Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) won the opening day of Tour de Luxembourg, surviving an agonisingly long uphill sprint to the finish in the capital city.
The Frenchman shut down a strong charge by Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost), who could make the pass on the stiff finish on a ramp that reached 18% gradient. Marc Hirshi (Tudor Pro Cycling), the overall winner of the 2023 Tour de Luxembourg, trailed for third.
With 300 metres to go, Grégoire launched his charge from the peloton, using every part of his body to conquer the climb. In a post-race interview in French, he said he knew he had the power to win the stage today, his fourth victory of the season, and he said his team put him in position to take the first leader's jersey.
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"I knew I was the favourite. I knew I had the power to win today," Grégoire said, his performance Wednesday coming off a GC win at Tour of Britain Men.
"We had come to check out the finish on Tuesday with my teammates, and I really liked it," he added. "I knew it could suit me, and I was motivated to go for the win today. I didn’t hesitate to ask the team to take control of the race, and that’s what we did.
"I probably launched my sprint too early, but I didn’t really have a choice. I felt Tom starting to fade a little at 350 meters, and when he pulled off at 300 meters, I found myself in front, in the wind, and there was no turning back. I could feel Marijn behind me, I could see his wheel during the sprint. I managed to kick again in the last 100 meters so he couldn’t come past, and it worked!
"I was scared, it really came down to suffering, but that makes the victory even sweeter. We really raced like a great team today. The general classification will be decided largely in Saturday’s time trial. We’ll think about that when the time comes. There are a lot of great stages on this Tour of Luxembourg. Today’s was one of them, that’s done, now we’ll focus on Friday’s stage."
His Groupama-FDJ squad worked hard, along with EF Education-EasyPost, to set a strong tempo in catching the final riders that were part of the day's breakaway of six with 11 kilometres to go.
A midweek start for the five-day Tour de Luxembourg included many of the same hills that were part of the country's road national championships. Four climbs were spread across the 152.8km route, with a set of three in the first 82km and Côte de Stafelter (3km at 6% average) setting up the final 9km into Luxembourg at Fëschmaart, the same finish as last year.
The Spuerkeess Bonus Sprint, positioned 51 km from the finish, will be a strategic opportunity for the GC contenders. A second intermediate sprint in Mersch (23.9 km from the finish)
The race began at Place Guillaume in the heart of Luxembourg's capital, a cloudy day with weather not a significant factor. A trio of small, uncategorised in the opening 36km saw a group of six - Quentin Bezza (Wagner Bazin WB), Mats Berns (National Team Luxembourg), André Carvalho (Efapel Cycling), Mil Morang (Lotto Kern-Haus PSD Bank), Malte Hellerup (ColoQuick) and Andrea Pietrobon (Polti VisitMalta).
After the opening two KOMs, Montée de Putscheid (2.4km at 9.6%) and Côte de Bourscheid (3.5Km at 7%), the gap for the leaders moved under 2 minutes.
Once off the third climb, Côte de Eschdorf (2.8km at 8.1%), the group tackled an uphill intermediate sprint in Mertzig, Berns no longer in the bunch and Pietrobon ratcheting the pace to hold the gap for now five leaders at 1:45.
With 10km to go on a lumpy path to the Mersch for more points in the sprint classification, Pietrobon and Morang moved away from Bezza, Carvalho and Hellerup for a two-rider charge.
Through the line, the Italian took the top points, but the gap to the peloton had faded to under one minute with under 25km to race as three of the eight WorldTour teams in the race pressed the chase - Lidl-Trek, EF Education-EasyPost and Groupama FDJ.
In the distance, riders could see glimpses of the tall buildings of the capital as the final kilometres through the countryside. Just short of the rise to begin the Côte de Stafelter, the lead duo's day at the front was over.
From there, the WorldTour teams took over at the front, positioning team leaders for the final uphill charge and the first leader's jersey.Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ)
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