Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) won the opening day of Tour de Luxembourg, surviving an agonisingly long uphill sprint to the finish in the capital city.
The Frenchman shut down a strong charge by Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost), who could make the pass on the stiff finish on a ramp that reached 18% gradient. Marc Hirshi (Tudor Pro Cycling), the overall winner of the 2023 Tour de Luxembourg, trailed for third.
With 300 metres to go, Grégoire launched his charge from the peloton, using every part of his body to conquer the climb. In a post-race interview in French, he said he knew he had the power to win the stage today, his fourth victory of the season, and he said his team put him in position to take the first leader’s jersey.
“I knew I was the favourite. I knew I had the power to win today,” Grégoire said, his performance Wednesday coming off a GC win at Tour of Britain Men.
A midweek start for the five-day Tour de Luxembourg included many of the same hills that were part of the country’s road national championships. Four climbs were spread across the 152.8km route, with a set of three in the first 82km and Côte de Stafelter (3km at 6% average) setting up the final 9km into Luxembourg at Fëschmaart, the same finish as last year.
The race began at Place Guillaume in the heart of Luxembourg’s capital, a cloudy day with weather not a significant factor. A trio of small, uncategorised in the opening 36km saw a group of six – Quentin Bezza (Wagner Bazin WB), Mats Berns (National Team Luxembourg), André Carvalho (Efapel Cycling), Mil Morang (Lotto Kern-Haus PSD Bank), Malte Hellerup (ColoQuick) and Andrea Pietrobon (Polti VisitMalta).
After the opening two KOMs, Montée de Putscheid (2.4km at 9.6%) and Côte de Bourscheid (3.5Km at 7%), the gap for the leaders moved under 2 minutes.
Once off the third climb, Côte de Eschdorf (2.8km at 8.1%), the group tackled an uphill intermediate sprint in Mertzig, Berns no longer in the bunch and Pietrobon ratcheting the pace…
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