It was a very special and emotional day for ACC Contern. Just a few weeks after the unexpected death of our long-time friend and treasurer, we found ourselves in a familiar place in Bech, in the cultural center Hanner Bra, where he has worked tiredlessly in the execution of his mandate for as long as the race exists, and beyond. We couldn't let the moment pass without a tribute: in agreement with his family, whom we thank very much for their presence, we decided to name the race of the youngest ones in his honor. And so we had the immense pleasure of seeing no less than 55 riders of the categories minimes and cadets line up at the starting line of the very first Grand-prix Marc Gengler.

In the minimes category, an initial selection was made fairly quickly. Around a dozen riders found themselves at the front, a group from which German Erik Dambacher, Dippach's Fabio Giampaolo and CT Atertdaul rider Mathis Elsen would emerge on the final lap. But the gaps remained small, with Arnaud Calmant, Moritz Knudsen, Lou Philippe, Jarno Goetzinger and the three girls Juliette Matis, Lyel Hever and Lili Beck only around fifteen seconds back. Nevertheless, the three riders in the break held on until the end and Mathis Elsen won the sprint ahead of Giampaolo and Dambacher. At around ten seconds, Jarno Goetzinger settled the sprint for fourth place, while a second group led by Louis Frederes followed at more than 2 minutes. A special mention goes to the girls in this category, with no fewer than three of them making it into the first group of boys, finishing in positions 6, 7 and 9 in the overall classification. Among them, Lyel Hever was faster in the home stretch than France's Juliette Matis and Lili Beck. This is already the second time that the rider from Schifflange has won the girls' classification in this race, after 2024 when she also managed to catch up with the first bigger male group.

26 riders took the start of the first Grand-prix Marc Gengler in the cadets category, including only 3 girls. As of the first lap of the riders, 4 riders found themselves at the front: Ben Schmitt of SAF Zéisseng, Lorenzo Astolfi of UC Dippach, and the two Belgians from CC Chevigny, Néo Pillot and Eliot Siegers. They quickly gained a good minute's lead over 6 other riders: Baustert, Bauer, Jonckheere, Garcia Pinnel, Elsen, and Lamberty. The first girl, Nora Simon, rode in a third group at this point in the race. The defending champion Lorenzo Astolfi was by far the most active of the group, attacking several times, but was caught each and every time, so that the final decision came down to a sprint. With Schmitt dropped on the final lap, they were three of them sprinting in the final meters: Lorenzo Astolfi raised his arms for the second year in a row, ahead of Eliot Siegers and Néo Pillot, who had also already finished on the podium 12 months ago. Jules Lamberty settled the sprint of the chasers for fifth place, almost 4 minutes behind. Nora Simon finished first of the girls in 22nd position, well ahead of Olivia Kohn and Mathilde Ferraz Pocinho.

The 7th Souvenir Marcel Gilles for beginners and ladies was also a huge success: no fewer than 59 riders from different categories lined up at the starting grid, almost double last year's figure, with about twenty girls among them. Samuel d'Evola opened the game with a small solo rider, but soon, there sat around twenty at the front, with a majority of Belgian riders. Among them, there were no fewer than 6 riders from the cycling club of Chevigny (Marchal, Albert, Robert, Pairoux, Thomas and Yannis Molter), four representatives of Team Hesbaye (D'Evola, Adant, Gridelet and Sijmens), three members of Toproad Roeserbann (Morbé, Ciccy and Sinner) as well as Ben Koenig (CT Atertdaul), Clément Vandekerkhove (Boulzicourt), Paul Moog (Schuttrange), Paul Kommes (Zéisseng), Thibault Hansen (Schifflange) and Jules Landrin-Zebert of the Ardennes Cross Team. Nicely, there were also two girls in the group, the young Tina Rücker and Viivi Turpeinen, from the Bâloise Minimax WB team. During the last laps, around ten riders were no longer able to keep up with the fast pace at the front, and so they were 11 fighting for victory in a sprint. Frenchman Jules Landrin-Zebert was faster than Loris Morbé and Clément Vandekerkhove in that order. Germany's Tina Rücker won the women's classification in 19th place, in a sprint ahead of her Finnish teammate Viivi Turpeinen, both in the U23 category. Elena Lopes finished first in the junior women's category in 26th place, a good minute ahead of Flavie Landrin-Zebert, sister of the male winner and a cyclo-cross specialist like him. Belgian Itta De Gendt won the beginners' category ahead of Chiara Christen and Amy Breuer.

After the excitement surrounding its anniversary edition in 2024, the Grand-prix François Faber returned to a more convenient 101st edition this year, with the usual formula of a race for juniors and masters categories. Nevertheless, a large peloton of 67 riders took the start for two regrouped laps, despite several attacks. During the third lap, Flavio Astolfi accelerated at the front of the race, blowing up the peloton behind him. After a partial regroupement, Bernard Baudelet, Sebastien Legand and Raphael Lanscotte-Wietor briefly took control of the race, with around fifteen seconds advantage, before Rodrigo Dos Santos tried his luck on his own after another regroupement. A little bit later, the UC Dippach rider was joined by Flavio Astolfi, who had attacked out of the bunch, and both of them formed a new leading duo. At halfway point, Astolfi and Dos Santos had a lead of around fifteen seconds over the next chasers, a group of about fifteen riders including Arnaud Noirhomme, Leander De Gendt, Jonah Flammang-Lies, Lenn Schmitz, Maximilien Outlet, Yannis Lang and Lennox Papi. With two laps to go, Falvio Astolfi left his companion behind him for a long and impressive solo ride during which he never ceased to increase his advantage. In the end, the Jegg Racing Academy rider won the 101st Grand-prix François Faber with a lead of no less than two and a half minutes over Claude Wolter, the first master who had accelerated out of the chasing pack on the final lap of the race. Three minutes back, Belgian Leander De Gendt won the sprint for third place, ahead of Arnaud Noirhomme and nine other junior riders. A few meters behind them, Gille Ruffato finished second of the Masters category, about twenty seconds ahead of third-place finisher Jeremy Burton.

The 37th Grand-prix OST-Fenster for the elite and U23 riders saw, as usually, an eventful start to the race with attacks from the opening lap in the modest peloton of around fifty riders. Quickly, two riders isolated themselves at the front of the race, and not the least ones: Charel Meyers, already second in the same Grand Prix OST-Fenster in 2023 and Philippe Schmit, one of the most active riders in last year's edition. The gap was up to 1'40" after 3 laps of racing and even 2 minutes a little bit later. It was about time to react for Mathieu Kockelmann and Tim Diederich, who left the peloton behind them to set off on a counterattack. They quickly re-conquered the lost time: 1'35" deficit on the 5th lap, 1'08" one loop later and 30 seconds only after 50 kilometers of racing: the regrouping at the front was about to happen. Behind them, the other big favorite, Arno Wallenborn of the Tudor Pro U23 team, found himself trapped in an indecisive first peloton which was making up time only slowly: 1'30" behind again at this point of the race.

At mid-race, the situation was as the following: Charel Meyers of VCU Schwenheim and Mathieu Kockelmann of Lotto Devo Team were leading the race together with the two Team Snooze riders, Tim Diederich and Philippe Schmit. Behind them, 13 riders passed with a 1'25" delay, among them three other members of Team Snooze (Fettes, Thill, Conter) against four representatives of VC Hettange Grande (Stopa, Barthel, Hay and Arnould) and two riders of UC Dippach (Paquet and Kerrens). Arno Wallenborn (Tudor Pro U23), Jonathan Kalweit (Atertdaul), Nicolas Moreno Miranda (Entente Wallonie) and Mats Berns, teammate of Charel Meyers, completed this chasing group. Needless to say, the cooperation was not at its best amont them and, if they regained some of their deficit during the 7th lap, when they were less than a minute behind, the gap started to grow inexorably after that to almost two minutes with two laps to go. This was the moment chosen by Mathieu Kockelmann to attack: the Lotto Devo Team rider took the lead alone, soon 12, then 34 seconds ahead of the other three, at the start of the final lap. After a superb and very fast final lap, Mathieu Kockelmann wrote his name for the second time in winner list of the Grand Prix OST-Fenster, with a one minute and 44 seconds lead over Charel Meyers, who had already been his runner-up in 2023. Another fifteen seconds later, Philippe Schmit narrowly won the sprint for third place ahead of his teammate Tim Diederich. With a gap of almost 6 minutes, Tom Paquet was the best of the chasing group, also in a sprint ahead of Mats Berns and the German Stefan Fettes.