The cycling association "Amis du Cyclisme de la Commune de Contern" (ACCC) (friends of cycling of the municipality of Contern) has been created officially on Wednesday, April 21, 1976. Its purpose is "to contribute to the wellness and the exercise of cycling-sport". The municipality approved this creation on May 18th, 1976: the cycling-club of Contern was born.
In 1976 already, the first riders (André Heuertz, Philippe Jaacques et Vicky Ludewig) are recruted and the first race took place on August 14, 1976: the Grand-Prix Peinture Roger Braun for young riders. The first year, a cyclo-cross with international riders has also been organized.
In 1977, ACC Contern took over from the UCA Wiltz the Grand-Prix François Faber, the oldest and one of the most prestigious luxembourgish races, and decided to hold it as a stage race over several days. The podiums in the first two years saw such great riders as René Martens, Etienne de Wilde, Claude Criquiélion or Fons de Wolf. For several years, the Grand-Prix François Faber has been the most important event in our calendar, and many good riders have participated such as Erik Zabel, Michael Boogerd or Romans Vainsteins among others. On April 20, 1989, as a prologue to the Grand-Prix François Faber, the Grand-Prix Charly Gaul was organised as a time trial for the professionnal riders having a Luxemburgish rider license (Accacio da Silva, winner of the race, Per Pedersen, Kim Andersen, Bjarne Riis ...). This race inspired us for two other very different events: the "randonnée Charly Gaul" (since 1990), a cyclo-sportive race for everyone on hilly courses and the Gala Tour de France (between 1996 and 2018), a criterium for invited professional riders.
After the victory of Bjarne Riis in the Tour de France, the ACC Contern decided to organize a race in his honour, a professional criterium in his residence town of Steinsel. The event survived in the years after that and, during 20 years, it was a traditionnally sheduled right after the Tour de France. Highlights have been among others the relocation into the town centre of the city of Luxemburg, the duell between Marco Pantani an Jan Ullrich in 1998, in front of 20.000 spectators, or the big party organized for Andy Schleck's maillot jaune in 2010, with even more cycling fans along the road.
Another race that has been very important in the history of our club, is the Grand-Prix Ostfenster on the road, ridden for the first time in 1985 (named then Grand-Prix des Artisans de la Commune de Manternach). In 1989, the race was dominated by the "silver train" of the riders of former East-Germany (Thomas Barth the winner, Uwe Ampler, Olaf Ludwig the olympic champion and Uwe Raab). They took 4 of the 5 places on the podium. In 1996, Bjarne Riis dominated the Grand-Prix Ostfenster and won it only a few months before winning the Tour de France. After 3 years of absence, this race is back in our yearly calendar since 2004. Ostfenster, a firm owned by a former rider of the ACC Contern, Mr Romain Hilger, still is one of our main sponsors and has also given its name for some years to our traditionnal cyclo-cross in November.
Cyclo-cross always has been part of our events. Every year, one or two cyclo-cross races have been organised on different circuits: Contern, Walsdorf, Luxembourg, Kirchberg, Junglinster, Gonderange or Steinsel. A lot of world-champions have competed there in their rainbow-jersey: Danny de Bie, Pol Herijgers, Mario De Clerq, Richard Groenendaal, Erwin Verwecken and many more. In 1990, a spectacular cyclo-cross race was organised in form of a madison. Every team was composed by a road racer for the easier part of the circuit and a cyclo-cross specialist for the more technical part (winner under a lot of rain: the surprising team Danny De Bie and Kim Andersen).
Concerning the riders in our team, there has been less constancy than for the events. Between 0 and 25, the number of riders changed every year. But the quality of some of the riders showed out to be exceptionnal. The most famous rider that ever rode for our team certainly is Bjarne Riis, winner of the Tour de France in 1996. But there have been more good riders: Kim Andersen, Per Pedersen, Kim Eriksen, Jesper Skibby the Danish riders, Neil Martin the Englishman, Romain Hilger, Eugène Urbany, Conny Neiertz, André Heuertz, Pascal Kohlvelter or Fernand Sand the Luxemburgish riders. Impossible to name them all here.
Two riders which have made their first steps in cyling with ACC Contern (in the years 1994 - 1999), Kim Kirchen et Frank Schleck, have made their way to the professionnal peloton with good results. Later, Frank Schleck was joined in our club by his brother Andy and also Jempy Drucker, who is nowadays the only professionnal rider licensed in our club, after his colleagues retired from racing.
In 2014, the ACC Contern has lived one of the darker chapters in its history, when the long-term president and soul of the club, Marcel Gilles, died at the age of 68 due to sickness, leaving the boat without his captain.
