Groupama-FDJ’s Romain Grégoire took his second stage victory on the final day of the Skoda Tour of Luxembourg, dropping Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) at the summit of the final climb to ride to his 8th victory of the season.
Healy fought hard down the final straight but was unable to catch the 22-year-old Frenchman, as a reduced GC bunch came through 55 seconds later, with Senna Remijn (Alpecin-Deceuninck) winning the sprint for third place on the stage, while UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s Brandon McNulty came in fourth, defending his overall lead to seal the victory in the general classification.
The final stage of the race began in Mersch and took the riders 176.4km to Luxembourg, and the day’s early break must have had high hopes of victory – composed of 12 riders, there was plenty of strength among their number, with Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek) and Stefan Bissegger (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) part of the group’s composition, and over three minutes of an advantage for a long period of the race, as Nils Politt drove the peloton for UAE Team Emirates-XRG on behalf of race leader Brandon McNulty.
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Wet conditions closed in on the race in the latter stages, and with a number of other teams adding their weight to the chase, the break’s advantage dropped below a minute, and the lead group split and started to attack one another with around 33km remaining. Heading under 30km to go, Equipo Kern Pharma’s Mats Wenzel attacked solo, moving clear as the bunch chased behind, led by Tudor Pro Cycling and Lidl-Trek.
With Wenzel leading solo, the attacks fired off from the bunch behind, with Ben Healy and Romain Grégoire finding some space, ahead of the race leader Brandon McNulty, who found himself briefly isolated in a rapidly diminishing chasing group. Grégoire and Healy bridged to Wenzel to form a leading trio, and there was trouble on the wet roads, with first a moto driver coming down, then a crash in the bunch with just over 20km remaining.
Tudor Pro Cycling’s Marc Hirschi attacked from the chasing bunch and moved clear alone, dangling between the head of the race and the GC group, and the gaps between all three groups were narrow for a time, with UAE rallying around McNulty and beginning to chase the leaders.
The trio at the head of the race worked well together though and began to build on their lead, though Wenzel had a sketchy moment taking a wide line through a sharp hairpin turn and was unable to regain contact with the Irishman and the Frenchman who were flying at the head of the race, with Hirschi also going wide on the same bend and giving up his effort as a result.
With the gap to the leading pair moving out over a minute, UAE were holding steady, knowing that as long as they could keep the duo on a tight leash, McNulty’s lead would be safe. With 5km to go, however, Søren Kragh took up the initiative for Lidl-Trek in defence of Mattias Skjelmose’s second place on GC, but Grégoire and Healy were able to maintain their lead as the race moved into the final kilometres.
Healy led the charge, heading up the steep, punchy ramp of the Pabeierbierg for the final time, and the gap finally began to close, but with less than 2km remaining, the stage victory would come down to the two leaders. At the top of the climb, Grégoire launched with 1100m still to race, and he immediately opened up a gap that Healy was unable to close. He held off the Irishman to sprint to his second stage win of the week, after he took the opening stage and spent two days in the yellow leader’s jersey.
McNulty finished in fourth place on the stage, missing out on bonus seconds, as Alpecin-Deceuninck’s 19-year-old Senna Remijn recorded an impressive podium finish, but ultimately, they proved unnecessary. The American won the GC 47 seconds ahead of second-placed Skjelmose, with Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) rounding out the overall podium, despite a late mechanical issue. Finally, it was an impressive fourth-place finish for 21-year-old French talent Mathys Rondel following a consistent team performance from Tudor Pro Cycling throughout the week.
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