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Nilson strongest of all
The athmosphere wasn't very bright in Bech, for the Grand-prix OST-Fenster 2010. On the day before, the news of Kim Kirchen's heart accident had occured and most of the members of the ACC Contern were still schocked. In addition, more bad news about an accident by our long-term member Arthur Bausch came out in the afternoon. It was with the best wishes for Kim Kirchen that Marcel Gilles sent the riders onto the hilly roads around Bech and the racing was great, with a strong winner since Hakan Nilson was able to hold off his chasers on his own during 15 kilometres before taking a solo great victory.
46 riders at the start, they were not many, but the level was quite high and, with one week to go until the National Championships, most of the riders had some good form. Noone was dropped during the first laps despite high speed with lots of attacks and, in good weather conditions, only 6 riders abandoned the race. Eventually, there were 40 riders at the finish, the same amount as in previous editions with a lot more contenders at the start.
After a short warm-up, the racing started quickly and the winner of the Grand-prix François Faber, Christian Poos, was among the most active riders. However, in the second lap, he was not part of a promising group that broke away with Hakan Nilson, Cyrille Heymans, André Benoit, Gusty Bausch, Tino Fernandez, Ward Schiffelers, Quentin Borcy and Gérard Beghin. They were eight leading, among them 2 from Differdange, but the race wasn't decided yet. There were lots of attacks in the peloton and several riders were hoping to bridge up to the leaders.
In the crosswinds, small groups formed and disappeared again, but the attempt of Dominik Eberle, Thibault Di Fabio, Paul Bentner and Thomas Krasniak didn't show any success, just like the one from Claude Degano together with Luc Loozen and Martin Johansson. They were finally four to be able to break away and, after two laps of chasing, Christian Poos, Benn Wurth, Philipp Herman and Thomas Krasniak joined the leading group.
They were thus now 12 riders in the lead, among them three from Differdange (Heymans, Poos, Nilson), two form Kayl (Bausch, Wurth) as well as one rider form Maaslandster (Schiffelers), Belvaux (Fernandez), Tétange (Herman), Schwalbe Trier (Benoit), Sarreguemines (Beghin), Chevigny (Borcy) and Amnéville (Krasniak). At around mid-race, the gap had increased to more than two minutes and there were only a few isolated attacks now in the peloton.
During lap seven, the leading group broke into pieces for a moment with Heymans, Nilson and Borcy leading by a narrow margin, but a few kilometres later, they were all together again. At the back of the race, Dominik Eberle and Tom Loozen had attacked the peloton and they were soon joined by Pascal Triebel, Olivier Laterza and Steve Fries. These five riders quickly took one minute of advantage on the rest, but they were more than three minutes behind the leaders, so their situation wasn't comfortable at all. Laterza found out about that two laps later and dropped back to the peloton, while the other four continued with the gaps remaining more or less stable.
With two laps to go, the 12 leaders opened the final with a series of accelerations. Cyrille Heymans tried his luck, then Poos and Wurth had a go which resulted in Ward Schiffelers being dropped. Hakan Nilson was luckier, he managed to break away with Gusty Bausch and the two riders quickly took 40 seconds advantage on Poos, Krasniak and Borcy. Those three were chasing while all the other riders lost more and more ground. On the slightly uphill part against the wind just before the entrance of Bech, Nilson was able to drop Gusty Bausch and he crossed the finish line with his hand up in the air as a sign of victory ... one lap too early.
The rider from Differdang was wrong thinking he had won the race, while there was another lap to go. Fortunately for him, he still had some power left and, with only the two last small climbs to tackle, he still had 45 seconds advantage left on his chasers, where of course Poos did not do any work. But Thomas Krasniak had not given up yet and he attacked on the climb to Berbourg, one, two, three times. But at each attempt, Poos quickly jumped into his wheel and the other two followed. It was only shortly before the last kilometre that the son of Zbig Krasniak, former bike racer and third in the GP OST-Fenster 1987, managed to get rid of Bausch and Borcy, with Poos still sitting in his wheel.
After 13 laps, Hakan Nilson crossed the finish line of the 23rd Grand-prix OST-Fenster as eventual winner, 32 secondes ahead of Thomas Krasniak who was faster than Poos in the sprint for second. Borcy and Bausch finished at 40 seconds, while the first group led by Gérard Beghin ahead of Cyrille Heymans was nearly two minutes late. Quentin Borcy from CC Chevigny was best U23 rider, while Christian Poos won the Marcel Niederweis Trophy of Best Luxemburgish rider, named after the man who made cycling races popular in the municipality of Bech and who died far too early, a few months ago.
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