22nd Grand-prix Ostfenster - 03.05.2009 - Bech

Report from the race:

The Grand-prix OST-Fenster 2009 was some kind of weird race, where the groups splitted up and came together again several times during the laps, where the peloton always remained near to the early break of the day, but never was able to bridge up to them. Because under the eyes of prominent visitor Frank Schleck, Kirk Carlsen and Christian Poos were the strongest riders in the race, they were up front from the beginning to the end and battled out the victory among themselves in the last lap, where the American espoir champion took a tactical advantage from the strong performance of his team to hold off the rider from Differdange. 97 riders had signed in for the 22nd Grand-prix OST-Fenster and some exotic flair was in the air. Frank Schleck with Romain Hilger. The riders that lined up in the nice village of Bech came from 12 different countries with among them a Canadian, a New-Zealander, two Japanese riders and, most of all, 5 Americans who didn't wait long before showing their huge talent. Attacks came from the beginning and already in the first lap, a very promising group of 5 broke away: Peter Salon (national team USA), Christian Poos (Differdange), Paul Bentner (Diekirch), Daan De Jonge (Predictor-Lotto) and Christophe Gillardin (Belvaux) had about twenty seconds advantage on Claude Wolter, Claudio De Benedictis, Mark Solberg and Pit Schlechter, and another twenty on the main peloton. A main peloton which didn't seem very motivated to chase, with the riders from Differdange playing all their cards on Christian Poos, who was very strong 6th in the Ronde van Overrijsel that took place the day before in the Netherlands, and no other team willing to take its responsabilities. But in the third lap, things changed suddenly: the peloton increased the speed, swallowed the four chasers and closed the gap to the leaders. At the foot of the short, but steep climb of Esperbierg, between Herborn and Berbourg, their advantage was down to only 50 meters. "This is the moment to attack" must have thought Kirk Carlsen and with an impressive acceleration, he took off in pousuit of the leaders. 6 leaders. The chasing group. Tjarco Cuppens tried to follow him, but nobody was able to hold the wheel of the man in the stars and stripes jersey who bridged up to the front after a short, but intense effort. Eventually, they were six in the lead in the third lap and, behind them, the peloton had splitted up into several pieces after the acceleration of Carlsen, losing some ground again. 25 riders were the immediate chasers with, of course, among them some members of the teams of Differdange (Heymans, Drucker, Centrone) and PPL Belisol (Cuppens, Paas), but also an American (Chris Barton) as well as Daniel Bintz, Tom Kohn, Jacques Dahm, Patrick Gressnich, Philippe Hermann, Tom Wecker, Carlo Kirsch, Olivier Laterza and a trio from Team Espoir Robert Lange. But the rest of the pack wasn't far behind and in several waves, other riders bridged up to the first chasing group, including four from Predictor-Lotto (Boivin, Nanni, Brown, Rousseau), Japanese rider Shimada, Mark Habets, Hakan Nilson, Chris Monteleone and two more riders from Team Robert Lange. The latter were at the number of five in the group (Thiemeier, De Benedictus, Gajewiak, Ohlenschläger et Flemming) and did most of the chasing for a moment, whereas PPL Belisol for example remained surprisingly passive at the back, although they were not represented in the leading break. With four laps to go, the advantage of the 6 leading riders was around a minute, but the 36 chasers were still not working very well together. Christian Poos and Kirk Carlson. 7 riders in poursuit. Thiemeier, Cuppens and Kohn tried to bridge up alone, but nobody managed to set up a real chase in this group. As a result, several more riders, including for example the young Kevin Feiereisen who was brilliant 6th two days ago in the Henninger Turm race for juniors, bridged up from behind and the gap to the leaders increased again. But the legs started to feel tired in the break, with nearly 100 kilometers at the front now, and the small group exploded. Christian Poos and Kirk Carlsen clearly were the strongest, they took the lead followed by Guillardin, Bentner and Salon, whereas Daan De Jonge disappeared from the head of the race, even though he was among the favourites on paper today. Poos and Carlsen worked well together for a while, whereas Peter Salon dropped the two others and took up the chase alone. He was able to get close to the two leaders and had them in sight (gap 18 seconds). Carlsen was of course informed that his team-mate from Garmin-Felt was not far behind and refused to take turns at the front after that. But Christian Poos was not willing to have another american with him, and after some discussions and hesitation, he decided to do the work on his own, with the American champion in his wheel. Salon stayed wihtin sight, but he didn't manage to close up: with one lap to go, the he was 40 seconds late. Kirk Carlsen wins the GP OST-Fenster 2009. The podium: Poos, Carlsen, Salon, Feiereisen. In the meantime, there has also been some movement behind them: Centrone (Differdange), Wecker (Tétange), Kirsch (Roeserbann), Barton (Team USA), Rousseau (Predictor-Lotto) as well as Paas and Cuppens (PPL Belisol) broke away and swallowed up Guillardin and Bentner, who had a superb race today. But they were already 2 minutes late and after the last ascent of the 9,6% steep Esperbierg, the situation was clear: the victory would go either to Poos or to Carlsen. But the American was of course a lot more fresh than the Luxemburgish rider, after having spent nearly two laps in his wheel, and he attacked in one of the key sections of the race. On the windy false flat between Berbourg and Bech, he quickly took 50 meters advantage and went away for a solo win. Kirk Carlsen finally won the 22nd Grand-prix OST-Fenster with 17 seconds advantage on Christian Poos, thus being the first American to write his name into the palmares of the race. 1'06" later, fellow countryman Peter Salon took third place, whereas the fourth position went to another US-rider. Chris Barton eventually left all the others behind in the last lap and completed the extraordinary performance of the American National Team in Luxemburg. Maikel Paas won the sprint of the first group for 5th place, while Jempy Drucker finished 14th in a second group. He is licensed with the ACC Contern, but rides this year for the Continental team of Differdange. 3'48" behind the winner, Kevin Feiereisen was fastest of a third group, thus taking 21st position and first junior place. Maybe he knows that several years ago (1998), Frank Schleck finished best junior rider during the 14th edition of the Grand-prix OST-Fenster.

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