Gerdemann doubles up in Luxembourg

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Linus Gerdemann (Leopard Trek) soloed to victory in the Tour of Luxembourg's longest stage and earned the leader's yellow jersey, previously held by teammate Fabian Cancellara.

Gerdemann had initiated a three-man break which formed on the first of three 9.4km finishing circuits in Differdange. The 28-year-old German attacked the first time up the Cote de l'Europe ascent and was joined by Anthony Charteau (Europcar) and Jürgen Van Goolen (Veranda's Willems-Accent).

The trio quickly gained over a minute on the peloton and near the end of the second lap Gerdemann attacked again, dropping both Charteau and Van Goolen. Gerdemann rode alone for the remainder of the penultimate circuit as well as the entire final circuit to secure the victory and the leader's jersey. Gerdemann held off a 13-man chase group by nine seconds, led in by Frenchman Arthur Vichot (FDJ).

"The whole team did incredible work today," said Gerdemann. "It was a perfect day. We knew we wanted to make the stage hard. We wanted to win the stage, and we wanted to keep yellow. We accomplished all of this.

"I chose to attack because I was confident in my time trial skills," said Gerdemann. "I knew I could make a difference on the flats. I would get my gap on the flat road, and then I could defend it on the climb. I thought if I did it this way, the riders behind would see I had a chance and maybe give up a little bit.

"On the last time up the climb, I thought about Wouter [Weylandt] and his family. I wanted to do this for myself and for the team, but I especially wanted to make sure I could do it all the way to the line for Wouter."

With two stages remaining, Gerdemann holds a two-second lead over Alexandre Geniez (Skil-Shimano) on general classification with Tony Gallopin (Cofidis) one second behind the Frenchman in third overall.

"I don't want to look too much further ahead yet," said Gerdemann. "We want to win the overall, but for now, I'm enjoying today."

A three-man break formed early in the stage, comprised of Christian Poos (Team Differdange-Magic-Sportfood.de), Javier Ramirez Abeja (Andalucia Caja Granada) and Martijn Keizer (Vacansoleil-DCM). The trio remained off the front through the first four KOMs, enabling mountains classification leader Poos to score maximum points for each and extend his lead, but were swept up approaching the fifth KOM.

By the time the peloton reached the finishing circuits, the field had shattered into four groups with Gerdemann making his winning move on the opening lap.