Aaron Gate (Bolton Equities Black Spoke Pro Cycling) soared to victory on stage 3 of the Tour de Luxembourg, jumping on a late attack to steal a march on the sprinters.
The decorated New Zealand track rider won the Commonwealth Games road race last month and continued his run of road form with a devastating late move in Diekirch.
Gate was the first to react to an attack from Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis) with a kilometre to go, working his way up to the wheel before tracking him through the final bend and then dispatching him with a final acceleration.
Davide Ballerini (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) rounded out the podium, leading home a reduced peloton that was caught off guard by the late attack.
“To get the arms up here is a pretty amazing feeling,” said Gate. “It’s a big race, a beautiful country to race in so far. Big thanks to team for giving me an opportunity today and I’m just happy to finish it off for them.
“My friend and rival from the track, Benjamin Thomas, launched with a kilometre to go with a really strong attack, I nearly got on the wheel and I used it as a run to come out of the last corner. When I saw the 200m to go sign on the last corner I couldn’t believe what was happening. I just had to go full gas to the line.”
Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) finished safely in that main bunch to retain the yellow jersey as overall leader.
The podium remains unchanged, with Sjoerd Bax (Alpecin-Deceuninck) at seven seconds and stage 2 winner Matteo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates) at eight seconds, but the 10 bonus seconds for stage victory catapult Gate 23 places into fourth, tied on time with Trentin.
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