds advantage on Andy Schleck and 11 on Peter Velits. Frank Schleck is now 33rd overall with 1'08" deficit and Kim Kirchen, who seems to have well recovered from his back-ache after yesterday's crash is 52nd at 1'24". Due to his presence in the break today, Andy will be at the start of tomorrow’s stage with the green jersey of leader in the intermediate sprint classification on his shoulders.
15.06.2008 2. Davos - Lumino (195 km)
Cavendish in the spotlights in Lumino
Results:
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Mark Cavendish
Fabian Cancellara
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25th at 0"
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34th at 52"
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62nd at 0"
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26th at 48"
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83rd at 30"
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50th at 1'04"
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4 riders have attacked right at the beginning of the second stage, they were Enrico Gasparotto, Samuel Dumoulin, William Frischkorn and Marlon Perez. After a long downhill on the same course than yesterday, but in the opposite direction, they had five minutes of advantage at the foot of the Lukmanier-pass. This was the only mountain of the day, but with the summit culminating at nearly 2000 meters above sea-level, it was a tough obstacle. But the peloton didn’t accelerate until towards the end of the climb, so that only few riders were dropped and the break still had three minutes at the top. Saxo-Bank and later Cervélo continued to
control the peloton and the gap decreased slowly, but constantly. With about four kilometres to go, the break was swallowed up after nearly 200 kilometres of escape and the bunch sprint had become obvious. Thor Hushovd opened a long sprint, but this time, Mark Cavendish was well present in the first group and he took the stage win with a comfortable margin over Freire and the Norwegian. Frank and Andy Schleck crossed the finish line in positions 25 and 62, in the same time than the winner and they can be happy to have retained Cancellara’s yellow jersey with the team, for at least another day. Kim Kirchen was a little bit unluckier today since he crashed together with half a dozen other riders in a tunnel on the descent of the Lukmanier. He was able to continue and arrived in Lumino together with the peloton, but he wasn't very keen on participating in the final rush to the line and lost 30" due to a split in the peloton. From the 6th place, Kim thumbles down to 50th in the overall classification, a little bit more than a minute late on Cancellara.
14.06.2008 1. Davos - Davos (150 km)
Narrow sprint win for Eisel
Results:
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Bernhard Eisel
Fabian Cancellara
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54th at 0"
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43rd at 52"
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47th at 0"
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32nd at 48"
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64th at 0"
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6th at 34"
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Team Columbia has clearly left its mark on the second day of the Tour de Suisse, with the stage win of Bernhard Eisel after a very tough sprint. Kim Kirchen and his team-mates were up at the front in the final, even if star sprinter Mark Cavendish wasn’t among the best due to a somewhat selective stage profile. On the biggest climb of the day, with about 30 kilometres to go and as the early break consisting of Aramendie Lorente, Josef Benetseder and Hervé Duclos-Lassalle was just about to be caught, young gun Tony Martin went for a very convincing attempt. He took up to one minute advantage in his solo ride, but after 20 kilometers of chasing, Saxo Bank had neutralized his attack, just as the one from Jeremy Roy a few moments later. On the last kilometres, it was Columbia who took the control of
the group, betting on a sprint for the second fast man of the team, Bernard Eisel. Kim Kirchen chased down an attack from Markel Irizar and let the peloton into the last kilometre, where Markus Burghardt took over. Eisel was perfectly brought into position by Hincapie and, although he launched his sprint a little bit too early, he was able to hold off Gerald Ciolek and Oscar Freire on the photo-finish. The three-times world champion has been stuck next to the barriers in the sprint, otherwise he would possibly had taken the flowers today. Kim Kirchen finished the stage in 64th place in the middle of the leading group of about one hundred riders, just like the Schleck brothers in positions 47 and 54. The had ridden constantly at the front of the peloton in the last kilometres, most of the time behind their team-mates and next to yellow jersey Fabian Cancellara, willing to defend the precious golden shirt for another day.
13.06.2008 P. Mauren – Ruggell (7,8 km ITT)
Impressive Cancellara
Results:
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Fabian Cancellara
Fabian Cancellara
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48th at 49"
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48th at 49"
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33rd at 45"
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33rd at 45"
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6th at 31"
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6th at 31"
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The Tour de Suisse 2009 started with a 7,8 km prologue in Liechtenstein, on a mostly flat course with a short, but steep climb and a technical downhill with several turns towards half-race. Gustav Larsson established a first reference time in 9'56", but then, the riders from Columbia took the control of the race with no less than three riders, Monfort, Martin and Hincapie, in the three top positions. The best time of George Hincapie stood for a while, but did not resist to the fantastic ride of the big, big favourite. Fabian Cancellara impressed from the beginning to the end and he was already 16 seconds faster than the American in the intermediate timing. The Olympic champion finished his race in 9’21” for around 8 kilometres, which means a tremendous average speed of 50,05 km/h. He wins the stage with a big advantage of 19 seconds on defending Tour de Suisse champion Roman Kreuziger and 21 seconds on Andreas Klöden. Another rider who did a fine job today is Kim Kirchen. Even if he rode very carefully in the multiple bends and the descents, the Luxemburgish champ was one of the strongest in the uphill parts and on the long straight line of two kilometres leading to the finish line and rode at an average speed of 47,43 km/h. In 9’52”, he was sandwiched between his team-mates in an excellent 6th position, 31 seconds behind Cancellara. Columbia eventually showed a big collective performance with 4 riders in the Top 7. Andy and Frank Schleck, on their side, finished outside of the Top 10 today. The recent winner of the Tour of Luxemburg finished his race in 10’06” (average 46,3 km/h) and is noted in 33rd position in the stage result, a big 45” late on the yellow jersey. Compared to most of the GC contenders however, his result isn’t that bad since he looses around 20 seconds to the best of them. As usual, Andy Schleck wasn’t far away from his bro and he needed only 4 seconds more to complete his course (average speed 46 km/h), which meant 48th place in today’s classification for him, 49 seconds late on his team-mate. They will of course try to reduce that gap on the next days, when the roads will require much more climbing skills.
07.06.2009: 4. Mersch - Luxembourg (160 km)
Saxo-Bank and the Schlecks do it perfectly
Results:
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Matti Breschel
Frank Schleck
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32nd at 26"
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11th at 2'32"
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8th at 0"
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winner
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18th at 6"
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71st at 27'23"
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Team Saxo Bank has ridden perfectly during the last three days of the Tour de Luxembourg 2009, winning their third stage victory in a row today with Matti Breschel, who has already been second and third in the previous two stages. In addition, they took the team classification of the Tour and, most important, the final overall win with Frank Schleck, who wasn't really in danger today. Of course, Kim Andersen's riders did hard work out there during the whole day and especially in the final, when they raised the speed in the peloton with two clear goals: bring back the early break and try the stage win, as well as prevent Andreas Klöden to threaten Frank Schleck's overall lead with a surprise attack on the tough course around the montée de Clausen. One of the major actors in Saxo Bank's game today surely was Andy Schleck, the
younger of the two brothers has done a tremendous work in the last two laps, when he was constantly leading the peloton behind the break of the day. This one consisted of Iglinsky, Urtasun, Sokoll, Feillu, Merlo, Veelers, Cooke, Johannsson, Blain, Portal, Ravard and Kondrut and, even if they had never more than three and a half minutes of advantage, even if they did not work together very well with a lot of individual attacks, the gap to the peloton remained more or less stable on the first two local circuits. With one lap to go, Romain Feillu, Anthony Ravard and Pablo Urtasun still had around 40 seconds of advantage, but then Andy Schleck put the hammer down, eventually splitting the peloton and decreasing the gap rapidly. On the last climb up to Kirchberg, the three leaders were swallowed up and thirty riders were still in contention for the victory, among them the Schleck brothers, but also an excellent Jempy Drucker. The yellow jersey himself drove the peloton at high speed in the last two kilometers and up the climb in Clausen, before Matti Breschel showed his explosive power and won the uphill sprint clearly, in front of Usov and Marcato. Shortly behind him, Frank Schleck raised the hands into the air with a big relief: he was the final overall winner of the 69th Tour de Luxembourg, 10 seconds ahead of Andreas Klöden and one minute and a half ahead of Marco Marcato. Jempy Drucker again showed a big performance in today's stage and finished in 18th position in the first group. He is noted in 71st position in the final overall classification. Andy Schleck, on his side, finished at his ease in 32nd position today, after a hard working day, and he went straight to the podium to congratulate his brother with some champagne spraying.
06.06.2009: 3. Wiltz - Diekirch (185 km)
After Schleck comes Schleck
Results:
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Frank Schleck
Frank Schleck
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15th at 2'08"
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7th at 2'06"
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winner
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leader
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95th at 26'59"
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82nd at 27'17"
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After Andy Schleck, Frank also won a stage of the Tour de Luxembourg 2009. And in a very convincing manner! Frank was the strongest on the road today and if he also took the yellow leader jersey, he certainly deserved it. The stage was marked by a battle between the two biggest teams in the race, Astana and Saxo-Bank and the final turned into a duel between their two leaders, Schleck and Klöden. 6 riders have opened the road for a long while today and broke away even before the first of the 6 categorized climbs of the day: Ronny Martias, Danilo Napolitano, Ruslan Pidgorny, Markel Irizar, Jonathan Hivert, runner-up in the prologue, and Hannes Blank from Team Differdange. They had up to 6 minutes of advantage, but in the climb of Flebour, the peloton reacted. Astana and Saxo-Bank drove a hard pace on the climb and split the field: only around 15 riders remained in the chase of the break, among them no less than 6 Saxo-Bank (Andy Schleck, Frank Schleck, Arvesen, Sörensen, Breschel, Larsson) and three Astana (Klöden, Rast and yellow jersey Bazayev). They quickly reduced the lap to the leaders, but the rest of the peloton wasn’t far behind, less than a minute late. After 30 kilometres of hard chasing, the riders regrouped at the front of the race, with 20 riders being in the lead now. But there was still lots of climbing to come and several contenders were dropped in the first group on the next hills, whereas behind them, the big bunch also split up into several groups and lost more and more ground. In the last climb, while Andy Schleck showed unexpected signs of weakness, Frank attacked and only one rider was able to follow him, Andreas Klöden. They were clearly strong and quickly created a good gap, showing that the win could only go to one of the two. Frank Schleck surprised by attacking with 2 kilometres to go on a flat part, on a place where the strong time-trial rider Klöden would normally be considered as better. But the Luxemburgish champion stayed clear and won the queen stage of the 2009 Tour de Luxembourg 6 seconds ahead of Klöden and 1’39” ahead of team-mate Matti Breschel, fastest of the chasers. Andy Schleck finished in a second group of around 10 riders in 15th position, two minutes late on his older brother, who had also taken control of the overall classification. Before the last stage, Frank has 4 seconds advantage on Klöden, 2’06” on brother Andy in 7th position and nearly half an hour on Jempy Drucker who is noticed as 82nd. Like expected, Jempy, who isn’t a true climber, was not able to hold on to the best on today’s tough course and he has found himself in the grupetto, along with around 20 other riders. After a very hard stage ridden in the rain, he crossed the finish line in Diekirch 27 minutes late on the winner Frank Schleck.
05.06.2009: 2. Schifflange - Differdange (188 km)
Home win for Andy Schleck
Results:
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Andy Schleck
Assan Bazayev
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winner
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5th at 8"
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14th at 5"
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8th at 10"
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52nd at 27"
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23th at 32"
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Andy Schleck scored a nice home victory in the Tour de Luxembourg by winning the longest stage between Schifflange and Differdange, resisting solo with a very tight margin to the 7 chasers in his neck. The man in the spotlight during most of the stage, however, was another one: Cyrille Heymans maybe didn't expect that himself, when he attacked after only 5 kilometers, but nobody followed the move of the Luxemburgish rider and so he continued his way on his own. A long way since the U23 National champion had up to 10 minutes of advantage on a peloton led by Astana. The squad was well informed that the final local course around Differdange with the col de l'Europe would be far too difficult for young sprinter Heymans. Eventually, the local rider was caught on the first ascent of the short, but steep slope after nearly 150 kilometers of solo escape. A break of 8 riders including Sörensen, Diègo Caccia and Benjamin Gourge didn't have any success and it was on the second climb of the col de l'Europe when the decision fell. Frapporti and Vona accelerated and a group of 10 riders formed in the lead with among others Andy Schleck, Klöden, Bazayev, Txurruka or former French champion Florent Brard. Frank Schleck was further backwards when Frapporti attacked and, despite a strong reaction in the last part of the climb, he wasn't able to get into the leading group.
The Luxemburgish National champion tried to bridge up in the last loop, but he did not succeed. Reduced to eight riders, the leading group battled out the stage win in a very tight final. Andy Schleck took the lead with a few kilometers to go and, after a very fast downhill, he managed to hold off Breschel, Galdos, Marcato, Lequatre, Bazayev, Vona and Doi by only one meter. 5 seconds later, Frank Schleck crossed the finish line in 14th position, inside a small group of a dozen riders including also Andreas Klöden. Concerning Jempy Drucker, he didn't manage to get into the two front groups, but nevertheless made a brilliant race since he arrived at the finish in 52nd position within the first bigger peloton of about 50 riders, only 27 seconds late. Gregory Rast isn't in yellow any more after this tough stage, but he should not be to disappointed since he handed over the shirt to his team-mate Assan Bazayev, ahead of Marcato. But before tomorrow's stage in the Ardennes, the Schleck brothers are only 8 (Andy as 5th) respectively 10 (Frank as 8th) seconds behind the Kazakstan champ. Jempy Drucker is now 23nd overall with around 30 seconds of deficit.
04.06.2009: 1. Luxembourg - Mondorf (157 km)
Napolitano on the winning side again
Results:
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Danilo Napolitano
Gregory Rast
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71st at 0"
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26th at 13"
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41st at 0"
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11th at 10"
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74th at 0"
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13th at 10"
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The first stage took the riders to Mondorf-les-Bains, home of the Schleck family, but there were five other riders that dominated the stage for a long time: Nicolas Jalabert, Sylvère Ackermann, Amets Txurruka, Alexandre Usov and Sébastien Turgot. They took off after 25 kilometers, even before the major difficulties of the day showed up and took up to 6 minutes of advantage over the climbs of Beaufort, Osweiler or Bicherhaff. The peloton didn't show a great interest in chasing them down, at least until they got near to the local course in Mondorf. But then, the Schleck brothers sent their Saxo Bank armada to the front and, together with Astana, they worked on decreasing the gap steadily. Nicolas Jalabert knew that the break was to be caught again and tried his luck on his own, with about 30 kilometers to go. But after a nice solo effort, the younger Jalabert was also swallowed up at about 10 kilometers from the line. A last attempt by Belgian rider Benjamin Gourgue, who once was best U23 rider in a Grand-prix OST-Fenster won by Vincenzo Centrone, didn't have any success and so the peloton drove to a bunch sprint in the last kilometers. The favourites were up there with Bozic, Dall'Antonia, Haselbacher, Feillu and, of course, Danilo Napolitano. The Italian was fastest on paper and eventually snatched the stage win ahead of Caethoven and Veelers, finding himself on the winning side again after several weeks of bad luck. The two Luxemburgish riders Christian Poos and Cyrille Heymans also matched up in the sprint, finishing in 9th and 10th place, whereas Jempy Drucker (74th) and the Schleck brothers (41st Frank and 71st Andy) stayed away from the kamikaze action and finished further back in the peloton. Andy Schleck didn't have his best legs today, even if he tried to split the peloton just after the very steep Scheierbierg, with 50 kilometers to go. Most important for them today was to finish the stage without damage, with a very selective final ahead of them on tomorrow's stage.
03.06.2009: P. Luxembourg (2,7 km ITT)
Rast reminds himself of good memories
Results:
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Gregory Rast
Gregory Rast
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26th at 13"
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26th at 13"
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11th at 10"
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11th at 10"
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13th at 10"
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13th at 10"
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Just like in the last years, the Tour de Luxembourg has started with a short and spectacular prologue in the streets of Luxemburg-capital, with a steep and cobbled climb waiting for the riders on the course. Gregory Rast reminded himself of good memories there since the Swiss rider was 4th in this same prologue in 2007, during the same year that he finished the race as overall winner. In 3'46" for 2,7 kilometres, Rast dominated the time-trial with an impressive average speed of 42,86 km/h and he had 2 seconds advantage on French rider Jonathan Hivert and 4 seconds on another rider from France, Romain Feillu. Several of the favourites followed behind this trio in the classification, namely Bazayev, Larsson, Klöden and Cooke. On the Luxemburgish side, the result is also very satisfying since Andy Schleck finished in 26th position and looses only 13 seconds to Rast, he remains though in contact with the leaders. Brother Frank did even better and finished 11th of the stage, only 10 seconds back. After the prologue, the two Saxo-Bank riders are both in good position ahead of the next stages. But the big suprise today came from Jempy Drucker, who finished in an excellent 3'56", in the same time than Frank Schleck and Remi Cusin. At 41 km/h average speed, he left narrowly behind him riders like Matti Breschel, Matteo Carrara or Kurt-Asle Arvesen.
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