Feillu finally gets his win

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Romain Feillu (Vacansoleil-DCM) won the final stage of the Tour of Luxembourg ahead of Fränk Schleck (Leopard Trek), while Schleck’s teammate Linus Gerdemann wrapped up final overall victory.

With a number of sharp undulations on the run-in to the finish line in Luxembourg, Schleck decided to take his chance in the finale and soloed clear on the last climb with a kilometre to go. In spite of his best efforts, however, the Luxembourger never managed to put daylight between himself and the speeding peloton behind, and he remained in their sights as he entered the finishing straight with 200 metres to go.

It was then that Feillu, who was fourth on Saturday’s stage, launched his sprint in a bid to reel in Schleck, and the Frenchman was rewarded for his effort with the victory. As Schleck struggled against the headwind, Feillu swooped past the home favourite mere meters from the finish line to win by half a wheel. To his credit, Schleck managed to hold on for second place, while Pieter Vanspeybrouck (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator) came home in third.

Feillu was among the few fast men who had the legs to stay at the front end of affairs as the bunch split in the closing kilometers, and he impressed in taking his eighth win of the season. Saturday’s victor Davide Appolonio (Sky) also managed to make the split, but the young Italian was lacking the sharpness of the previous day and had to settle for 5th place.

In spite of his disappointment at missing out on the stage win, Fränk Schleck was able to console himself with the overall victory of his teammate Gerdemann, and his attentions are already turned to his goals still to come.

“I’m not really disappointed with my race, because the aim was to help Linus Gerdemann win,” Schleck said. “My main objectives in the weeks to come are obviously the Tour de Suisse and the Tour de France.”

For his part, Gerdemann paid tribute to the work of his Leopard Trek team. The German held off Alexandre Geniez (Skil-Shimano) to win by two seconds, with Tony Gallopin (Cofidis) in third a further second back.

“If Fränk had won it would have been even better, but I think that we can already be satisfied with the overall victory,” said Gerdemann. “It’s very motivating for the next races, which are the most important of the season. The victory might have seemed easy from the outside, but that really wasn’t the case. We had to ride hard, and the team gave everything for this win, so I can’t thank them enough.”

Sunday’s final stage was animated largely by a four-man break composed of Arkimedes Arguelyes (Katusha), Anthony Delaplace (Saur-Sojasun), Antonio Piedra (Andalucia) and Kurt-Asle Arvesen (Team Sky), but the quartet never succeeded in distancing the peloton, and they were swallowed up as the pace ratcheted upwards in the final kilometers.

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