Giovanni Visconti (ISD-Neri) won the first stage of the Tour of Luxembourg, between the city of Luxembourg and Hesperange, in a bunch sprint. He easily outsprinted Yauheni Hutarovich (Française des Jeux) and Borut Bozic (Vacansoleil) at the end of 179.7km, to win by more than a bike length.
“I'm not feeling really good, but I had a good sensation during the race,” said Visconti after his victory. “At the end of the stage, I decided to help my teammate Oscar Gatto and I worked for his sprint. But at the last corner, I saw I had an advantage of some metres and I pushed hard straight to the finish.
“I'm really happy for this success,” he continued. “It comes at a good time for my morale and reassurance that I’ve done some good work over the last period.”
The breakaway for the day happened early on as Anthony Charteau (Bbox Bouyges Telecom) attacked and was followed by Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil) and Morten Knudsen (Differdange). The peloton allowed the trio to escape and they managed to build a gap of 5’50” by the top of the Grevenhaff climb after 37.2km.
The Saxo Bank team of defending champion Fränk Schleck came to the front of the peloton and gradually began to pull the leaders back; by the top of the second climb, the Womeldange, after 91.1km the gap was reduced to 4’50”. Schleck’s team took the pressure off though and the gap grew once more; as the trio passed through Mondor-les-Bains, the hometown of the Schleck brothers, it was up to 5’30” and with 50km to go it was up to 6’05”.
Team RadioShack decided to take responsibility for pulling the leaders back and moved to the front of the peloton. With help from Visconti’s ISD-Neri team, the gap was down to just 1’20” as they crossed the finish line to start two 18.2km finishing circuits.
With 20km to go the gap was just 20 seconds and the trio was finally reeled in with 15km left, and with the pace kept high there was no chance of any more attacks. The peloton prepared itself for a sprint finish and Visconti proved to be the fastest.
There were no time bonuses available but yesterday’s prologue winner Jimmy Engoulvent (Saur-Sojasun) found himself behind a split in the peloton at the finish; the Frenchman lost his race lead to teammate Cyril Lemoine.
Result stage 1
1. Giovanni Visconti (Ita) ISD-Neri
2. Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) Française des Jeux
3. Borut Bozic (Slo) Vacansoleil
4. Sebastian Siedler (Ger) Vorarlberg-Corratec
5. Aitor Galdos (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
6. Ian Stannard (GBr) Team Sky
7. Serguei Ivanov (Rus) Team Katusha
8. Oscar Gatto (Ita) ISD-Neri
9. Michal Golas (Pol) Vacansoleil
10. Manuel Ortega (Spa) Andalucia-CajaSur
Standings after stage 1
1. Cyril Lemoine (Fra) Saur-Sojasun
2. Gregory Rast (Swi) Team RadioShack
3. Lance Armstrong (USA) Team RadioShack
4. Borut Bozic (Slo) Vacansoleil
5. Aitor Galdos (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi