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13th Gala Tour de France - 30.07.2009 - Luxembourg-ville
Report from the race:
54 riders lined up for the 13th edition of the Gala Tour de France, a little bit late on the official porgram.
first break
Columbia chasing
Alessandro Ballan and Philippe Gilbert
Kim Kirchen attacked
Andy Schleck alone in the lead
victory for Frank Schleck
On lap six, most of the riders of the break were caught again, except for Remy Di Gregorio and Pascal Triebel who remained at the front. A counter attack by Alessandro Ballan, Stuart O'Grady and Pit Schlechter Schlechter brought 10 riders into the lead: Di Gregorio, Triebel, Ballan, O'Grady and Schlechter were joined by Philippe Gilbert, Christophe Kern, Marcus Burghardt, Benoît Joachim and Claude Wolter. They managed to gain around 15 seconds advantage on the main pack.
But the collaboration was not perfect in the group and the turns not that equal. Benoît Joachim didn't believe in this group any more and he decided to have a go on his own, before being caught by Gilbert, Schlechter, Wolter and Triebel, still him. But the rest of the peloton wasn't far behind and during the 15th lap, there was a general regroupement at the front. The race started again, but several riders had already lost a lot of strength so far during the first, very animated laps. Most of the Luxemburgish amateurs had shown themselves at the front, but now the serious things were about to begin with the pros taking the commands. Karsten Kroon launched an attack, chased by Andy Schleck, Joachim, Minard, Coyot, Rosseler, Beppu and Drucker, whereas the peloton was split into several pieces. The double winner of the Henninger Turm stayed solo for another two laps, but the riders from Silence-Lotto, who were at the number of four in the second group, drove everything together again for another general regroupement at mid-race.
On lap 25, Kim Kirchen splitted the peloton again with a powerfull attack and only about 15 riders were able to follow him, among them most of the favourites, but also Christian Poos and Cyril Heymans of the Team Differdange. Kim seems very motivated to take a second win in the Gala Tour de France and he accelerated again and again. It paid finally off in the 32nd lap, when Kirchen was able to break away with Philippe Gilbert. But the Schleck brothers were still in contention and they bridged up three laps later, followed by Ballan and Simoni.
This is the good break and, with 4 laps to go, there are still lots of attacks. The Luxemburgish riders stick together against the Italian and the Belgian, while Andy Schleck managed to break away. But the world champion was very strong, he tried to bridge up again with Kirchen and Frank Schleck in his wheel, while Gilbert and Simoni were not far away and had been joined by Maxime Montfort in the chase. With two laps to go, the white jersey of this year's Tour de France was caught again by his brother, by Ballan and Kirchen. Just like so often, the race was to be decided in the very last laps.
Kim Kirchen attacked yet again and managed to break away with Frank Schleck. The elder of the two brothers had been rather coam until then and hasn't done any unnessessary efforts until then. This was a good choice since it was well Frank who was the strongest in the end, leaving Kim Kirchen behind him after a last acceleration on the small climb on the course. Frank Schleck wins the 13th edition of the Gala Tour de France with 3 seconds advantage on Alessandro Ballan, who bridged up to Kirchen at the very end to beat him in the sprint. Due to his constant present in the breaks all over the race, Andy Schleck was rewarded with the win of the intermediate sprints classification.
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