Greipel wins first road stage at Tour of Luxembourg

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André Greipel won the first stage in the Tour of Luxembourg. The Lotto-Belisol sprinter was no match for Danish champion Michael Mørkøv (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Danny van Poppel (Trek Factory Team) who came in second and third respectively. The young Dutchman Van Poppel keeps the yellow jersey.

"This was the only chance we would get for a bunch sprint this week and we took this opportunity. We are very happy with the stage victory," Greipel commented.

The 172,6 kilometre stage from the capital city of Luxembourg to Hesperange was undulating from start to finish. Three rated climbs and three points sprints awaited the peloton of 103 riders.

After some unsuccessful attempts in the first kilometres of the stage a break of two riders went clear. Colombia's Juan Pablo Valencia and Giuseppe Fonzi of Neri-Sottoli. Boris Dron (Wallonie-Bruxelles) bridged to the leaders and together they gathered a lead of 5,30 minutes maximum.

The points for the KoM were equally divided among the three with Valencia eventually taking the KoM-jersey based on his position in the overall after the prologue.

Lotto-Belisol left the early work in the stage to Trek Factory Team of overall leader Van Poppel but took responsibility in the final to bring down the gap to the leaders. Valencia, Dron and Fonzi were reeled in with less than ten kilometres to go.

After a textbook lead-out by Greg Henderson, Greipel finished off the work with a convincing victory. It's the German's ninth victory of the season and his third in the last two weeks.

Danny van Poppel sprinted to third place and took four bonus seconds. The 20-year old rider from Trek Factory keeps the yellow jersey ahead of the second stage but stressed that he would have no problem in handing over the jersey to team captain Frank Schleck. On Friday the peloton faces a 157,4 kilometre stretch from Rosport to Schifflange with a 13% ramp to the finish line.

"We have other riders in the team who are good at these kind of tougher finals. I think it will be a bit too hard for me tomorrow," Greipel concluded.

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