After a particularly sunny week, the weather changed its mind for the last week-end of March in Bech and, like last year, was as changing as it could possibly be. Brief sunny moments, frequent showers, cool temperatures and a wind strong enough to drop the fences packed with advertising banners along the finish line - in short, the weekend was quite challenging for the participants in our cycling races. Of course, Norvegian vikings were in their element in these conditions and they took 5 of the 6 places on the podium in the elite and U23 races, even achieving a hat-trick in the 100th edition of the Grand-prix François Faber. But perhaps more important than victories was the fact that over 280 participants signed up for the various races and, although there were a few withdrawals, the undeniable popular success of the weekend among the cyclists was enough to put a smile on the faces of the organizers.

For the 100th edition of the Grand-prix François Faber, we wanted to put the Grand Duchy's oldest cycle race a little bit more in the sportlight and, after studying various possibilities, we finally opted for the easy way: extend our cycling festival in Bech to Saturday and emphasis on the birthday, for example with a 'Special 100th' general classification over the two days of racing. The success proved us right, with 84 riders lining up on the start line in Bech on Saturday afternoon for 8 laps of a hilly and new course, that was nonetheless largely inspired by the history of ACC Contern races in the region, with for example passages through Lellig and Berbourg. The large peloton didn't get off to a great start as several riders crashed in the very beginning, including Pol Breser and pre-race favourite Rik Karier. Both of them dropped out shortly afterwards, when the Norwegians had already made their ambitions clear by sending Sander Holla to the front, accompanied by Luxemburgish rider Philippe Schmit. The two men quickly built up a lead of around forty seconds over Thomas De Milde, who was chasing alone, while the peloton was more than a minute behind. The maximum advantage for Holla and Schmit was 1'46", before the peloton decided to react. Due to the change of pace, the peloton quickly fell into pieces and five men found themselves in the chase: Christoffer Ellingsen, Thomas Lehnen, Pol Weisgerber, Tim Diderich and Vetle Eskedal. The gap to the front duo melted away like Scandinavian snow under a shy Luxembourg sun that had appeared in the meantime and, during the fourth lap, the regrouping was a fact.

Eventually, at mid-race, there were 7 men in the lead: the three Vikings Ellingsen, Eskedal and Holla against 2 representatives of Team Snooze, Diderich and Schmit, plus the isolated Weisgerber (Alzingen) and Lehnen (Chevigny). The first small peloton was announced at 1'55", with a second group more than 3 minutes behind. Pol Weisgerber had to drop back a little further on, on the small climb in Lellig, and was caught by Sander Granberg, another Norwegian who had accelerated out of the peloton. With 30 kilometres to go, the six leaders had an advantage of 1'45" over the duo Weisgerber and Granberg and 3 minutes on the front of the peloton. The riders from Team Sandnes continued to demonstrate their offensive Scandinavian racing style as Vetle Eskedal and Sander Holla took the lead with only Tim Diederich to accompany them, while Ellingsen, Lehnen and Schmit rode around fifteen seconds back. But Christoffer Ellingsen managed to break away from his two companions and bridged again back to the front of the race, only to attack immediately after, under the pouring rain. At the start of the last lap, Ellingsen had 27 seconds advantage on his three chasers Holla, Eskedal and Diederich and 37" advantage on Thomas Lehnen, who came back into the chasing group for a moment but was irretrievably dropped soon after. Tim Diederich must have been feeling very isolated among all the Norwegians and was soon the victim of the team strategy. Holla and Eskedal attacked one after the other and Sander Holla was able to catch his leading compatriot in the final kilometres. But he was kind enough not to challenge him for the sprint. Christoffer Ellingsen therefore crossed the finish line ahead of his team-mate, becoming the 100th winner of the race on a list that includes such prestigious names as Nicolas Frantz, Lucien Didier, Etienne De Wilde, Alex Pedersen and Kim Kirchen. Sander Holla finished second and Vetle Eskedal third at 20 seconds, completing his team's triple triumph. As fourth and first Luxembourger, Tim Diederich crossed the line one minute behind the winner and ahead of Belgian Thomas Lehnen. Arnaud Noirhomme was the best junior rider of this tough race in ninth place, while the best master, Svenne Vangoethemd, finished as an excellent 13th.

Despite the early hours, a nice big field of 24 riders was at the start line of the 6th Souvenir Marcel Gilles in the minimes category, for two laps of racing, among them unfortunately just 4 girls. On top of that, the unlucky Juliette Jean had to quit the race in tears after just a few hectometres with a mechanical problem. 6 riders took the lead early on and, at the end of the first loop, Jules Lamberty, Alessio Ghirelli, Mathis Elsen, Louis Breger, Fabio Giampaolo and Timeo Jonckheere already had a lead of more than a minute over their first chasers, a group including the two strong girls Nora Simon and Lyel Hever. With Louis Breger dropping back on the last lap, the final decision came down to a 5-man sprint, with Alessio Ghirelli taking a clear win. He crossed the finish line several metres ahead of Mathis Elsen and Timeo Jonckheere, with Giampaolo and Lamberty finishing a few seconds further back. Behind Louis Breger, the second group finished more than two minutes late, a group in which Lyel Hever finished in a very fine eighth place, with Nora Simon ended second girl at the back of the same group.

With just 13 starters, the cadets field seemed a bit thin, in comparison to the other categories, and the race was actually rather monotonous with the clear domination of one rider alone. It was a virtually complete peloton led by Leo Lanners that crossed the intermediate line on the first lap, with women Axelle Jean and Sarah König well represented in the front ranks. But as of the second lap, Lorenzo Astolfi from UC Dippach took the lead, quickly building up a lead of a minute and a half over a small group of 4 riders formed by Yann Hengen, Belgian Néo Pillot (in his first race), Leo Langers and Paul Moog. They were followed by Fabien Hosinger on his own, a minute back, and then a second group with Sarah König and Axelle Jean, already nearly 4 minutes behind Astolfi. The latter didn't weaken in the last lap, on the contrary, and won with 5 minutes advantage on his four chasers where Neo Pillot who was fastest in the sprint ahead of Lanners, Hengen and Moog in that order. In the girls' race, the decision also came down to the sprint in a small group of five riders where, behind Dipach's Noé Garcia Pinnel, Axelle Jean was much faster than Sarah König, with the two girls taking positions 8 and 9 in the race.

No fewer than forty entries were on the lists in the beginners' and ladies' categories, of which 32 finally made it to the start line. Just under thirty riders were still together after a relatively uneventful opening lap of the race and the still compact peloton was led by Loïc Gouveia on the second lap, with the women Gwen Nothum and Anouk Schmitz at the front. The much younger Kylie Bintz passed with around thirty seconds deficit as the first beginner. The young rider from Velosfrenn Gusty Bruch crashed heavily afterwards, but courageously finished her race, won her category and was then taken into the ambulance and evacuated to hospital with bruised arms and hips. In the boys and women's race there were still few changes in the kilometres that followed and Valentin Georges led a group that was still around twenty riders strong with two laps to go. The peloton finally broke up into smaller groups with only around fifteen kilometres to go. Maximilien Outlet, Loïc Gouveia, Florain Remy, Dave Cichy, Robrecht Viaene, Valentin Georges and the only lady Gewen Nothum were the ones in front at the bell. Despite several attacks on the final lap, it was this same group that battled out the victory in the final hectometres, but Robrecht Viaene anticipated the sprint on the approach to the line and won the race solo, eight seconds ahed of Maximilien Outlet and Dave Chicy. Gwen Nothum was faster than the boys for fourth place and clearly won the women's category, largely ahead of second placed Zoé Gaillard from Belgian in 23rd position overall.

"Regrouped peloton" was also announced by the race radio during the first lap in the juniors' and masters' race. But it didn't last too long: On the second lap, the peloton exploded and 6 riders took the lead (Leander De Gendt, Lenn Schmitz, Jonah Flammang-Lies, Nicolas Wirz, Arnaud Noirhomme and David Loschetter), followed by nine others (Jeremy Burton, Julien Ponsard, Svenne Vangoethemd, Pascal Triebel, Dany Papi, Lennox Papi, Luke Gremling, Oliver Paderhuber and Yannis Lang) around 30 seconds back. The advantage of the leading six grew gradually, up to 1'20" during the third lap, then began to drop again: towards the halfway point, the regrouping was imminent. But the two groups broke up again before partially reforming: Jérémy Burton, Svenne Vangoethemd and Julien Ponsard crossed the intermediate line 15 seconds ahead of the next chasers led by Jonah Flammang-Lies, then, during the fifth lap of the race, a leading group of 9 riders formed, with the main peloton 4 and a half minutes behind. Up front, there were two riders from CC Chevigny (Noirhomme and Loschetter), 2 representatives from SLC2 (Ponsard and Vangoethemd), 2 members of the cycling club of Dippach (Schmitz and Flammang-Lies), as well as Flemish rider Leander De Gendt, Walloon rider Jeremy Burton and German Nicolas Wirz. The latter had already won the Souvenir Marcel Gilles for beginners on the same course, a few years ago. The next few laps brought little change and there were still nine riders in the lead with 9 kilometres to go. Masters rider Julien Ponsard made everything clear with an attack during the last lap and he made it to the finish alone, with plenty of time to celebrate his victory. Twenty seconds later, the two juniors Arnaud Noirhomme and David Loschetter battled it out for second place and best junior in that order, ahead of De Gendt, Burton and Vangoethemd, thus establishing a balanced result with three juniors and three masters in the top 6.

45 riders lined up at the start of the 36th Grand-prix OST-Fenster for categories elite and U23, a little less than usual in recent years, but that didn't matter: the race was entertaining and undecided right to the end. 6 riders took off as of the first lap: Sander Holla and Philippe Schmit, who had already been the first attackers the day before at the Grand-prix François Faber, Charel Meyers, Christoffer Ellingsen, the winner of the Faber, Max Valtey and Loïc Bettendorff. A fine group of main contenders, eventually, and they quickly opened up a gap: 23 seconds, then 58 seconds. Four riders decided to react at that moment: Sander Gysland, the good mountain biker Oscar Lind, Thomas De Milde and Tim Diederich managed leave the main bunch behind and to reduce the gap, while other riders also broke away in the peloton. After a regrouping, 10 riders found themselves at the head of the race, with a 22-second advantage over Vetle Eskedal, Sander Granberg, Jacques Gloesener and Frederik Floysvik. However, the latter two were distanced a little bit later, while Eskedal and Grandberg managed to join the leading group of now 12 riders, mainly led by the Norwegianss.

There were 5 Team Sandnes riders in front (Ellingsen, Holla, Eskedal, Gysland and Granberg) against 3 representatives from Team Snooze (Valtey, Schmit and Diederich) plus solo riders Bettendorff (Atertdaul) Meyers (VCU Schwenheim), De Milde (VP Consulting) and Sweden's Lind. The main peloton was now 1'40" back. The race continued to be eventful, driven by the Scandinavian attackers: Christoffer Ellingsen, the winner of the day before, was for a while alone in the lead at mid-race with 20 seconds advantage on Diederich and 24" on Gysland, Grandberg, Holla, Bettendorff, Meyers and Valtey, before a new regroupement, first with 8 riders, then again with 11 due to the return of Lind, Schmit and Eskedal, Thomas De Milde being definitively dropped. With 15 kilometres to go, Ellingsen attacked again, but this time his maximum advantage was only 15", before he was caught again and dropped for good, together with team-mate Granberg. As the attacks continued, Schmit, Floysvik and Lind were also dropped and the decision was to be made between the 7 riders still together at the start of the last lap: 3 Novégiens (Gysland, Holla, Eskedal), 2 Snooze (Diederich and Valtey), plus Meyers and Bettendorff. Despite a flurry of attacks in the final loop, victory came down to a sprint and Loïc Bettendorff won with a clear margin, two lengths ahead of the two Sander, Gysland and Holla, and then Valtey, Meyers, Eskedal and Diederich in this order.

In Special 100th Faber general classification over the two days, the Norwegians were the dominating force in the elite/U23 category, with 4 riders in the top 5. Second in the Faber and third in the GP OST-Fenster, Sander Holla won without discussion ahead of his compatriots Vetle Eskedal (3rd on Saturday and 6th on Sunday) and Sander Gysland (2nd in the Grand-prix OST-Fenster but only 8th the day before), Tim Diederich in fourth place being the only rider to break the Vikings' hegemony with a fourth and a seventh place, ahead of Christoffer Ellingsen, the winner of the Faber. Among the juniors and masters, the decision was also clear: best junior in the Grand-prix François Faber on Saturday with a fine ninth place and second in the Souvenir Marcel Gilles, Arnaud Noirhomme won by 8 points ahead of Svenne Vangoethemd and David Loschetter, the master finishing ahead of the junior thanks to his fine thirteenth place among the elites in the 100th edition on Saturday afternoon.