Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech) survived a late climb and late attacks to win the opening stage of the Tour de Luxembourg.
The 23-year-old from New Zealand won a stage at the 2022 Tour of Britain and showed his season improvements with second at the recent GP de Québec.
Israel-Premier Tech rode all stage to set up Strong and he timed his sprint perfectly, taking the shortest line on the curving finish. Søren Kragh Andersen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) took the longer way to the finish and finished second, with Alex Aranburu (Movistar) third.
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Strong was awarded a 10-second time bonus for his win and so is the first leader of the five-day race.
Thursday's stage is another hillier day in the saddle between Mondorf-les-Bains and Mamer, while Saturday's 23.9km time trial is likely to be decisive.
“It’s really nice to win. I was feeling strong and the team rode perfectly all day. It’s cool to pay them off,” Strong said. “I’ve been in good shape all year but have not finished it off. It’s nice to do it here in Luxembourg.
"I had a good race in Quebec and lots of riders in the peloton congratulated me on that ride. It’s cool to carry on with this momentum.”
Despite his good form, Strong played down his chances of overall victory.
“We’ve come here to win the race. We’ve got a strong team and anyone could win it. I’m not the strongest time trialists but we have a strong team of punchy riders for the other stages.”
The opening stage began in the centre of the Luxembourg capital, with the riders facing a hilly 156.4km loop north before a finish in the outskirts of the city.
Thibaut Pinot and David Gaudu were early retirees during stage 1 but the early break formed after a fast opening 10km of racing.
Lennert Teugels (Bingoal-WB), Vito Braet (Team Flanders-Baloise), Mats Wenzel (Leopard TOGT) and his teammate Oliver Knudsen formed the move and extended their lead to 6:30 after 50km.
The peloton began to reel in the attack with 100km to race and Knudsen was soon dropped. With 60k to go Braet also began to suffer but Wenzel and Teugels pushed on, sharing the prizes on the climbs and the intermediate sprint.
The Côte de Stafelter proved fatal for the two and they were swept up with 12km to go. That marked the start of the finale, with the final Côte de Stafelter climb, just four kilometres from the finish, the decisive point of the day. EF Education-EasyPost tried to fire up the race before the climb but they were quickly kept in check.
Positioning before the climb was important and Lotto Dstny led into the left turn into the narrow roads. EF Education and Alpecin-Deceuninck were also well placed.
Victor Campenaerts tried to split the peloton over the top of the climb but everyone sat on his wheel. Carapaz was the first to make an attack but he was soon closed down, as was Felix Gall (AG2R Citroën), leading to another fight for position and a reduced sprint finish.
Strong fought for position as the pack shuffled but hit the front with perfect timing to win by a bike length.
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