The least that can be said is that there was no shortage of excitement at the opening of the 2026 road cycling season in Bech, with two completely different days at the end of March. The weather for example was opposite on Saturday and Sunday, with conditions including snow, rain and wind on the first day and almost spring-like sunshine on the second one. The courses were also not the same, with the traditional Sunday route featuring wide, open roads, compared to a new loop on Saturday, winding left and right through narrow streets in the rolling countryside around Bech. The scenario was also very different for the elite and U23 riders, with a very offensive race on Saturday and a more cautious one the following day, where the favourites waited until the very end to play their cards. The winner, however, remained the same: after several podium finishes, Arno Wallenborn finally opened his account in Bech by winning both Saturday’s Grand Prix François Faber and Sunday’s Grand Prix OST-Fenster, after a solo effort and in a sprint of a small group. Also worth noting from the weekend were Lorenzo Astolfi’s long solo ride for a dominating win in the beginners’ category, the excellent performances of the girls Liv Wenzel and Liz Bastian among the boys, and the victories of Jonas Vermiert, Moritz Knudsen and Alessio Ghirelli in the other categories.

It was actually in particularly dreadful weather that the 102nd edition of the Grand-prix François Faber got underway. After a bit of snow in the morning and a brief sunny passage around midday, just long enough to finish setting up the facilities, the rain arrived right on time for the start of the race at 2 pm. Of the 70 entrants, only around 50 starters braved the near-freezing temperatures, and they completed just a short warm-up lap before getting down to business. In the second lap, Switzerland’s Eric Weckerle had taken the lead alone, some forty seconds ahead of a peloton in which his team-mate and favourite, Charel Meyers, was sitting comfortably. The rain had stopped by the third lap whilst the solo leader’s lead reached a maximum of 50 seconds, before beginning to decrease: 35 seconds at kilometre 35, then just 20 seconds at kilometre 40. The VCU Schwenheim rider was finally caught during the fifth lap, when Hugo Da Silva Bertao and Jonah Flammang-Lies went on the attack, with the same fatal outcome as for the Swiss rider: a general regrouping of the peloton, or what remained of it, shortly before the halfway point. But this didn't last for long...

A group of five went on the attack, including Arno Wallenborn, Frederic Hay, Sven Joosten, Yannis Lang and Eric Weckerle – him again – and they quickly built up a lead of 25, then 30 seconds. But after accelerations from favourite Wallenborn, the group split into two, then three parts. The Lotto Kern-Haus rider thus found himself alone at the front, with Weckerle and Hay 25 seconds behind and the first bigger group 55 seconds late. But the peloton had not yet had its final say and worked hard to close the gap: with around 40 kilometres to go, everything was together again. Hugo Da Silva Bertao and Bruno Lopes Fernandes briefly had a go ahead of Sven Joosten, Frederic Hay and Oscar Franssen, before the peloton regrouped once more under another heavy rainfall. During the seventh lap, the two favourites of the race, Arno Wallenborn and Charel Meyers, joined forces and broke away together, soon building a 31-second lead over a chasing group comprising Oscar Franssen, Jean-Nicolas Sindt, Philippe Schmit, Giovanni Lauren, Yannis Lang, Eric Weckerle and Frederic Hay. Sven Joosten, Thijs Wilhem König and Janet Aliesch managed to catch up with this group a little later, but the race was already nearly decided: the two breakaway riders had a 46-second lead over the first chasing group with 20 kilometres to go, and a 1 minute 49-second advantage over the main field. Philippe Schmit tried the impossible and launched an impressive solo attack behind the leaders, closing the gap to just 23 seconds behind the two leaders at the sound of the bell, but he didn't quite manage to bridge up to them. In the final few hundred metres, Arno Wallenborn managed to break away from Charel Meyers to win the Grand Prix François Faber solo, 7 seconds ahead of his companion, who had already finished second at Bech in 2025 and 2023. Philippe Schmit managed to secure a podium place, finishing 1 minute and 22 seconds behind, whilst Sven Joosten won the sprint of the first chasing group another minute later ahead of Weckerle, Hay and Thijs Wilhelm König, the Dutch rider from SAF Zéisseng who thus finished as the race’s top junior. The next group, featuring the best masters rider Matthias Petry, crossed the line more than 6 minutes behind the winner, whilst only 22 contenders finished the race.

A sigh of relief on Sunday morning: the grey skies had given way and the morning sun was timidly warning up the 50 or so participants of the 2nd Grand Prix Marc Gengler, named after our long-standing treasurer who passed away in 2025. In the minimes category, one rider proved dominant: after two relatively quiet laps, Moritz Knudsen went on the offensive and built up a lead of around fifteen seconds over a group of ten riders, including no fewer than four of his teammates (Marson, Muller, Wolter and Bastian) as well as two girls, Lili Beck and Liz Bastian. Despite the numerical superiority of the riders from Schifflange, the group came back together at the end of the third lap. But Knudsen set off again with renewed vigour and this time the peloton split apart, with only two pursuers staying in contact: Mathis Pirsch and the best girl in the group, Liz Bastian. At the end of the 23-kilometre race, Moritz Knudsen won with a 15-second lead over the fantastic Liz Bastian, who was faster in the sprint than Mathis Pirsch of UC Dippach. Timeo Pierron finished fourth, one minute behind, ahead of another girl who put in a superb performance amongst the boys, Lili Beck.

Just as with the younger riders, the peloton of cadets also stayed together for more than three laps, before breaking apart during the fifth lap of the new, shortened course, a route that was certainly not less demanding due to the repeated efforts on the small climbs. Six riders found themselves at the front, with a lead of around thirty seconds over a chasing group, also numbering six. But Strotz, Jonkheere, Schares, Lamberty, Goetzinger and Ghirelli continued to extend their lead over Felicetti, Philippe, Mreches, Da Silva Bertao, Hübsch and Méan but despite a few attacks, they stayed together until the end. Alessio Ghirelli, already a winner in the minimes category in 2024, won the sprint ahead of Jarno Goetzinger, Jules Lamberty, Philippe Schares, Timeo Jonckheere and Yann Strotz in that order. A minute later, Adrien Felicetti was fastest for sixth place ahead of his five fellow riders. There was just one girl at the start, the young Julie Kreins, who managed to secure 17th place at the finish of what was, all things considered, a rather demanding race.

In the novice and women’s races, one boy and one girl stood out from the rest of their respective fields. Lorenzo Astolfi dominated the race from start to finish, taking the lead from the very first of the six laps. Initially riding together with Frenchman Enzo Reinsbach, the UC Dippach rider covered the final fifteen kilometres on his own, averaging 39.4 (!) km/h over the 55 km. At the end of the race, the rider who is only in his first year in the category finished in style, two minutes ahead (!) of the Frenchman. By the end of the second lap, Reinsbach and Astolfi had already established a lead of around a minute over a small peloton of eleven riders, including the three girls Liv Wenzel, June Nothum and Elena Lopes, no fewer than four riders from SAF Zéisseng (Ben Schmitt, Paul Moog, Fabien Hosinger, Thomas Friederich) as well as two representatives from UC Dippach (Bjarne Bauer and Noé Garcia Pinnel), one from CT Atertdaul (Leo Marc Lanners) and one from Roussy Bike Club (Alexandre Bircker). Astolfi and Reinsbach continued to extend their lead, whilst the chasing group fell apart: only Schmitt, Bauer, Moog and Garcia Pinnel remained in contention for the final podium place. More than five minutes behind the dominant winner, they battled it out in a sprint finish, with Noé Garcia Pinnel completing the top three. Liv Wenzel was by far the strongest among the girls, managing to hold onto the second group of chasing boys to finish 8th in the race, more than two minutes ahead of the much younger contenders Elena Lopes and June Nothum, who were nevertheless not far behind in the scratch classification. Sarah König also put in a superb performance in the youngest category: at 16 years of age, the best novice rider finished in the top half of the field across all categories and 4th in the girls’ classification.

Nearly eighty riders lined up at the start of the 38th Grand Prix OST-Fenster, though they were divided into two categories with separate classifications: the juniors and masters outnumbered the elite and U23 riders and did not hesitate to join the attacks. After an initial attempt by three riders came to nothing, it was indeed junior Ben König who launched an attack alongside U23 rider Lennox Papi. Shortly afterwards, Dave Chicci tried his luck on his own, but he too was caught after a few kilometres. With Loris Morbé, a third junior went on the offensive in the fourth lap, accompanied by the elite riders Flavien Arnould and Giovanni Laurent. This time, it was a bit more serious, as the three riders managed to build up a lead of around thirty seconds and held off the peloton for about twenty kilometres, before an almost complete regrouping of around forty riders took place again. After eight laps, or 75 kilometres, the juniors and masters fought for the honours in a sprint finish, with Belgian Jonas Vermiert taking the win ahead of Loïc Gouveia and Loris Morbé, whilst Oliver Paderhuber finished as the first masters rider, 6 seconds behind the winner.

There were still four laps to go for the elite and U23 riders, and at that stage of the race there were still twenty or so in contention for the win. Jonah Flammang-Lies launched an attack alongside Flavien Arnould, and the two riders built up a lead of up to a minute over a peloton that, however, refused to give up. With more than two laps to go, the gap had narrowed to under twenty seconds, so Tom Thill and Charel Meyers attempted a counter-attack. But with around twenty kilometres to go, the peloton came back together again. After a brief moment of respite, Tom Thill accelerated again, this time accompanied by Arnaud Noirhomme, Arno Wallenborn and Eric Weckerle, who had already been very much on the attack the previous day. This quartet of favourites who had been surprisingly quiet up to that point had a lead of around twenty seconds at the sound of the bell. On the final climb towards Berbourg, Tom Thill found himself in difficulty, but he managed to catch up a little further on, thanks to the tactical considerations of his fellow riders. The four riders ultimately fought for the victory in a sprint, with Arno Wallenborn narrowly edging out Noirhomme and Weckerle. Sven Joosten won the sprint from the main peloton for fifth place, thereby becoming the race’s best U23 rider ahead of Alex Kerrens.

Fourteen riders featured in the rankings over the two days of racing and were therefore in contention for the Prix du Cinquantenaire, a sort of overall points classification rewarding consistency to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the ACC Contern. In the elite and U23 category, Arno Wallenborn’s victory was more than clear, as he clinched the title with the minimum possible number of points, thanks to his two wins. With two top-five finishes in both races, Eric Weckerle and Sven Joosten shared the other two podium places, with the Swiss rider edging out the Dutchman by a single point for second place. In the junior category, the maths became more complicated. Thanks largely to a fine fifteenth place in the scratch classification at the Grand Prix François Faber, Dawson Fehlen Pereira secured victory by a single point ahead of the best masters rider over the two days, Germany’s Matthias Petry. Thibaut Hansen, who was more consistent than Thijs Wilhelm König, finished third in the standings despite his teammate’s premium performance at the Grand Prix François Faber on Saturday.