Visconti victorious in Hesperange

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Giovanni Visconti of ISD-Neri won the mass sprint at the conclusion of stage one of the Skoda Tour of Luxembourg. The 27-year-old Italian beat Yauheni Hutarovich (Francaise des Jeux) and Borut Bozic (Vacansoleil) to take his sixth victory of the season.

"I did not feel on top [during the stage], but I had good feelings in the finale and I worked for [teammate Oscar] Gatto, who I tried to lead-out in the sprint," said Visconti. "When I came out of the last corner in front, 300 metres from the finish, I had a slight margin, so I kept going. I am happy for this victory as comes at the right time to give me morale and reassurance on a job well done."

The leader's jersey went to prologue runner-up Cyril Lemoine of Saur-SojaSun after teammate and overnight leader Jimmy Engoulvent finished in a group 39 seconds behind the peloton. Second and third places on general classification went to Gregory Rast and Lance Armstrong, both of RadioShack.

The 179km stage from the city of Luxembourg to Hesperange was dominated by a three-man escape group which got away early and was caught less than 20km from the finish line.

Anthony Charteau (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) attacked and was soon joined by Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil) and Morten Knudsen (CT Differdange). The field was willing to let them go, and go they did. The gap grew to a maximum of seven minutes, and then see-sawed between four to over six minutes before RadioShack got serious about leading the chase.

The leading trio finally ran out steam, which combined with a strong headwind and an onrushing peloton, doomed their chances. With less than 20km to go, Hoogerland and Knudsen were caught. Charteau fought on but he too was caught.

Charteau did not go away empty-handed, however, as the Frenchman was the first to crest all three categorised climbs on the stage and now leads the mountains classification.