GP FRANCOIS FABER

91st Grand-prix François FABER regional road race for juniors 01.05.2014 - Bech

FABER 2014 in deutscher Sprache FABER 2014 en Français

REPORT

Double trouble ...

Rain had been on the forecast for Thursday, May 1st, 2014, but it was a bright sunshine early in the morning, when the 91st edition of the Grand-prix François Faber took off. There were not more than around 20 riders lining up, but they showed a nice race with a long solo ride from Laurent Schneider. But it the end, the two strongest riders battled out for the win in a two-men sprint after having been side by side during the hole race. Eventually, Kevin Geniets finished slightly ahead of National Champion Tom Wirtgen. Laurent Schneider alone in the lead Some Belgian riders were expected in Bech, but none of the teams showed up for this 91st edition of Luxemburg's oldest cycling race. Besides Belgian Maxime Tonnelli from the well-known Verand Willems Chevigny Team and German Stefan Schmitt, coming from the near neighbourhood in Trier, the home riders were among them in the Easter part of the Grand-Duchy. Laurent Schneider didn't wait long to start the action because as of the first lap, the brave rider from SAF Zéisseng took off for a long solo ride with one, then two minutes advantage on a main bunch where Kevin Geniets and Tom Wirtgen were constantly on the attack, trying to break away from the rest of them. But they were two other ones to manage to get away around mid-race: Nicolas Duchamp and Maxime Weyrich Attacks in the peloton chased behind Schneider as a duo for a while, but Duchamp found himself in difficulty and was replaced alongside Weyrich by his team-mate Tom Rees. Geniets and Wirtgen were also still offensive in the peloton and finally could break away in the fifth of nine rounds, after a series on attacks. Behind them, the riders from LG Alzingen were in the majority in the main bunch, but they never managed to get back to the front again. With four laps to go, Schneider was still leading on his own, but he had now four chasers in his back since Weyrich, Rees, Wirtgen and Geniets had regrouped and already eaten up the majority of the gap to the leader. It was only a question of time thus: one lap later, Schneider was caught, leaving five men in front. There was still some suspense left for the end as Sprint of two: Geniets and Wirtgen Rees (Alzingen), Schneider (Cessange), Wirtgen (Dippach), Geniets (Schifflange) and Weyrich (Preizerdaul) were from five different teams and the peloton led by the riders of LG Alzingen was less than a minute behind them. During the last three laps, the legs were sore for some of the riders and the leading group reduced more and more: an exhausted Laurent Schneider was the first to be dropped, than Tom Rees lost contact and finally, Maxime Weyrich had to let the two strongest riders go in the last lap: Geniets and Wirtgen. After 9 laps and 84 kilometres, the race thus was decided in a battle between the two riders. They sprinted side by side during a long time and it was only in the very last metres that Kevin Geniets was the better and he won with half a wheel advantage on Tom Wirtgen. Maxime Weyrich took third at 27 seconds, while the main peloton of only around a dozen riders was led over the line by Ken Müller, two minutes late on the winner Note: "This site contains links to other pages, on which content and presentation we don't have any influence. These refences are indicated merely for your information and and we can't be made reliable for any of the content of any of the places our links may take you to." Contact: ACC Contern - c/o M. Eugène Stirn - 19, rue Jules Fischer - L-1522 Luxembourg - Tél: (+352) 49 27 11 - eugstirn@pt.lu