SEARCH ON THIS SITE: Type a word and submit(please do not use capitals) La 21ème Charly Gaul - September 5, 2010 - Echternach Report: The 21st La Charly Gaul has attracted up to 1000 participants, among them former Flèche Wallonne winner Kim Andersen and two times Giro d'Italia champion Gilberto Simoni. Under bright sunshine, two well-known riders have taken the victory in the scratch races because Jean-Charles Martin and Peter Schroen took both their third victory in the A respectively B category. In the women's rankings however, Mariska Breyne and Melissa Flagothier appear for the first time on the winner's list. With perfect weather conditions, there were plenty of people in Echternach for the 21st edition of the only cyclosport event in Luxemburg. start under bright sunshine 950 riders registrated on the lists of the ACC Contern, which means 137 participants less than in the record year 2009, but still about 200 more than in the year 2008 and the 2010 edition is taking second place in the rankings of the most popular ever editions of La Charly Gaul, ahead of 2005 (928 registrations). 353 brave riders (422 in the previous year) opted for the long course of 160 kilometres, while 597 contenders rather preferred the shorter race of 95 kilometres. There were also less female riders in the big event (11 ladies at the start in 2010 but 19 in 2009) while the amount of women in the B-race nearly remained the same than last year (24 this time and 25 in 2009). Jérôme Simon and Charel Faust were the youngest riders in the peloton, finishing 227th and 434th of La Charly Gaul B while Robert Junker showed a nice performance by finishing the 95 kilometres course at the tender age of 80 years. In La Charly Gaul A, Albert Even was the most experienced rider with 69 years and he showed a tremendous perfomance by taking 142th place of the day, less than an hour behind the winner Jean-Charles Martin, by more than 30 years younger than him. Yves Lehnert and Nico Thoma also showed up once again this year, both of them remaining the two riders that have participated in every single of the 21 editions of the race without exception. Luxemburgish riders were once again in the majority (266 contenders in 2010, 347 in 2009) ahead of the Belgian (165 registrations) and the Dutch contenders (109). But most of the home riders opted for the shorter course (204 Luxemburgish riders at the start of La Charly Gaul B) and in La Charly Gaul A, the Dutch riders formed the biggest group (88 registrations) ahead of the Belgian (79) and the ones from Luxemburg (62). Next to the other traditionnal nations like Germans, Italians, Portuguese or Danes, there were also some more exotic riders at the start in Echternach like côte d'Eppeldorf one Canadian, one American, one Japanese, one rider from Hungria, from Monaco, Poland and Rumania. (riders from 23 different nations at the start) The course visited mainly the same regions as last year but, with 2100 metres of change in altitude (1600 in 2009) for the big course and 1200 metres (1000 metres in 2009) for the smaller one, it was clearly more difficult than 12 months ago. While the first kilometres have been completely flat in the last two years, there was a long climb just after the start this year, meaning less bigger groups and more security during the whole race. The final of the race was also tougher with the Pafebierg inside the last 20 kilometres before the rush to the line in Echternach. On the long course, it was again the mighty climb of Groesteen (3,8 km at 7,4 %) who made the biggest selection, but there was new quite difficult climb up to Beaufort passing through the small village of Eppeldorf. It is 3 kilometres long at 6,9 % average gradient and contains a long, straight and very steep section with slopes of more than 10 %. Once again, the beauty of the countryside was one of the major attactions of this Charly Gaul with for example the 16 kilometre long, slightly uphill part to the highest point of the race in Schmuelen, the valley of the Our, the valley of Mullerthal, the heights of Pafebierg or the downhill to the valley of the Sure and the rush to the finish in Echternach. Race A The start of the A-race over 160 kilometres was fast as usual and soon, the peloton split up into several groups on the climb to Michelshof, just after the start. 50 riders remained in the lead at the summit of the climb, but another 30 of them were able to bridge up shortly after that. The next climbs were not too difficult and the situation remained the same in the lead. When Enzo Mezzapesa attacked after 60 kilometres, they were still around 80 chasing him in the valley of the Our. the next bigger group was one minute and a half behind the first one at that moment. first climb of the day The rider from Differdange was the first one to tackle the climb of Groesteen, but he was soon passed by a very strong Ralph Diseviscourt. The Luxemburg time-trial champion showed an impressive ride on the legendary climb and, if nobody was able to follow, the peloton exploded completely behind him. Ralph Diseviscourt, who was second in last year's race after a long break of more than 120 kilometres, arrived alone at the top of the Groesteen, 15 seconds ahead of a small group of 6 riders containing among others Belgian elite rider Anthony Spysschaert, Luxemburg's 2006 winner Philippe Herman an another Belgian named Peter Enckels. 10 seconds later, another group of 12 riders arrived at the top, followed by 7 more at 30 seconds of the leader, including two times Charly Gaul winner Jean-Charles Martin. Diseviscourt, a three times winner of the Gran Fondo Eddy Merckx, showed a great race at the front and he extended his lead up to one minute and a half after the descent, while the three following groups came together and they were now 28 chasing him. Among them, we found Feike Loots, winner in 2007, Mezzapesa, winner in 1997, the third placed of last year Mark Touwen, former Luxemburgish National champion Mark Leyder, cyclo-cross specialist Gusty Bausch, Luxemburgish riders Thibault Di Fabio, Fabio Emili, Georges Jodocy and Luis Nelson or Michel Heydens from Monaco, a former car racer who has changed into cycling and cyclo-sport races in the latest year (winner of La Cyclo'Corse or La Drome Provencale this year). After the côte d’Eppeldorf, there was another selection and they were still 19 in the first group, still chasing behind Diseviscourt. Jean-Charles Martin started his move and on the climb of Consdorf, the winner from 2001 and 2003 escaped with three more riders (Bob Adrianssens, Philippe Herman and Anthony Spysschaert). With 15 kilometres to go, the bridged up to Diseviscourt, who has ridden for more than 50 kilometres alone in the lead, while the next chasers were less than a minute back. The race was far from being over at that point. for the third time winner of La Charly Gaul: Jean-Charles Martin There were no more topographic difficulties ahead of the riders, but in the valley to the finish, the speed was very high with lots of attacks in the two groups. After several unsuccessfull attempts from Michel Ossieur, Peter Enckels and Mark Touwen managed to break away from the chasing group and to bridge up to the front, where Bob Adrianssens had been dropped. Last year, Touwen did excactly the same move and ended third in the race. They were thus 6 to sprint for the victory in Echternach and Jean-Charles Martin was fastest ahead of Diseviscourt, who had already finished in second place last year. Philippe Herman, who had some difficulties in the last part of the race, took the third position, Belgian contender Peter Enckels, one of the most active riders in the race, ended in fourth while Gerrit Teunis won the sprint of the next chasers in 8th place, around 40 seconds behind. The third group of the day was already more than 10 minutes back. In the women's race, nobody was able to match up with Mariska Breyne, a young Belgian elite racer of 24 years who participated this year among others in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. At the foot of the Groesteen climb, she was in a second group, less than 2 minutes behind the head of the race and she had already a good margin on the next female chasers, Eliane Diederich and Irmgard Lütticken. After the climb, Breyne still was in very good position in the Top 100 overall, but she knew some trouble at the end of the race when she was dropped out of her group. She fell back several places in the scratch classification, but the victory in the women's category was already in the pocket at the moment. In the end, Marisky Breyne took the win with 23 minutes advantage on the second lady, Eliane Diederich from Luxemburg, who was 10 minutes faster than German Lütticken. Breyne crossed the finish line in 127th position overall, 40 minutes behind the male winner of the day. Race B Gilberto Simoni and Kim Andersen were leading the peloton during the neutralized portion through the streets of Echternach, right after the provisional start. But if both of them were open for discussions and pictures with the public and other riders at the start and the finish, they were At the start of La Charly Gaul B: Kim Andersen and Gilberto Simoni clearly not there to try and win the race. After a few pedal strokes at the head of the race though, the let themselves fall back among all the other anonymous riders. The real race, on the other hand, started soon after the sharp start: on the first climb to Michelshof, two riders attacked and took a small advantage. Jeremy Grosjean, who is used to riding cyclosport races and recently finished 10th in La Christophe Brandt as well as the champion of Lorraine in cyclo-cross Jérôme Ehald tried an early break, but they would be reeled in long before the finish line. After the climb of Eppeldorf, the toughest climb on this course, they were still around 40 riders in contention for the win, among them a majority of Belgian contenders. But the selection continued and a few climbs later, the were only 8 left in the lead: Grosjean and Ehald, still there, Peter Schroen, a double winner of La Charly Gaul B, Sylvain Melon, the 6th of the Belgian amateur championships, his brother Vincent, who had already been very offensive in last year's race, as well as three other Belgians: Christian Gonda, Julien Ponsard and Nino Guistizia. No Luxemburger though in the first group, Alain Juncker and Fabrice Prado, the best of them, rode in a second group of around 30 riders, less than a minute behind. Former professionnal Peter Schroen, who was team-mate of the great Sean Kelly and winner of a stage in the Tour of Austria as well as in Spa-Hasselt-Spa in the years 1980, was the big favourite and he took control of the race: together with Christian Gonda and Sylvain Melon, the rider who finished a total of five times on the podium of La Charly Gaul in the last eight years, broke away in the last kilometres and the three of them quickly gained more than half a minute advantage on the rest of the peloton: the victory would be battle out among the trio. Podium of La 21ème Charly Gaul B: Gonda, Schroen, Melon But while everyone prepared for the deciding sprint, an error occured: instead of following the course to the finish in the streets of Echternach, the three riders followed an escorting motor bike into another street and Schroen and Gonda arrived to the finish line ... coming from the wrong direction. A correct sprint was no longer possible, but Christian Gonda was very fair-play by stating that Schroen was the strongest of them and leaving him the victory. Gonda took second while Sylvain Melon is stated in third rank, a few seconds down on the other two. Another Belgian rider, Julien Ponsard, won the sprint of the chasing group for fourth place. In a group of three, Alain Juncker finished as best Luxemburgish rider in 11th position, one minute and 12 seconds down on the winner. In the women's event, the race was decided between Belgian Melissa Flagothier, who had been riding in a British professionnal team for two years before turning to cyclosport events and Luxemburg's Christine Kovelter. In the climb of Eppeldorf, Flagothier found herself in a second peloton in the race, whereas Kovelter was one group further behind, only a few seconds behind. But on the following kilometres, the gap between the two groups growed constantly and, in the end, Melissa Flagothier took the women's win 6 minutes ahead of Kovelter. The third rider, Martine Licker, crossed the finish line 15 minutes late. In the scratch classification, Flagothier took a good 69th place, less than 7 minutes late on Peter Schroen. The former member of the Belgian National team arrived in Echternach in the third group of around 30 riders and, while she aimed for a Top 50 place, she did a very bad sprint and finished among the last of her group. La 21ème Charly Gaul >>
SEARCH ON THIS SITE: Type a word and submit
La 21ème Charly Gaul - September 5, 2010 - Echternach
Report:
The 21st La Charly Gaul has attracted up to 1000 participants, among them former Flèche Wallonne winner Kim Andersen and two times Giro d'Italia champion Gilberto Simoni. Under bright sunshine, two well-known riders have taken the victory in the scratch races because Jean-Charles Martin and Peter Schroen took both their third victory in the A respectively B category. In the women's rankings however, Mariska Breyne and Melissa Flagothier appear for the first time on the winner's list. With perfect weather conditions, there were plenty of people in Echternach for the 21st edition of the only cyclosport event in Luxemburg. start under bright sunshine 950 riders registrated on the lists of the ACC Contern, which means 137 participants less than in the record year 2009, but still about 200 more than in the year 2008 and the 2010 edition is taking second place in the rankings of the most popular ever editions of La Charly Gaul, ahead of 2005 (928 registrations). 353 brave riders (422 in the previous year) opted for the long course of 160 kilometres, while 597 contenders rather preferred the shorter race of 95 kilometres. There were also less female riders in the big event (11 ladies at the start in 2010 but 19 in 2009) while the amount of women in the B-race nearly remained the same than last year (24 this time and 25 in 2009). Jérôme Simon and Charel Faust were the youngest riders in the peloton, finishing 227th and 434th of La Charly Gaul B while Robert Junker showed a nice performance by finishing the 95 kilometres course at the tender age of 80 years. In La Charly Gaul A, Albert Even was the most experienced rider with 69 years and he showed a tremendous perfomance by taking 142th place of the day, less than an hour behind the winner Jean-Charles Martin, by more than 30 years younger than him. Yves Lehnert and Nico Thoma also showed up once again this year, both of them remaining the two riders that have participated in every single of the 21 editions of the race without exception. Luxemburgish riders were once again in the majority (266 contenders in 2010, 347 in 2009) ahead of the Belgian (165 registrations) and the Dutch contenders (109). But most of the home riders opted for the shorter course (204 Luxemburgish riders at the start of La Charly Gaul B) and in La Charly Gaul A, the Dutch riders formed the biggest group (88 registrations) ahead of the Belgian (79) and the ones from Luxemburg (62). Next to the other traditionnal nations like Germans, Italians, Portuguese or Danes, there were also some more exotic riders at the start in Echternach like côte d'Eppeldorf one Canadian, one American, one Japanese, one rider from Hungria, from Monaco, Poland and Rumania. (riders from 23 different nations at the start) The course visited mainly the same regions as last year but, with 2100 metres of change in altitude (1600 in 2009) for the big course and 1200 metres (1000 metres in 2009) for the smaller one, it was clearly more difficult than 12 months ago. While the first kilometres have been completely flat in the last two years, there was a long climb just after the start this year, meaning less bigger groups and more security during the whole race. The final of the race was also tougher with the Pafebierg inside the last 20 kilometres before the rush to the line in Echternach. On the long course, it was again the mighty climb of Groesteen (3,8 km at 7,4 %) who made the biggest selection, but there was new quite difficult climb up to Beaufort passing through the small village of Eppeldorf. It is 3 kilometres long at 6,9 % average gradient and contains a long, straight and very steep section with slopes of more than 10 %. Once again, the beauty of the countryside was one of the major attactions of this Charly Gaul with for example the 16 kilometre long, slightly uphill part to the highest point of the race in Schmuelen, the valley of the Our, the valley of Mullerthal, the heights of Pafebierg or the downhill to the valley of the Sure and the rush to the finish in Echternach. Race A The start of the A-race over 160 kilometres was fast as usual and soon, the peloton split up into several groups on the climb to Michelshof, just after the start. 50 riders remained in the lead at the summit of the climb, but another 30 of them were able to bridge up shortly after that. The next climbs were not too difficult and the situation remained the same in the lead. When Enzo Mezzapesa attacked after 60 kilometres, they were still around 80 chasing him in the valley of the Our. the next bigger group was one minute and a half behind the first one at that moment. first climb of the day The rider from Differdange was the first one to tackle the climb of Groesteen, but he was soon passed by a very strong Ralph Diseviscourt. The Luxemburg time-trial champion showed an impressive ride on the legendary climb and, if nobody was able to follow, the peloton exploded completely behind him. Ralph Diseviscourt, who was second in last year's race after a long break of more than 120 kilometres, arrived alone at the top of the Groesteen, 15 seconds ahead of a small group of 6 riders containing among others Belgian elite rider Anthony Spysschaert, Luxemburg's 2006 winner Philippe Herman an another Belgian named Peter Enckels. 10 seconds later, another group of 12 riders arrived at the top, followed by 7 more at 30 seconds of the leader, including two times Charly Gaul winner Jean-Charles Martin. Diseviscourt, a three times winner of the Gran Fondo Eddy Merckx, showed a great race at the front and he extended his lead up to one minute and a half after the descent, while the three following groups came together and they were now 28 chasing him. Among them, we found Feike Loots, winner in 2007, Mezzapesa, winner in 1997, the third placed of last year Mark Touwen, former Luxemburgish National champion Mark Leyder, cyclo-cross specialist Gusty Bausch, Luxemburgish riders Thibault Di Fabio, Fabio Emili, Georges Jodocy and Luis Nelson or Michel Heydens from Monaco, a former car racer who has changed into cycling and cyclo-sport races in the latest year (winner of La Cyclo'Corse or La Drome Provencale this year). After the côte d’Eppeldorf, there was another selection and they were still 19 in the first group, still chasing behind Diseviscourt. Jean-Charles Martin started his move and on the climb of Consdorf, the winner from 2001 and 2003 escaped with three more riders (Bob Adrianssens, Philippe Herman and Anthony Spysschaert). With 15 kilometres to go, the bridged up to Diseviscourt, who has ridden for more than 50 kilometres alone in the lead, while the next chasers were less than a minute back. The race was far from being over at that point. for the third time winner of La Charly Gaul: Jean-Charles Martin There were no more topographic difficulties ahead of the riders, but in the valley to the finish, the speed was very high with lots of attacks in the two groups. After several unsuccessfull attempts from Michel Ossieur, Peter Enckels and Mark Touwen managed to break away from the chasing group and to bridge up to the front, where Bob Adrianssens had been dropped. Last year, Touwen did excactly the same move and ended third in the race. They were thus 6 to sprint for the victory in Echternach and Jean-Charles Martin was fastest ahead of Diseviscourt, who had already finished in second place last year. Philippe Herman, who had some difficulties in the last part of the race, took the third position, Belgian contender Peter Enckels, one of the most active riders in the race, ended in fourth while Gerrit Teunis won the sprint of the next chasers in 8th place, around 40 seconds behind. The third group of the day was already more than 10 minutes back. In the women's race, nobody was able to match up with Mariska Breyne, a young Belgian elite racer of 24 years who participated this year among others in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. At the foot of the Groesteen climb, she was in a second group, less than 2 minutes behind the head of the race and she had already a good margin on the next female chasers, Eliane Diederich and Irmgard Lütticken. After the climb, Breyne still was in very good position in the Top 100 overall, but she knew some trouble at the end of the race when she was dropped out of her group. She fell back several places in the scratch classification, but the victory in the women's category was already in the pocket at the moment. In the end, Marisky Breyne took the win with 23 minutes advantage on the second lady, Eliane Diederich from Luxemburg, who was 10 minutes faster than German Lütticken. Breyne crossed the finish line in 127th position overall, 40 minutes behind the male winner of the day. Race B Gilberto Simoni and Kim Andersen were leading the peloton during the neutralized portion through the streets of Echternach, right after the provisional start. But if both of them were open for discussions and pictures with the public and other riders at the start and the finish, they were At the start of La Charly Gaul B: Kim Andersen and Gilberto Simoni clearly not there to try and win the race. After a few pedal strokes at the head of the race though, the let themselves fall back among all the other anonymous riders. The real race, on the other hand, started soon after the sharp start: on the first climb to Michelshof, two riders attacked and took a small advantage. Jeremy Grosjean, who is used to riding cyclosport races and recently finished 10th in La Christophe Brandt as well as the champion of Lorraine in cyclo-cross Jérôme Ehald tried an early break, but they would be reeled in long before the finish line. After the climb of Eppeldorf, the toughest climb on this course, they were still around 40 riders in contention for the win, among them a majority of Belgian contenders. But the selection continued and a few climbs later, the were only 8 left in the lead: Grosjean and Ehald, still there, Peter Schroen, a double winner of La Charly Gaul B, Sylvain Melon, the 6th of the Belgian amateur championships, his brother Vincent, who had already been very offensive in last year's race, as well as three other Belgians: Christian Gonda, Julien Ponsard and Nino Guistizia. No Luxemburger though in the first group, Alain Juncker and Fabrice Prado, the best of them, rode in a second group of around 30 riders, less than a minute behind. Former professionnal Peter Schroen, who was team-mate of the great Sean Kelly and winner of a stage in the Tour of Austria as well as in Spa-Hasselt-Spa in the years 1980, was the big favourite and he took control of the race: together with Christian Gonda and Sylvain Melon, the rider who finished a total of five times on the podium of La Charly Gaul in the last eight years, broke away in the last kilometres and the three of them quickly gained more than half a minute advantage on the rest of the peloton: the victory would be battle out among the trio. Podium of La 21ème Charly Gaul B: Gonda, Schroen, Melon But while everyone prepared for the deciding sprint, an error occured: instead of following the course to the finish in the streets of Echternach, the three riders followed an escorting motor bike into another street and Schroen and Gonda arrived to the finish line ... coming from the wrong direction. A correct sprint was no longer possible, but Christian Gonda was very fair-play by stating that Schroen was the strongest of them and leaving him the victory. Gonda took second while Sylvain Melon is stated in third rank, a few seconds down on the other two. Another Belgian rider, Julien Ponsard, won the sprint of the chasing group for fourth place. In a group of three, Alain Juncker finished as best Luxemburgish rider in 11th position, one minute and 12 seconds down on the winner. In the women's event, the race was decided between Belgian Melissa Flagothier, who had been riding in a British professionnal team for two years before turning to cyclosport events and Luxemburg's Christine Kovelter. In the climb of Eppeldorf, Flagothier found herself in a second peloton in the race, whereas Kovelter was one group further behind, only a few seconds behind. But on the following kilometres, the gap between the two groups growed constantly and, in the end, Melissa Flagothier took the women's win 6 minutes ahead of Kovelter. The third rider, Martine Licker, crossed the finish line 15 minutes late. In the scratch classification, Flagothier took a good 69th place, less than 7 minutes late on Peter Schroen. The former member of the Belgian National team arrived in Echternach in the third group of around 30 riders and, while she aimed for a Top 50 place, she did a very bad sprint and finished among the last of her group. La 21ème Charly Gaul >>
With perfect weather conditions, there were plenty of people in Echternach for the 21st edition of the only cyclosport event in Luxemburg. start under bright sunshine 950 riders registrated on the lists of the ACC Contern, which means 137 participants less than in the record year 2009, but still about 200 more than in the year 2008 and the 2010 edition is taking second place in the rankings of the most popular ever editions of La Charly Gaul, ahead of 2005 (928 registrations). 353 brave riders (422 in the previous year) opted for the long course of 160 kilometres, while 597 contenders rather preferred the shorter race of 95 kilometres. There were also less female riders in the big event (11 ladies at the start in 2010 but 19 in 2009) while the amount of women in the B-race nearly remained the same than last year (24 this time and 25 in 2009). Jérôme Simon and Charel Faust were the youngest riders in the peloton, finishing 227th and 434th of La Charly Gaul B while Robert Junker showed a nice performance by finishing the 95 kilometres course at the tender age of 80 years. In La Charly Gaul A, Albert Even was the most experienced rider with 69 years and he showed a tremendous perfomance by taking 142th place of the day, less than an hour behind the winner Jean-Charles Martin, by more than 30 years younger than him. Yves Lehnert and Nico Thoma also showed up once again this year, both of them remaining the two riders that have participated in every single of the 21 editions of the race without exception. Luxemburgish riders were once again in the majority (266 contenders in 2010, 347 in 2009) ahead of the Belgian (165 registrations) and the Dutch contenders (109). But most of the home riders opted for the shorter course (204 Luxemburgish riders at the start of La Charly Gaul B) and in La Charly Gaul A, the Dutch riders formed the biggest group (88 registrations) ahead of the Belgian (79) and the ones from Luxemburg (62). Next to the other traditionnal nations like Germans, Italians, Portuguese or Danes, there were also some more exotic riders at the start in Echternach like côte d'Eppeldorf one Canadian, one American, one Japanese, one rider from Hungria, from Monaco, Poland and Rumania. (riders from 23 different nations at the start) The course visited mainly the same regions as last year but, with 2100 metres of change in altitude (1600 in 2009) for the big course and 1200 metres (1000 metres in 2009) for the smaller one, it was clearly more difficult than 12 months ago. While the first kilometres have been completely flat in the last two years, there was a long climb just after the start this year, meaning less bigger groups and more security during the whole race. The final of the race was also tougher with the Pafebierg inside the last 20 kilometres before the rush to the line in Echternach. On the long course, it was again the mighty climb of Groesteen (3,8 km at 7,4 %) who made the biggest selection, but there was new quite difficult climb up to Beaufort passing through the small village of Eppeldorf. It is 3 kilometres long at 6,9 % average gradient and contains a long, straight and very steep section with slopes of more than 10 %. Once again, the beauty of the countryside was one of the major attactions of this Charly Gaul with for example the 16 kilometre long, slightly uphill part to the highest point of the race in Schmuelen, the valley of the Our, the valley of Mullerthal, the heights of Pafebierg or the downhill to the valley of the Sure and the rush to the finish in Echternach. Race A The start of the A-race over 160 kilometres was fast as usual and soon, the peloton split up into several groups on the climb to Michelshof, just after the start. 50 riders remained in the lead at the summit of the climb, but another 30 of them were able to bridge up shortly after that. The next climbs were not too difficult and the situation remained the same in the lead. When Enzo Mezzapesa attacked after 60 kilometres, they were still around 80 chasing him in the valley of the Our. the next bigger group was one minute and a half behind the first one at that moment. first climb of the day The rider from Differdange was the first one to tackle the climb of Groesteen, but he was soon passed by a very strong Ralph Diseviscourt. The Luxemburg time-trial champion showed an impressive ride on the legendary climb and, if nobody was able to follow, the peloton exploded completely behind him. Ralph Diseviscourt, who was second in last year's race after a long break of more than 120 kilometres, arrived alone at the top of the Groesteen, 15 seconds ahead of a small group of 6 riders containing among others Belgian elite rider Anthony Spysschaert, Luxemburg's 2006 winner Philippe Herman an another Belgian named Peter Enckels. 10 seconds later, another group of 12 riders arrived at the top, followed by 7 more at 30 seconds of the leader, including two times Charly Gaul winner Jean-Charles Martin. Diseviscourt, a three times winner of the Gran Fondo Eddy Merckx, showed a great race at the front and he extended his lead up to one minute and a half after the descent, while the three following groups came together and they were now 28 chasing him. Among them, we found Feike Loots, winner in 2007, Mezzapesa, winner in 1997, the third placed of last year Mark Touwen, former Luxemburgish National champion Mark Leyder, cyclo-cross specialist Gusty Bausch, Luxemburgish riders Thibault Di Fabio, Fabio Emili, Georges Jodocy and Luis Nelson or Michel Heydens from Monaco, a former car racer who has changed into cycling and cyclo-sport races in the latest year (winner of La Cyclo'Corse or La Drome Provencale this year). After the côte d’Eppeldorf, there was another selection and they were still 19 in the first group, still chasing behind Diseviscourt. Jean-Charles Martin started his move and on the climb of Consdorf, the winner from 2001 and 2003 escaped with three more riders (Bob Adrianssens, Philippe Herman and Anthony Spysschaert). With 15 kilometres to go, the bridged up to Diseviscourt, who has ridden for more than 50 kilometres alone in the lead, while the next chasers were less than a minute back. The race was far from being over at that point. for the third time winner of La Charly Gaul: Jean-Charles Martin There were no more topographic difficulties ahead of the riders, but in the valley to the finish, the speed was very high with lots of attacks in the two groups. After several unsuccessfull attempts from Michel Ossieur, Peter Enckels and Mark Touwen managed to break away from the chasing group and to bridge up to the front, where Bob Adrianssens had been dropped. Last year, Touwen did excactly the same move and ended third in the race. They were thus 6 to sprint for the victory in Echternach and Jean-Charles Martin was fastest ahead of Diseviscourt, who had already finished in second place last year. Philippe Herman, who had some difficulties in the last part of the race, took the third position, Belgian contender Peter Enckels, one of the most active riders in the race, ended in fourth while Gerrit Teunis won the sprint of the next chasers in 8th place, around 40 seconds behind. The third group of the day was already more than 10 minutes back. In the women's race, nobody was able to match up with Mariska Breyne, a young Belgian elite racer of 24 years who participated this year among others in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. At the foot of the Groesteen climb, she was in a second group, less than 2 minutes behind the head of the race and she had already a good margin on the next female chasers, Eliane Diederich and Irmgard Lütticken. After the climb, Breyne still was in very good position in the Top 100 overall, but she knew some trouble at the end of the race when she was dropped out of her group. She fell back several places in the scratch classification, but the victory in the women's category was already in the pocket at the moment. In the end, Marisky Breyne took the win with 23 minutes advantage on the second lady, Eliane Diederich from Luxemburg, who was 10 minutes faster than German Lütticken. Breyne crossed the finish line in 127th position overall, 40 minutes behind the male winner of the day. Race B Gilberto Simoni and Kim Andersen were leading the peloton during the neutralized portion through the streets of Echternach, right after the provisional start. But if both of them were open for discussions and pictures with the public and other riders at the start and the finish, they were At the start of La Charly Gaul B: Kim Andersen and Gilberto Simoni clearly not there to try and win the race. After a few pedal strokes at the head of the race though, the let themselves fall back among all the other anonymous riders. The real race, on the other hand, started soon after the sharp start: on the first climb to Michelshof, two riders attacked and took a small advantage. Jeremy Grosjean, who is used to riding cyclosport races and recently finished 10th in La Christophe Brandt as well as the champion of Lorraine in cyclo-cross Jérôme Ehald tried an early break, but they would be reeled in long before the finish line. After the climb of Eppeldorf, the toughest climb on this course, they were still around 40 riders in contention for the win, among them a majority of Belgian contenders. But the selection continued and a few climbs later, the were only 8 left in the lead: Grosjean and Ehald, still there, Peter Schroen, a double winner of La Charly Gaul B, Sylvain Melon, the 6th of the Belgian amateur championships, his brother Vincent, who had already been very offensive in last year's race, as well as three other Belgians: Christian Gonda, Julien Ponsard and Nino Guistizia. No Luxemburger though in the first group, Alain Juncker and Fabrice Prado, the best of them, rode in a second group of around 30 riders, less than a minute behind. Former professionnal Peter Schroen, who was team-mate of the great Sean Kelly and winner of a stage in the Tour of Austria as well as in Spa-Hasselt-Spa in the years 1980, was the big favourite and he took control of the race: together with Christian Gonda and Sylvain Melon, the rider who finished a total of five times on the podium of La Charly Gaul in the last eight years, broke away in the last kilometres and the three of them quickly gained more than half a minute advantage on the rest of the peloton: the victory would be battle out among the trio. Podium of La 21ème Charly Gaul B: Gonda, Schroen, Melon But while everyone prepared for the deciding sprint, an error occured: instead of following the course to the finish in the streets of Echternach, the three riders followed an escorting motor bike into another street and Schroen and Gonda arrived to the finish line ... coming from the wrong direction. A correct sprint was no longer possible, but Christian Gonda was very fair-play by stating that Schroen was the strongest of them and leaving him the victory. Gonda took second while Sylvain Melon is stated in third rank, a few seconds down on the other two. Another Belgian rider, Julien Ponsard, won the sprint of the chasing group for fourth place. In a group of three, Alain Juncker finished as best Luxemburgish rider in 11th position, one minute and 12 seconds down on the winner. In the women's event, the race was decided between Belgian Melissa Flagothier, who had been riding in a British professionnal team for two years before turning to cyclosport events and Luxemburg's Christine Kovelter. In the climb of Eppeldorf, Flagothier found herself in a second peloton in the race, whereas Kovelter was one group further behind, only a few seconds behind. But on the following kilometres, the gap between the two groups growed constantly and, in the end, Melissa Flagothier took the women's win 6 minutes ahead of Kovelter. The third rider, Martine Licker, crossed the finish line 15 minutes late. In the scratch classification, Flagothier took a good 69th place, less than 7 minutes late on Peter Schroen. The former member of the Belgian National team arrived in Echternach in the third group of around 30 riders and, while she aimed for a Top 50 place, she did a very bad sprint and finished among the last of her group. La 21ème Charly Gaul >>
Jérôme Simon and Charel Faust were the youngest riders in the peloton, finishing 227th and 434th of La Charly Gaul B while Robert Junker showed a nice performance by finishing the 95 kilometres course at the tender age of 80 years. In La Charly Gaul A, Albert Even was the most experienced rider with 69 years and he showed a tremendous perfomance by taking 142th place of the day, less than an hour behind the winner Jean-Charles Martin, by more than 30 years younger than him. Yves Lehnert and Nico Thoma also showed up once again this year, both of them remaining the two riders that have participated in every single of the 21 editions of the race without exception. Luxemburgish riders were once again in the majority (266 contenders in 2010, 347 in 2009) ahead of the Belgian (165 registrations) and the Dutch contenders (109). But most of the home riders opted for the shorter course (204 Luxemburgish riders at the start of La Charly Gaul B) and in La Charly Gaul A, the Dutch riders formed the biggest group (88 registrations) ahead of the Belgian (79) and the ones from Luxemburg (62). Next to the other traditionnal nations like Germans, Italians, Portuguese or Danes, there were also some more exotic riders at the start in Echternach like côte d'Eppeldorf one Canadian, one American, one Japanese, one rider from Hungria, from Monaco, Poland and Rumania. (riders from 23 different nations at the start) The course visited mainly the same regions as last year but, with 2100 metres of change in altitude (1600 in 2009) for the big course and 1200 metres (1000 metres in 2009) for the smaller one, it was clearly more difficult than 12 months ago. While the first kilometres have been completely flat in the last two years, there was a long climb just after the start this year, meaning less bigger groups and more security during the whole race. The final of the race was also tougher with the Pafebierg inside the last 20 kilometres before the rush to the line in Echternach. On the long course, it was again the mighty climb of Groesteen (3,8 km at 7,4 %) who made the biggest selection, but there was new quite difficult climb up to Beaufort passing through the small village of Eppeldorf. It is 3 kilometres long at 6,9 % average gradient and contains a long, straight and very steep section with slopes of more than 10 %. Once again, the beauty of the countryside was one of the major attactions of this Charly Gaul with for example the 16 kilometre long, slightly uphill part to the highest point of the race in Schmuelen, the valley of the Our, the valley of Mullerthal, the heights of Pafebierg or the downhill to the valley of the Sure and the rush to the finish in Echternach. Race A The start of the A-race over 160 kilometres was fast as usual and soon, the peloton split up into several groups on the climb to Michelshof, just after the start. 50 riders remained in the lead at the summit of the climb, but another 30 of them were able to bridge up shortly after that. The next climbs were not too difficult and the situation remained the same in the lead. When Enzo Mezzapesa attacked after 60 kilometres, they were still around 80 chasing him in the valley of the Our. the next bigger group was one minute and a half behind the first one at that moment. first climb of the day The rider from Differdange was the first one to tackle the climb of Groesteen, but he was soon passed by a very strong Ralph Diseviscourt. The Luxemburg time-trial champion showed an impressive ride on the legendary climb and, if nobody was able to follow, the peloton exploded completely behind him. Ralph Diseviscourt, who was second in last year's race after a long break of more than 120 kilometres, arrived alone at the top of the Groesteen, 15 seconds ahead of a small group of 6 riders containing among others Belgian elite rider Anthony Spysschaert, Luxemburg's 2006 winner Philippe Herman an another Belgian named Peter Enckels. 10 seconds later, another group of 12 riders arrived at the top, followed by 7 more at 30 seconds of the leader, including two times Charly Gaul winner Jean-Charles Martin. Diseviscourt, a three times winner of the Gran Fondo Eddy Merckx, showed a great race at the front and he extended his lead up to one minute and a half after the descent, while the three following groups came together and they were now 28 chasing him. Among them, we found Feike Loots, winner in 2007, Mezzapesa, winner in 1997, the third placed of last year Mark Touwen, former Luxemburgish National champion Mark Leyder, cyclo-cross specialist Gusty Bausch, Luxemburgish riders Thibault Di Fabio, Fabio Emili, Georges Jodocy and Luis Nelson or Michel Heydens from Monaco, a former car racer who has changed into cycling and cyclo-sport races in the latest year (winner of La Cyclo'Corse or La Drome Provencale this year). After the côte d’Eppeldorf, there was another selection and they were still 19 in the first group, still chasing behind Diseviscourt. Jean-Charles Martin started his move and on the climb of Consdorf, the winner from 2001 and 2003 escaped with three more riders (Bob Adrianssens, Philippe Herman and Anthony Spysschaert). With 15 kilometres to go, the bridged up to Diseviscourt, who has ridden for more than 50 kilometres alone in the lead, while the next chasers were less than a minute back. The race was far from being over at that point. for the third time winner of La Charly Gaul: Jean-Charles Martin There were no more topographic difficulties ahead of the riders, but in the valley to the finish, the speed was very high with lots of attacks in the two groups. After several unsuccessfull attempts from Michel Ossieur, Peter Enckels and Mark Touwen managed to break away from the chasing group and to bridge up to the front, where Bob Adrianssens had been dropped. Last year, Touwen did excactly the same move and ended third in the race. They were thus 6 to sprint for the victory in Echternach and Jean-Charles Martin was fastest ahead of Diseviscourt, who had already finished in second place last year. Philippe Herman, who had some difficulties in the last part of the race, took the third position, Belgian contender Peter Enckels, one of the most active riders in the race, ended in fourth while Gerrit Teunis won the sprint of the next chasers in 8th place, around 40 seconds behind. The third group of the day was already more than 10 minutes back. In the women's race, nobody was able to match up with Mariska Breyne, a young Belgian elite racer of 24 years who participated this year among others in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. At the foot of the Groesteen climb, she was in a second group, less than 2 minutes behind the head of the race and she had already a good margin on the next female chasers, Eliane Diederich and Irmgard Lütticken. After the climb, Breyne still was in very good position in the Top 100 overall, but she knew some trouble at the end of the race when she was dropped out of her group. She fell back several places in the scratch classification, but the victory in the women's category was already in the pocket at the moment. In the end, Marisky Breyne took the win with 23 minutes advantage on the second lady, Eliane Diederich from Luxemburg, who was 10 minutes faster than German Lütticken. Breyne crossed the finish line in 127th position overall, 40 minutes behind the male winner of the day. Race B Gilberto Simoni and Kim Andersen were leading the peloton during the neutralized portion through the streets of Echternach, right after the provisional start. But if both of them were open for discussions and pictures with the public and other riders at the start and the finish, they were At the start of La Charly Gaul B: Kim Andersen and Gilberto Simoni clearly not there to try and win the race. After a few pedal strokes at the head of the race though, the let themselves fall back among all the other anonymous riders. The real race, on the other hand, started soon after the sharp start: on the first climb to Michelshof, two riders attacked and took a small advantage. Jeremy Grosjean, who is used to riding cyclosport races and recently finished 10th in La Christophe Brandt as well as the champion of Lorraine in cyclo-cross Jérôme Ehald tried an early break, but they would be reeled in long before the finish line. After the climb of Eppeldorf, the toughest climb on this course, they were still around 40 riders in contention for the win, among them a majority of Belgian contenders. But the selection continued and a few climbs later, the were only 8 left in the lead: Grosjean and Ehald, still there, Peter Schroen, a double winner of La Charly Gaul B, Sylvain Melon, the 6th of the Belgian amateur championships, his brother Vincent, who had already been very offensive in last year's race, as well as three other Belgians: Christian Gonda, Julien Ponsard and Nino Guistizia. No Luxemburger though in the first group, Alain Juncker and Fabrice Prado, the best of them, rode in a second group of around 30 riders, less than a minute behind. Former professionnal Peter Schroen, who was team-mate of the great Sean Kelly and winner of a stage in the Tour of Austria as well as in Spa-Hasselt-Spa in the years 1980, was the big favourite and he took control of the race: together with Christian Gonda and Sylvain Melon, the rider who finished a total of five times on the podium of La Charly Gaul in the last eight years, broke away in the last kilometres and the three of them quickly gained more than half a minute advantage on the rest of the peloton: the victory would be battle out among the trio. Podium of La 21ème Charly Gaul B: Gonda, Schroen, Melon But while everyone prepared for the deciding sprint, an error occured: instead of following the course to the finish in the streets of Echternach, the three riders followed an escorting motor bike into another street and Schroen and Gonda arrived to the finish line ... coming from the wrong direction. A correct sprint was no longer possible, but Christian Gonda was very fair-play by stating that Schroen was the strongest of them and leaving him the victory. Gonda took second while Sylvain Melon is stated in third rank, a few seconds down on the other two. Another Belgian rider, Julien Ponsard, won the sprint of the chasing group for fourth place. In a group of three, Alain Juncker finished as best Luxemburgish rider in 11th position, one minute and 12 seconds down on the winner. In the women's event, the race was decided between Belgian Melissa Flagothier, who had been riding in a British professionnal team for two years before turning to cyclosport events and Luxemburg's Christine Kovelter. In the climb of Eppeldorf, Flagothier found herself in a second peloton in the race, whereas Kovelter was one group further behind, only a few seconds behind. But on the following kilometres, the gap between the two groups growed constantly and, in the end, Melissa Flagothier took the women's win 6 minutes ahead of Kovelter. The third rider, Martine Licker, crossed the finish line 15 minutes late. In the scratch classification, Flagothier took a good 69th place, less than 7 minutes late on Peter Schroen. The former member of the Belgian National team arrived in Echternach in the third group of around 30 riders and, while she aimed for a Top 50 place, she did a very bad sprint and finished among the last of her group. La 21ème Charly Gaul >>
The course visited mainly the same regions as last year but, with 2100 metres of change in altitude (1600 in 2009) for the big course and 1200 metres (1000 metres in 2009) for the smaller one, it was clearly more difficult than 12 months ago. While the first kilometres have been completely flat in the last two years, there was a long climb just after the start this year, meaning less bigger groups and more security during the whole race. The final of the race was also tougher with the Pafebierg inside the last 20 kilometres before the rush to the line in Echternach. On the long course, it was again the mighty climb of Groesteen (3,8 km at 7,4 %) who made the biggest selection, but there was new quite difficult climb up to Beaufort passing through the small village of Eppeldorf. It is 3 kilometres long at 6,9 % average gradient and contains a long, straight and very steep section with slopes of more than 10 %. Once again, the beauty of the countryside was one of the major attactions of this Charly Gaul with for example the 16 kilometre long, slightly uphill part to the highest point of the race in Schmuelen, the valley of the Our, the valley of Mullerthal, the heights of Pafebierg or the downhill to the valley of the Sure and the rush to the finish in Echternach. Race A The start of the A-race over 160 kilometres was fast as usual and soon, the peloton split up into several groups on the climb to Michelshof, just after the start. 50 riders remained in the lead at the summit of the climb, but another 30 of them were able to bridge up shortly after that. The next climbs were not too difficult and the situation remained the same in the lead. When Enzo Mezzapesa attacked after 60 kilometres, they were still around 80 chasing him in the valley of the Our. the next bigger group was one minute and a half behind the first one at that moment. first climb of the day The rider from Differdange was the first one to tackle the climb of Groesteen, but he was soon passed by a very strong Ralph Diseviscourt. The Luxemburg time-trial champion showed an impressive ride on the legendary climb and, if nobody was able to follow, the peloton exploded completely behind him. Ralph Diseviscourt, who was second in last year's race after a long break of more than 120 kilometres, arrived alone at the top of the Groesteen, 15 seconds ahead of a small group of 6 riders containing among others Belgian elite rider Anthony Spysschaert, Luxemburg's 2006 winner Philippe Herman an another Belgian named Peter Enckels. 10 seconds later, another group of 12 riders arrived at the top, followed by 7 more at 30 seconds of the leader, including two times Charly Gaul winner Jean-Charles Martin. Diseviscourt, a three times winner of the Gran Fondo Eddy Merckx, showed a great race at the front and he extended his lead up to one minute and a half after the descent, while the three following groups came together and they were now 28 chasing him. Among them, we found Feike Loots, winner in 2007, Mezzapesa, winner in 1997, the third placed of last year Mark Touwen, former Luxemburgish National champion Mark Leyder, cyclo-cross specialist Gusty Bausch, Luxemburgish riders Thibault Di Fabio, Fabio Emili, Georges Jodocy and Luis Nelson or Michel Heydens from Monaco, a former car racer who has changed into cycling and cyclo-sport races in the latest year (winner of La Cyclo'Corse or La Drome Provencale this year). After the côte d’Eppeldorf, there was another selection and they were still 19 in the first group, still chasing behind Diseviscourt. Jean-Charles Martin started his move and on the climb of Consdorf, the winner from 2001 and 2003 escaped with three more riders (Bob Adrianssens, Philippe Herman and Anthony Spysschaert). With 15 kilometres to go, the bridged up to Diseviscourt, who has ridden for more than 50 kilometres alone in the lead, while the next chasers were less than a minute back. The race was far from being over at that point. for the third time winner of La Charly Gaul: Jean-Charles Martin There were no more topographic difficulties ahead of the riders, but in the valley to the finish, the speed was very high with lots of attacks in the two groups. After several unsuccessfull attempts from Michel Ossieur, Peter Enckels and Mark Touwen managed to break away from the chasing group and to bridge up to the front, where Bob Adrianssens had been dropped. Last year, Touwen did excactly the same move and ended third in the race. They were thus 6 to sprint for the victory in Echternach and Jean-Charles Martin was fastest ahead of Diseviscourt, who had already finished in second place last year. Philippe Herman, who had some difficulties in the last part of the race, took the third position, Belgian contender Peter Enckels, one of the most active riders in the race, ended in fourth while Gerrit Teunis won the sprint of the next chasers in 8th place, around 40 seconds behind. The third group of the day was already more than 10 minutes back. In the women's race, nobody was able to match up with Mariska Breyne, a young Belgian elite racer of 24 years who participated this year among others in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. At the foot of the Groesteen climb, she was in a second group, less than 2 minutes behind the head of the race and she had already a good margin on the next female chasers, Eliane Diederich and Irmgard Lütticken. After the climb, Breyne still was in very good position in the Top 100 overall, but she knew some trouble at the end of the race when she was dropped out of her group. She fell back several places in the scratch classification, but the victory in the women's category was already in the pocket at the moment. In the end, Marisky Breyne took the win with 23 minutes advantage on the second lady, Eliane Diederich from Luxemburg, who was 10 minutes faster than German Lütticken. Breyne crossed the finish line in 127th position overall, 40 minutes behind the male winner of the day. Race B Gilberto Simoni and Kim Andersen were leading the peloton during the neutralized portion through the streets of Echternach, right after the provisional start. But if both of them were open for discussions and pictures with the public and other riders at the start and the finish, they were At the start of La Charly Gaul B: Kim Andersen and Gilberto Simoni clearly not there to try and win the race. After a few pedal strokes at the head of the race though, the let themselves fall back among all the other anonymous riders. The real race, on the other hand, started soon after the sharp start: on the first climb to Michelshof, two riders attacked and took a small advantage. Jeremy Grosjean, who is used to riding cyclosport races and recently finished 10th in La Christophe Brandt as well as the champion of Lorraine in cyclo-cross Jérôme Ehald tried an early break, but they would be reeled in long before the finish line. After the climb of Eppeldorf, the toughest climb on this course, they were still around 40 riders in contention for the win, among them a majority of Belgian contenders. But the selection continued and a few climbs later, the were only 8 left in the lead: Grosjean and Ehald, still there, Peter Schroen, a double winner of La Charly Gaul B, Sylvain Melon, the 6th of the Belgian amateur championships, his brother Vincent, who had already been very offensive in last year's race, as well as three other Belgians: Christian Gonda, Julien Ponsard and Nino Guistizia. No Luxemburger though in the first group, Alain Juncker and Fabrice Prado, the best of them, rode in a second group of around 30 riders, less than a minute behind. Former professionnal Peter Schroen, who was team-mate of the great Sean Kelly and winner of a stage in the Tour of Austria as well as in Spa-Hasselt-Spa in the years 1980, was the big favourite and he took control of the race: together with Christian Gonda and Sylvain Melon, the rider who finished a total of five times on the podium of La Charly Gaul in the last eight years, broke away in the last kilometres and the three of them quickly gained more than half a minute advantage on the rest of the peloton: the victory would be battle out among the trio. Podium of La 21ème Charly Gaul B: Gonda, Schroen, Melon But while everyone prepared for the deciding sprint, an error occured: instead of following the course to the finish in the streets of Echternach, the three riders followed an escorting motor bike into another street and Schroen and Gonda arrived to the finish line ... coming from the wrong direction. A correct sprint was no longer possible, but Christian Gonda was very fair-play by stating that Schroen was the strongest of them and leaving him the victory. Gonda took second while Sylvain Melon is stated in third rank, a few seconds down on the other two. Another Belgian rider, Julien Ponsard, won the sprint of the chasing group for fourth place. In a group of three, Alain Juncker finished as best Luxemburgish rider in 11th position, one minute and 12 seconds down on the winner. In the women's event, the race was decided between Belgian Melissa Flagothier, who had been riding in a British professionnal team for two years before turning to cyclosport events and Luxemburg's Christine Kovelter. In the climb of Eppeldorf, Flagothier found herself in a second peloton in the race, whereas Kovelter was one group further behind, only a few seconds behind. But on the following kilometres, the gap between the two groups growed constantly and, in the end, Melissa Flagothier took the women's win 6 minutes ahead of Kovelter. The third rider, Martine Licker, crossed the finish line 15 minutes late. In the scratch classification, Flagothier took a good 69th place, less than 7 minutes late on Peter Schroen. The former member of the Belgian National team arrived in Echternach in the third group of around 30 riders and, while she aimed for a Top 50 place, she did a very bad sprint and finished among the last of her group. La 21ème Charly Gaul >>
Race A The start of the A-race over 160 kilometres was fast as usual and soon, the peloton split up into several groups on the climb to Michelshof, just after the start. 50 riders remained in the lead at the summit of the climb, but another 30 of them were able to bridge up shortly after that. The next climbs were not too difficult and the situation remained the same in the lead. When Enzo Mezzapesa attacked after 60 kilometres, they were still around 80 chasing him in the valley of the Our. the next bigger group was one minute and a half behind the first one at that moment. first climb of the day The rider from Differdange was the first one to tackle the climb of Groesteen, but he was soon passed by a very strong Ralph Diseviscourt. The Luxemburg time-trial champion showed an impressive ride on the legendary climb and, if nobody was able to follow, the peloton exploded completely behind him. Ralph Diseviscourt, who was second in last year's race after a long break of more than 120 kilometres, arrived alone at the top of the Groesteen, 15 seconds ahead of a small group of 6 riders containing among others Belgian elite rider Anthony Spysschaert, Luxemburg's 2006 winner Philippe Herman an another Belgian named Peter Enckels. 10 seconds later, another group of 12 riders arrived at the top, followed by 7 more at 30 seconds of the leader, including two times Charly Gaul winner Jean-Charles Martin. Diseviscourt, a three times winner of the Gran Fondo Eddy Merckx, showed a great race at the front and he extended his lead up to one minute and a half after the descent, while the three following groups came together and they were now 28 chasing him. Among them, we found Feike Loots, winner in 2007, Mezzapesa, winner in 1997, the third placed of last year Mark Touwen, former Luxemburgish National champion Mark Leyder, cyclo-cross specialist Gusty Bausch, Luxemburgish riders Thibault Di Fabio, Fabio Emili, Georges Jodocy and Luis Nelson or Michel Heydens from Monaco, a former car racer who has changed into cycling and cyclo-sport races in the latest year (winner of La Cyclo'Corse or La Drome Provencale this year). After the côte d’Eppeldorf, there was another selection and they were still 19 in the first group, still chasing behind Diseviscourt. Jean-Charles Martin started his move and on the climb of Consdorf, the winner from 2001 and 2003 escaped with three more riders (Bob Adrianssens, Philippe Herman and Anthony Spysschaert). With 15 kilometres to go, the bridged up to Diseviscourt, who has ridden for more than 50 kilometres alone in the lead, while the next chasers were less than a minute back. The race was far from being over at that point. for the third time winner of La Charly Gaul: Jean-Charles Martin There were no more topographic difficulties ahead of the riders, but in the valley to the finish, the speed was very high with lots of attacks in the two groups. After several unsuccessfull attempts from Michel Ossieur, Peter Enckels and Mark Touwen managed to break away from the chasing group and to bridge up to the front, where Bob Adrianssens had been dropped. Last year, Touwen did excactly the same move and ended third in the race. They were thus 6 to sprint for the victory in Echternach and Jean-Charles Martin was fastest ahead of Diseviscourt, who had already finished in second place last year. Philippe Herman, who had some difficulties in the last part of the race, took the third position, Belgian contender Peter Enckels, one of the most active riders in the race, ended in fourth while Gerrit Teunis won the sprint of the next chasers in 8th place, around 40 seconds behind. The third group of the day was already more than 10 minutes back. In the women's race, nobody was able to match up with Mariska Breyne, a young Belgian elite racer of 24 years who participated this year among others in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. At the foot of the Groesteen climb, she was in a second group, less than 2 minutes behind the head of the race and she had already a good margin on the next female chasers, Eliane Diederich and Irmgard Lütticken. After the climb, Breyne still was in very good position in the Top 100 overall, but she knew some trouble at the end of the race when she was dropped out of her group. She fell back several places in the scratch classification, but the victory in the women's category was already in the pocket at the moment. In the end, Marisky Breyne took the win with 23 minutes advantage on the second lady, Eliane Diederich from Luxemburg, who was 10 minutes faster than German Lütticken. Breyne crossed the finish line in 127th position overall, 40 minutes behind the male winner of the day. Race B Gilberto Simoni and Kim Andersen were leading the peloton during the neutralized portion through the streets of Echternach, right after the provisional start. But if both of them were open for discussions and pictures with the public and other riders at the start and the finish, they were At the start of La Charly Gaul B: Kim Andersen and Gilberto Simoni clearly not there to try and win the race. After a few pedal strokes at the head of the race though, the let themselves fall back among all the other anonymous riders. The real race, on the other hand, started soon after the sharp start: on the first climb to Michelshof, two riders attacked and took a small advantage. Jeremy Grosjean, who is used to riding cyclosport races and recently finished 10th in La Christophe Brandt as well as the champion of Lorraine in cyclo-cross Jérôme Ehald tried an early break, but they would be reeled in long before the finish line. After the climb of Eppeldorf, the toughest climb on this course, they were still around 40 riders in contention for the win, among them a majority of Belgian contenders. But the selection continued and a few climbs later, the were only 8 left in the lead: Grosjean and Ehald, still there, Peter Schroen, a double winner of La Charly Gaul B, Sylvain Melon, the 6th of the Belgian amateur championships, his brother Vincent, who had already been very offensive in last year's race, as well as three other Belgians: Christian Gonda, Julien Ponsard and Nino Guistizia. No Luxemburger though in the first group, Alain Juncker and Fabrice Prado, the best of them, rode in a second group of around 30 riders, less than a minute behind. Former professionnal Peter Schroen, who was team-mate of the great Sean Kelly and winner of a stage in the Tour of Austria as well as in Spa-Hasselt-Spa in the years 1980, was the big favourite and he took control of the race: together with Christian Gonda and Sylvain Melon, the rider who finished a total of five times on the podium of La Charly Gaul in the last eight years, broke away in the last kilometres and the three of them quickly gained more than half a minute advantage on the rest of the peloton: the victory would be battle out among the trio. Podium of La 21ème Charly Gaul B: Gonda, Schroen, Melon But while everyone prepared for the deciding sprint, an error occured: instead of following the course to the finish in the streets of Echternach, the three riders followed an escorting motor bike into another street and Schroen and Gonda arrived to the finish line ... coming from the wrong direction. A correct sprint was no longer possible, but Christian Gonda was very fair-play by stating that Schroen was the strongest of them and leaving him the victory. Gonda took second while Sylvain Melon is stated in third rank, a few seconds down on the other two. Another Belgian rider, Julien Ponsard, won the sprint of the chasing group for fourth place. In a group of three, Alain Juncker finished as best Luxemburgish rider in 11th position, one minute and 12 seconds down on the winner. In the women's event, the race was decided between Belgian Melissa Flagothier, who had been riding in a British professionnal team for two years before turning to cyclosport events and Luxemburg's Christine Kovelter. In the climb of Eppeldorf, Flagothier found herself in a second peloton in the race, whereas Kovelter was one group further behind, only a few seconds behind. But on the following kilometres, the gap between the two groups growed constantly and, in the end, Melissa Flagothier took the women's win 6 minutes ahead of Kovelter. The third rider, Martine Licker, crossed the finish line 15 minutes late. In the scratch classification, Flagothier took a good 69th place, less than 7 minutes late on Peter Schroen. The former member of the Belgian National team arrived in Echternach in the third group of around 30 riders and, while she aimed for a Top 50 place, she did a very bad sprint and finished among the last of her group. La 21ème Charly Gaul >>
The start of the A-race over 160 kilometres was fast as usual and soon, the peloton split up into several groups on the climb to Michelshof, just after the start. 50 riders remained in the lead at the summit of the climb, but another 30 of them were able to bridge up shortly after that. The next climbs were not too difficult and the situation remained the same in the lead. When Enzo Mezzapesa attacked after 60 kilometres, they were still around 80 chasing him in the valley of the Our. the next bigger group was one minute and a half behind the first one at that moment. first climb of the day The rider from Differdange was the first one to tackle the climb of Groesteen, but he was soon passed by a very strong Ralph Diseviscourt. The Luxemburg time-trial champion showed an impressive ride on the legendary climb and, if nobody was able to follow, the peloton exploded completely behind him. Ralph Diseviscourt, who was second in last year's race after a long break of more than 120 kilometres, arrived alone at the top of the Groesteen, 15 seconds ahead of a small group of 6 riders containing among others Belgian elite rider Anthony Spysschaert, Luxemburg's 2006 winner Philippe Herman an another Belgian named Peter Enckels. 10 seconds later, another group of 12 riders arrived at the top, followed by 7 more at 30 seconds of the leader, including two times Charly Gaul winner Jean-Charles Martin. Diseviscourt, a three times winner of the Gran Fondo Eddy Merckx, showed a great race at the front and he extended his lead up to one minute and a half after the descent, while the three following groups came together and they were now 28 chasing him. Among them, we found Feike Loots, winner in 2007, Mezzapesa, winner in 1997, the third placed of last year Mark Touwen, former Luxemburgish National champion Mark Leyder, cyclo-cross specialist Gusty Bausch, Luxemburgish riders Thibault Di Fabio, Fabio Emili, Georges Jodocy and Luis Nelson or Michel Heydens from Monaco, a former car racer who has changed into cycling and cyclo-sport races in the latest year (winner of La Cyclo'Corse or La Drome Provencale this year). After the côte d’Eppeldorf, there was another selection and they were still 19 in the first group, still chasing behind Diseviscourt. Jean-Charles Martin started his move and on the climb of Consdorf, the winner from 2001 and 2003 escaped with three more riders (Bob Adrianssens, Philippe Herman and Anthony Spysschaert). With 15 kilometres to go, the bridged up to Diseviscourt, who has ridden for more than 50 kilometres alone in the lead, while the next chasers were less than a minute back. The race was far from being over at that point. for the third time winner of La Charly Gaul: Jean-Charles Martin There were no more topographic difficulties ahead of the riders, but in the valley to the finish, the speed was very high with lots of attacks in the two groups. After several unsuccessfull attempts from Michel Ossieur, Peter Enckels and Mark Touwen managed to break away from the chasing group and to bridge up to the front, where Bob Adrianssens had been dropped. Last year, Touwen did excactly the same move and ended third in the race. They were thus 6 to sprint for the victory in Echternach and Jean-Charles Martin was fastest ahead of Diseviscourt, who had already finished in second place last year. Philippe Herman, who had some difficulties in the last part of the race, took the third position, Belgian contender Peter Enckels, one of the most active riders in the race, ended in fourth while Gerrit Teunis won the sprint of the next chasers in 8th place, around 40 seconds behind. The third group of the day was already more than 10 minutes back. In the women's race, nobody was able to match up with Mariska Breyne, a young Belgian elite racer of 24 years who participated this year among others in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. At the foot of the Groesteen climb, she was in a second group, less than 2 minutes behind the head of the race and she had already a good margin on the next female chasers, Eliane Diederich and Irmgard Lütticken. After the climb, Breyne still was in very good position in the Top 100 overall, but she knew some trouble at the end of the race when she was dropped out of her group. She fell back several places in the scratch classification, but the victory in the women's category was already in the pocket at the moment. In the end, Marisky Breyne took the win with 23 minutes advantage on the second lady, Eliane Diederich from Luxemburg, who was 10 minutes faster than German Lütticken. Breyne crossed the finish line in 127th position overall, 40 minutes behind the male winner of the day. Race B Gilberto Simoni and Kim Andersen were leading the peloton during the neutralized portion through the streets of Echternach, right after the provisional start. But if both of them were open for discussions and pictures with the public and other riders at the start and the finish, they were At the start of La Charly Gaul B: Kim Andersen and Gilberto Simoni clearly not there to try and win the race. After a few pedal strokes at the head of the race though, the let themselves fall back among all the other anonymous riders. The real race, on the other hand, started soon after the sharp start: on the first climb to Michelshof, two riders attacked and took a small advantage. Jeremy Grosjean, who is used to riding cyclosport races and recently finished 10th in La Christophe Brandt as well as the champion of Lorraine in cyclo-cross Jérôme Ehald tried an early break, but they would be reeled in long before the finish line. After the climb of Eppeldorf, the toughest climb on this course, they were still around 40 riders in contention for the win, among them a majority of Belgian contenders. But the selection continued and a few climbs later, the were only 8 left in the lead: Grosjean and Ehald, still there, Peter Schroen, a double winner of La Charly Gaul B, Sylvain Melon, the 6th of the Belgian amateur championships, his brother Vincent, who had already been very offensive in last year's race, as well as three other Belgians: Christian Gonda, Julien Ponsard and Nino Guistizia. No Luxemburger though in the first group, Alain Juncker and Fabrice Prado, the best of them, rode in a second group of around 30 riders, less than a minute behind. Former professionnal Peter Schroen, who was team-mate of the great Sean Kelly and winner of a stage in the Tour of Austria as well as in Spa-Hasselt-Spa in the years 1980, was the big favourite and he took control of the race: together with Christian Gonda and Sylvain Melon, the rider who finished a total of five times on the podium of La Charly Gaul in the last eight years, broke away in the last kilometres and the three of them quickly gained more than half a minute advantage on the rest of the peloton: the victory would be battle out among the trio. Podium of La 21ème Charly Gaul B: Gonda, Schroen, Melon But while everyone prepared for the deciding sprint, an error occured: instead of following the course to the finish in the streets of Echternach, the three riders followed an escorting motor bike into another street and Schroen and Gonda arrived to the finish line ... coming from the wrong direction. A correct sprint was no longer possible, but Christian Gonda was very fair-play by stating that Schroen was the strongest of them and leaving him the victory. Gonda took second while Sylvain Melon is stated in third rank, a few seconds down on the other two. Another Belgian rider, Julien Ponsard, won the sprint of the chasing group for fourth place. In a group of three, Alain Juncker finished as best Luxemburgish rider in 11th position, one minute and 12 seconds down on the winner. In the women's event, the race was decided between Belgian Melissa Flagothier, who had been riding in a British professionnal team for two years before turning to cyclosport events and Luxemburg's Christine Kovelter. In the climb of Eppeldorf, Flagothier found herself in a second peloton in the race, whereas Kovelter was one group further behind, only a few seconds behind. But on the following kilometres, the gap between the two groups growed constantly and, in the end, Melissa Flagothier took the women's win 6 minutes ahead of Kovelter. The third rider, Martine Licker, crossed the finish line 15 minutes late. In the scratch classification, Flagothier took a good 69th place, less than 7 minutes late on Peter Schroen. The former member of the Belgian National team arrived in Echternach in the third group of around 30 riders and, while she aimed for a Top 50 place, she did a very bad sprint and finished among the last of her group. La 21ème Charly Gaul >>
Ralph Diseviscourt, who was second in last year's race after a long break of more than 120 kilometres, arrived alone at the top of the Groesteen, 15 seconds ahead of a small group of 6 riders containing among others Belgian elite rider Anthony Spysschaert, Luxemburg's 2006 winner Philippe Herman an another Belgian named Peter Enckels. 10 seconds later, another group of 12 riders arrived at the top, followed by 7 more at 30 seconds of the leader, including two times Charly Gaul winner Jean-Charles Martin. Diseviscourt, a three times winner of the Gran Fondo Eddy Merckx, showed a great race at the front and he extended his lead up to one minute and a half after the descent, while the three following groups came together and they were now 28 chasing him. Among them, we found Feike Loots, winner in 2007, Mezzapesa, winner in 1997, the third placed of last year Mark Touwen, former Luxemburgish National champion Mark Leyder, cyclo-cross specialist Gusty Bausch, Luxemburgish riders Thibault Di Fabio, Fabio Emili, Georges Jodocy and Luis Nelson or Michel Heydens from Monaco, a former car racer who has changed into cycling and cyclo-sport races in the latest year (winner of La Cyclo'Corse or La Drome Provencale this year). After the côte d’Eppeldorf, there was another selection and they were still 19 in the first group, still chasing behind Diseviscourt. Jean-Charles Martin started his move and on the climb of Consdorf, the winner from 2001 and 2003 escaped with three more riders (Bob Adrianssens, Philippe Herman and Anthony Spysschaert). With 15 kilometres to go, the bridged up to Diseviscourt, who has ridden for more than 50 kilometres alone in the lead, while the next chasers were less than a minute back. The race was far from being over at that point. for the third time winner of La Charly Gaul: Jean-Charles Martin There were no more topographic difficulties ahead of the riders, but in the valley to the finish, the speed was very high with lots of attacks in the two groups. After several unsuccessfull attempts from Michel Ossieur, Peter Enckels and Mark Touwen managed to break away from the chasing group and to bridge up to the front, where Bob Adrianssens had been dropped. Last year, Touwen did excactly the same move and ended third in the race. They were thus 6 to sprint for the victory in Echternach and Jean-Charles Martin was fastest ahead of Diseviscourt, who had already finished in second place last year. Philippe Herman, who had some difficulties in the last part of the race, took the third position, Belgian contender Peter Enckels, one of the most active riders in the race, ended in fourth while Gerrit Teunis won the sprint of the next chasers in 8th place, around 40 seconds behind. The third group of the day was already more than 10 minutes back. In the women's race, nobody was able to match up with Mariska Breyne, a young Belgian elite racer of 24 years who participated this year among others in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. At the foot of the Groesteen climb, she was in a second group, less than 2 minutes behind the head of the race and she had already a good margin on the next female chasers, Eliane Diederich and Irmgard Lütticken. After the climb, Breyne still was in very good position in the Top 100 overall, but she knew some trouble at the end of the race when she was dropped out of her group. She fell back several places in the scratch classification, but the victory in the women's category was already in the pocket at the moment. In the end, Marisky Breyne took the win with 23 minutes advantage on the second lady, Eliane Diederich from Luxemburg, who was 10 minutes faster than German Lütticken. Breyne crossed the finish line in 127th position overall, 40 minutes behind the male winner of the day. Race B Gilberto Simoni and Kim Andersen were leading the peloton during the neutralized portion through the streets of Echternach, right after the provisional start. But if both of them were open for discussions and pictures with the public and other riders at the start and the finish, they were At the start of La Charly Gaul B: Kim Andersen and Gilberto Simoni clearly not there to try and win the race. After a few pedal strokes at the head of the race though, the let themselves fall back among all the other anonymous riders. The real race, on the other hand, started soon after the sharp start: on the first climb to Michelshof, two riders attacked and took a small advantage. Jeremy Grosjean, who is used to riding cyclosport races and recently finished 10th in La Christophe Brandt as well as the champion of Lorraine in cyclo-cross Jérôme Ehald tried an early break, but they would be reeled in long before the finish line. After the climb of Eppeldorf, the toughest climb on this course, they were still around 40 riders in contention for the win, among them a majority of Belgian contenders. But the selection continued and a few climbs later, the were only 8 left in the lead: Grosjean and Ehald, still there, Peter Schroen, a double winner of La Charly Gaul B, Sylvain Melon, the 6th of the Belgian amateur championships, his brother Vincent, who had already been very offensive in last year's race, as well as three other Belgians: Christian Gonda, Julien Ponsard and Nino Guistizia. No Luxemburger though in the first group, Alain Juncker and Fabrice Prado, the best of them, rode in a second group of around 30 riders, less than a minute behind. Former professionnal Peter Schroen, who was team-mate of the great Sean Kelly and winner of a stage in the Tour of Austria as well as in Spa-Hasselt-Spa in the years 1980, was the big favourite and he took control of the race: together with Christian Gonda and Sylvain Melon, the rider who finished a total of five times on the podium of La Charly Gaul in the last eight years, broke away in the last kilometres and the three of them quickly gained more than half a minute advantage on the rest of the peloton: the victory would be battle out among the trio. Podium of La 21ème Charly Gaul B: Gonda, Schroen, Melon But while everyone prepared for the deciding sprint, an error occured: instead of following the course to the finish in the streets of Echternach, the three riders followed an escorting motor bike into another street and Schroen and Gonda arrived to the finish line ... coming from the wrong direction. A correct sprint was no longer possible, but Christian Gonda was very fair-play by stating that Schroen was the strongest of them and leaving him the victory. Gonda took second while Sylvain Melon is stated in third rank, a few seconds down on the other two. Another Belgian rider, Julien Ponsard, won the sprint of the chasing group for fourth place. In a group of three, Alain Juncker finished as best Luxemburgish rider in 11th position, one minute and 12 seconds down on the winner. In the women's event, the race was decided between Belgian Melissa Flagothier, who had been riding in a British professionnal team for two years before turning to cyclosport events and Luxemburg's Christine Kovelter. In the climb of Eppeldorf, Flagothier found herself in a second peloton in the race, whereas Kovelter was one group further behind, only a few seconds behind. But on the following kilometres, the gap between the two groups growed constantly and, in the end, Melissa Flagothier took the women's win 6 minutes ahead of Kovelter. The third rider, Martine Licker, crossed the finish line 15 minutes late. In the scratch classification, Flagothier took a good 69th place, less than 7 minutes late on Peter Schroen. The former member of the Belgian National team arrived in Echternach in the third group of around 30 riders and, while she aimed for a Top 50 place, she did a very bad sprint and finished among the last of her group. La 21ème Charly Gaul >>
After the côte d’Eppeldorf, there was another selection and they were still 19 in the first group, still chasing behind Diseviscourt. Jean-Charles Martin started his move and on the climb of Consdorf, the winner from 2001 and 2003 escaped with three more riders (Bob Adrianssens, Philippe Herman and Anthony Spysschaert). With 15 kilometres to go, the bridged up to Diseviscourt, who has ridden for more than 50 kilometres alone in the lead, while the next chasers were less than a minute back. The race was far from being over at that point. for the third time winner of La Charly Gaul: Jean-Charles Martin There were no more topographic difficulties ahead of the riders, but in the valley to the finish, the speed was very high with lots of attacks in the two groups. After several unsuccessfull attempts from Michel Ossieur, Peter Enckels and Mark Touwen managed to break away from the chasing group and to bridge up to the front, where Bob Adrianssens had been dropped. Last year, Touwen did excactly the same move and ended third in the race. They were thus 6 to sprint for the victory in Echternach and Jean-Charles Martin was fastest ahead of Diseviscourt, who had already finished in second place last year. Philippe Herman, who had some difficulties in the last part of the race, took the third position, Belgian contender Peter Enckels, one of the most active riders in the race, ended in fourth while Gerrit Teunis won the sprint of the next chasers in 8th place, around 40 seconds behind. The third group of the day was already more than 10 minutes back. In the women's race, nobody was able to match up with Mariska Breyne, a young Belgian elite racer of 24 years who participated this year among others in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. At the foot of the Groesteen climb, she was in a second group, less than 2 minutes behind the head of the race and she had already a good margin on the next female chasers, Eliane Diederich and Irmgard Lütticken. After the climb, Breyne still was in very good position in the Top 100 overall, but she knew some trouble at the end of the race when she was dropped out of her group. She fell back several places in the scratch classification, but the victory in the women's category was already in the pocket at the moment. In the end, Marisky Breyne took the win with 23 minutes advantage on the second lady, Eliane Diederich from Luxemburg, who was 10 minutes faster than German Lütticken. Breyne crossed the finish line in 127th position overall, 40 minutes behind the male winner of the day. Race B Gilberto Simoni and Kim Andersen were leading the peloton during the neutralized portion through the streets of Echternach, right after the provisional start. But if both of them were open for discussions and pictures with the public and other riders at the start and the finish, they were At the start of La Charly Gaul B: Kim Andersen and Gilberto Simoni clearly not there to try and win the race. After a few pedal strokes at the head of the race though, the let themselves fall back among all the other anonymous riders. The real race, on the other hand, started soon after the sharp start: on the first climb to Michelshof, two riders attacked and took a small advantage. Jeremy Grosjean, who is used to riding cyclosport races and recently finished 10th in La Christophe Brandt as well as the champion of Lorraine in cyclo-cross Jérôme Ehald tried an early break, but they would be reeled in long before the finish line. After the climb of Eppeldorf, the toughest climb on this course, they were still around 40 riders in contention for the win, among them a majority of Belgian contenders. But the selection continued and a few climbs later, the were only 8 left in the lead: Grosjean and Ehald, still there, Peter Schroen, a double winner of La Charly Gaul B, Sylvain Melon, the 6th of the Belgian amateur championships, his brother Vincent, who had already been very offensive in last year's race, as well as three other Belgians: Christian Gonda, Julien Ponsard and Nino Guistizia. No Luxemburger though in the first group, Alain Juncker and Fabrice Prado, the best of them, rode in a second group of around 30 riders, less than a minute behind. Former professionnal Peter Schroen, who was team-mate of the great Sean Kelly and winner of a stage in the Tour of Austria as well as in Spa-Hasselt-Spa in the years 1980, was the big favourite and he took control of the race: together with Christian Gonda and Sylvain Melon, the rider who finished a total of five times on the podium of La Charly Gaul in the last eight years, broke away in the last kilometres and the three of them quickly gained more than half a minute advantage on the rest of the peloton: the victory would be battle out among the trio. Podium of La 21ème Charly Gaul B: Gonda, Schroen, Melon But while everyone prepared for the deciding sprint, an error occured: instead of following the course to the finish in the streets of Echternach, the three riders followed an escorting motor bike into another street and Schroen and Gonda arrived to the finish line ... coming from the wrong direction. A correct sprint was no longer possible, but Christian Gonda was very fair-play by stating that Schroen was the strongest of them and leaving him the victory. Gonda took second while Sylvain Melon is stated in third rank, a few seconds down on the other two. Another Belgian rider, Julien Ponsard, won the sprint of the chasing group for fourth place. In a group of three, Alain Juncker finished as best Luxemburgish rider in 11th position, one minute and 12 seconds down on the winner. In the women's event, the race was decided between Belgian Melissa Flagothier, who had been riding in a British professionnal team for two years before turning to cyclosport events and Luxemburg's Christine Kovelter. In the climb of Eppeldorf, Flagothier found herself in a second peloton in the race, whereas Kovelter was one group further behind, only a few seconds behind. But on the following kilometres, the gap between the two groups growed constantly and, in the end, Melissa Flagothier took the women's win 6 minutes ahead of Kovelter. The third rider, Martine Licker, crossed the finish line 15 minutes late. In the scratch classification, Flagothier took a good 69th place, less than 7 minutes late on Peter Schroen. The former member of the Belgian National team arrived in Echternach in the third group of around 30 riders and, while she aimed for a Top 50 place, she did a very bad sprint and finished among the last of her group. La 21ème Charly Gaul >>
In the women's race, nobody was able to match up with Mariska Breyne, a young Belgian elite racer of 24 years who participated this year among others in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. At the foot of the Groesteen climb, she was in a second group, less than 2 minutes behind the head of the race and she had already a good margin on the next female chasers, Eliane Diederich and Irmgard Lütticken. After the climb, Breyne still was in very good position in the Top 100 overall, but she knew some trouble at the end of the race when she was dropped out of her group. She fell back several places in the scratch classification, but the victory in the women's category was already in the pocket at the moment. In the end, Marisky Breyne took the win with 23 minutes advantage on the second lady, Eliane Diederich from Luxemburg, who was 10 minutes faster than German Lütticken. Breyne crossed the finish line in 127th position overall, 40 minutes behind the male winner of the day. Race B Gilberto Simoni and Kim Andersen were leading the peloton during the neutralized portion through the streets of Echternach, right after the provisional start. But if both of them were open for discussions and pictures with the public and other riders at the start and the finish, they were At the start of La Charly Gaul B: Kim Andersen and Gilberto Simoni clearly not there to try and win the race. After a few pedal strokes at the head of the race though, the let themselves fall back among all the other anonymous riders. The real race, on the other hand, started soon after the sharp start: on the first climb to Michelshof, two riders attacked and took a small advantage. Jeremy Grosjean, who is used to riding cyclosport races and recently finished 10th in La Christophe Brandt as well as the champion of Lorraine in cyclo-cross Jérôme Ehald tried an early break, but they would be reeled in long before the finish line. After the climb of Eppeldorf, the toughest climb on this course, they were still around 40 riders in contention for the win, among them a majority of Belgian contenders. But the selection continued and a few climbs later, the were only 8 left in the lead: Grosjean and Ehald, still there, Peter Schroen, a double winner of La Charly Gaul B, Sylvain Melon, the 6th of the Belgian amateur championships, his brother Vincent, who had already been very offensive in last year's race, as well as three other Belgians: Christian Gonda, Julien Ponsard and Nino Guistizia. No Luxemburger though in the first group, Alain Juncker and Fabrice Prado, the best of them, rode in a second group of around 30 riders, less than a minute behind. Former professionnal Peter Schroen, who was team-mate of the great Sean Kelly and winner of a stage in the Tour of Austria as well as in Spa-Hasselt-Spa in the years 1980, was the big favourite and he took control of the race: together with Christian Gonda and Sylvain Melon, the rider who finished a total of five times on the podium of La Charly Gaul in the last eight years, broke away in the last kilometres and the three of them quickly gained more than half a minute advantage on the rest of the peloton: the victory would be battle out among the trio. Podium of La 21ème Charly Gaul B: Gonda, Schroen, Melon But while everyone prepared for the deciding sprint, an error occured: instead of following the course to the finish in the streets of Echternach, the three riders followed an escorting motor bike into another street and Schroen and Gonda arrived to the finish line ... coming from the wrong direction. A correct sprint was no longer possible, but Christian Gonda was very fair-play by stating that Schroen was the strongest of them and leaving him the victory. Gonda took second while Sylvain Melon is stated in third rank, a few seconds down on the other two. Another Belgian rider, Julien Ponsard, won the sprint of the chasing group for fourth place. In a group of three, Alain Juncker finished as best Luxemburgish rider in 11th position, one minute and 12 seconds down on the winner. In the women's event, the race was decided between Belgian Melissa Flagothier, who had been riding in a British professionnal team for two years before turning to cyclosport events and Luxemburg's Christine Kovelter. In the climb of Eppeldorf, Flagothier found herself in a second peloton in the race, whereas Kovelter was one group further behind, only a few seconds behind. But on the following kilometres, the gap between the two groups growed constantly and, in the end, Melissa Flagothier took the women's win 6 minutes ahead of Kovelter. The third rider, Martine Licker, crossed the finish line 15 minutes late. In the scratch classification, Flagothier took a good 69th place, less than 7 minutes late on Peter Schroen. The former member of the Belgian National team arrived in Echternach in the third group of around 30 riders and, while she aimed for a Top 50 place, she did a very bad sprint and finished among the last of her group. La 21ème Charly Gaul >>
Race B Gilberto Simoni and Kim Andersen were leading the peloton during the neutralized portion through the streets of Echternach, right after the provisional start. But if both of them were open for discussions and pictures with the public and other riders at the start and the finish, they were At the start of La Charly Gaul B: Kim Andersen and Gilberto Simoni clearly not there to try and win the race. After a few pedal strokes at the head of the race though, the let themselves fall back among all the other anonymous riders. The real race, on the other hand, started soon after the sharp start: on the first climb to Michelshof, two riders attacked and took a small advantage. Jeremy Grosjean, who is used to riding cyclosport races and recently finished 10th in La Christophe Brandt as well as the champion of Lorraine in cyclo-cross Jérôme Ehald tried an early break, but they would be reeled in long before the finish line. After the climb of Eppeldorf, the toughest climb on this course, they were still around 40 riders in contention for the win, among them a majority of Belgian contenders. But the selection continued and a few climbs later, the were only 8 left in the lead: Grosjean and Ehald, still there, Peter Schroen, a double winner of La Charly Gaul B, Sylvain Melon, the 6th of the Belgian amateur championships, his brother Vincent, who had already been very offensive in last year's race, as well as three other Belgians: Christian Gonda, Julien Ponsard and Nino Guistizia. No Luxemburger though in the first group, Alain Juncker and Fabrice Prado, the best of them, rode in a second group of around 30 riders, less than a minute behind. Former professionnal Peter Schroen, who was team-mate of the great Sean Kelly and winner of a stage in the Tour of Austria as well as in Spa-Hasselt-Spa in the years 1980, was the big favourite and he took control of the race: together with Christian Gonda and Sylvain Melon, the rider who finished a total of five times on the podium of La Charly Gaul in the last eight years, broke away in the last kilometres and the three of them quickly gained more than half a minute advantage on the rest of the peloton: the victory would be battle out among the trio. Podium of La 21ème Charly Gaul B: Gonda, Schroen, Melon But while everyone prepared for the deciding sprint, an error occured: instead of following the course to the finish in the streets of Echternach, the three riders followed an escorting motor bike into another street and Schroen and Gonda arrived to the finish line ... coming from the wrong direction. A correct sprint was no longer possible, but Christian Gonda was very fair-play by stating that Schroen was the strongest of them and leaving him the victory. Gonda took second while Sylvain Melon is stated in third rank, a few seconds down on the other two. Another Belgian rider, Julien Ponsard, won the sprint of the chasing group for fourth place. In a group of three, Alain Juncker finished as best Luxemburgish rider in 11th position, one minute and 12 seconds down on the winner. In the women's event, the race was decided between Belgian Melissa Flagothier, who had been riding in a British professionnal team for two years before turning to cyclosport events and Luxemburg's Christine Kovelter. In the climb of Eppeldorf, Flagothier found herself in a second peloton in the race, whereas Kovelter was one group further behind, only a few seconds behind. But on the following kilometres, the gap between the two groups growed constantly and, in the end, Melissa Flagothier took the women's win 6 minutes ahead of Kovelter. The third rider, Martine Licker, crossed the finish line 15 minutes late. In the scratch classification, Flagothier took a good 69th place, less than 7 minutes late on Peter Schroen. The former member of the Belgian National team arrived in Echternach in the third group of around 30 riders and, while she aimed for a Top 50 place, she did a very bad sprint and finished among the last of her group. La 21ème Charly Gaul >>
Gilberto Simoni and Kim Andersen were leading the peloton during the neutralized portion through the streets of Echternach, right after the provisional start. But if both of them were open for discussions and pictures with the public and other riders at the start and the finish, they were At the start of La Charly Gaul B: Kim Andersen and Gilberto Simoni clearly not there to try and win the race. After a few pedal strokes at the head of the race though, the let themselves fall back among all the other anonymous riders. The real race, on the other hand, started soon after the sharp start: on the first climb to Michelshof, two riders attacked and took a small advantage. Jeremy Grosjean, who is used to riding cyclosport races and recently finished 10th in La Christophe Brandt as well as the champion of Lorraine in cyclo-cross Jérôme Ehald tried an early break, but they would be reeled in long before the finish line. After the climb of Eppeldorf, the toughest climb on this course, they were still around 40 riders in contention for the win, among them a majority of Belgian contenders. But the selection continued and a few climbs later, the were only 8 left in the lead: Grosjean and Ehald, still there, Peter Schroen, a double winner of La Charly Gaul B, Sylvain Melon, the 6th of the Belgian amateur championships, his brother Vincent, who had already been very offensive in last year's race, as well as three other Belgians: Christian Gonda, Julien Ponsard and Nino Guistizia. No Luxemburger though in the first group, Alain Juncker and Fabrice Prado, the best of them, rode in a second group of around 30 riders, less than a minute behind. Former professionnal Peter Schroen, who was team-mate of the great Sean Kelly and winner of a stage in the Tour of Austria as well as in Spa-Hasselt-Spa in the years 1980, was the big favourite and he took control of the race: together with Christian Gonda and Sylvain Melon, the rider who finished a total of five times on the podium of La Charly Gaul in the last eight years, broke away in the last kilometres and the three of them quickly gained more than half a minute advantage on the rest of the peloton: the victory would be battle out among the trio. Podium of La 21ème Charly Gaul B: Gonda, Schroen, Melon But while everyone prepared for the deciding sprint, an error occured: instead of following the course to the finish in the streets of Echternach, the three riders followed an escorting motor bike into another street and Schroen and Gonda arrived to the finish line ... coming from the wrong direction. A correct sprint was no longer possible, but Christian Gonda was very fair-play by stating that Schroen was the strongest of them and leaving him the victory. Gonda took second while Sylvain Melon is stated in third rank, a few seconds down on the other two. Another Belgian rider, Julien Ponsard, won the sprint of the chasing group for fourth place. In a group of three, Alain Juncker finished as best Luxemburgish rider in 11th position, one minute and 12 seconds down on the winner. In the women's event, the race was decided between Belgian Melissa Flagothier, who had been riding in a British professionnal team for two years before turning to cyclosport events and Luxemburg's Christine Kovelter. In the climb of Eppeldorf, Flagothier found herself in a second peloton in the race, whereas Kovelter was one group further behind, only a few seconds behind. But on the following kilometres, the gap between the two groups growed constantly and, in the end, Melissa Flagothier took the women's win 6 minutes ahead of Kovelter. The third rider, Martine Licker, crossed the finish line 15 minutes late. In the scratch classification, Flagothier took a good 69th place, less than 7 minutes late on Peter Schroen. The former member of the Belgian National team arrived in Echternach in the third group of around 30 riders and, while she aimed for a Top 50 place, she did a very bad sprint and finished among the last of her group. La 21ème Charly Gaul >>
Former professionnal Peter Schroen, who was team-mate of the great Sean Kelly and winner of a stage in the Tour of Austria as well as in Spa-Hasselt-Spa in the years 1980, was the big favourite and he took control of the race: together with Christian Gonda and Sylvain Melon, the rider who finished a total of five times on the podium of La Charly Gaul in the last eight years, broke away in the last kilometres and the three of them quickly gained more than half a minute advantage on the rest of the peloton: the victory would be battle out among the trio. Podium of La 21ème Charly Gaul B: Gonda, Schroen, Melon But while everyone prepared for the deciding sprint, an error occured: instead of following the course to the finish in the streets of Echternach, the three riders followed an escorting motor bike into another street and Schroen and Gonda arrived to the finish line ... coming from the wrong direction. A correct sprint was no longer possible, but Christian Gonda was very fair-play by stating that Schroen was the strongest of them and leaving him the victory. Gonda took second while Sylvain Melon is stated in third rank, a few seconds down on the other two. Another Belgian rider, Julien Ponsard, won the sprint of the chasing group for fourth place. In a group of three, Alain Juncker finished as best Luxemburgish rider in 11th position, one minute and 12 seconds down on the winner. In the women's event, the race was decided between Belgian Melissa Flagothier, who had been riding in a British professionnal team for two years before turning to cyclosport events and Luxemburg's Christine Kovelter. In the climb of Eppeldorf, Flagothier found herself in a second peloton in the race, whereas Kovelter was one group further behind, only a few seconds behind. But on the following kilometres, the gap between the two groups growed constantly and, in the end, Melissa Flagothier took the women's win 6 minutes ahead of Kovelter. The third rider, Martine Licker, crossed the finish line 15 minutes late. In the scratch classification, Flagothier took a good 69th place, less than 7 minutes late on Peter Schroen. The former member of the Belgian National team arrived in Echternach in the third group of around 30 riders and, while she aimed for a Top 50 place, she did a very bad sprint and finished among the last of her group. La 21ème Charly Gaul >>
In the women's event, the race was decided between Belgian Melissa Flagothier, who had been riding in a British professionnal team for two years before turning to cyclosport events and Luxemburg's Christine Kovelter. In the climb of Eppeldorf, Flagothier found herself in a second peloton in the race, whereas Kovelter was one group further behind, only a few seconds behind. But on the following kilometres, the gap between the two groups growed constantly and, in the end, Melissa Flagothier took the women's win 6 minutes ahead of Kovelter. The third rider, Martine Licker, crossed the finish line 15 minutes late. In the scratch classification, Flagothier took a good 69th place, less than 7 minutes late on Peter Schroen. The former member of the Belgian National team arrived in Echternach in the third group of around 30 riders and, while she aimed for a Top 50 place, she did a very bad sprint and finished among the last of her group. La 21ème Charly Gaul >>
La 21ème Charly Gaul >>
