- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
- luxembourg
- procycling
- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
- luxembourg
- procycling
The official website freezes by web browser after a short while…
5 days of racing, including one Time Trial, for this class Pro stage race.
Winners of previous editions were Hirschi🇨🇭, Tiberi🇮🇹 and McNulty🇺🇸. None of them is coming.
Van der Poel (🇳🇱 Alpecin) is coming back to the road. Will he be active or just training for the World Championship?
Here is the general map. As you can see, Luxembourg is small, and each stage is already almost a Tour of Luxembourg 🙂
Stage 1: Wednesday 16
158 km, D+ 2400 m
It can’t be seen on the stage profile, but the last 250 m are uphill. There is also a sort of hairpin to cross the river a bit after the flamme rouge.
Stage 2: Thursday 17
167 km, D+ 2000 m
The last 30 km are on a circuit (2.5 laps).
Stage 3: Friday 18
179 km, D+ 3000 m
The last 30 km are again on a circuit (2 laps), a very hilly one.
Stage 4: Saturday 19
20 km, D+ 350 m, ITT
There is a 1 mile climb after 4 km, half of which is around 10% steep. Then very light hills, and then a mini wall followed by an uphill false flat after 14 km. On reaches the line after a 2 km long descent.
Stage 5: Sunday 20
177 km, D+ 2900 m
Guess what? The last 30 km are on a circuit (a bit more than 2 laps), very hilly again.
Based on the result and his attacks, it looks like Van der Poel is here to win, not just as a training session.
In fact, one may even reckon that his stopping his attack can be seen as even more significant: he gave himself a last chance to win in the sprint to come, instead of keeping on pushing in order to train in solo efforts.
Today, he could have called it a day too when he was in a bad split, and rested for a stage victory tomorrow; but he had his team chase in order to stick with other GC guys (well, of course, this choice allowed him to stay in the race for today’s stage victory today too).