Russian fast man takes second win of the season, while Fabian Cancellara holds onto race lead
Denis Galimzyanov (Katusha) won the first stage of the Tour of Luxembourg, between Luxembourg and Bascharage in a bunch sprint. The Russian, who has consistently been on the podium of virtually every sprint stage that he has contested this season, too his second victory of the year ahead of the Team Sky trio of Greg Henderson, Davide Appollonio and Mathew Hayman at the end of the 193km stage.
The race was dominated by a four man breakaway, which was formed when Christian Poos (Differdange - Magic-sportfood.de) and Jens Mouris (Vacansoleil-DCM) escaped in the opening kilometre. They were soon joined by Arnaud Labbe (Cofidis) and Bert Scheirlinckx (Landbouwkrediet), and the quartet managed to build a maximum lead of 4’05” before being pegged back by the Leopard Trek team of prologue winner Fabian Cancellara.
Once it had reduced the gap to around three minutes, the Luxembourgeois team held the four leaders at arms length for most of the remainder of the stage. Only when the leaders approached the final three finishing circuits, of 15km each, did the peloton look like pulling them back.
As the leading four approached the finish line for the first time, with 45km to go, they led by just 1’35”; this was the cue for Mouris and Scheirlinckx to leave the others behind. As the two of them took the line for the second time their advantage had been cut to 1’15”, as Team Sky joined the Leopard Trek chase.
The final time over the line, with just 15km to go, the duo led by just 25 seconds. They were caught inside the final 5km, which led to a brief attack from Sébastien Turgot (Europcar); Liquigas-Cannondale had control of the peloton though, with help from Team Sky once more, and so the Frenchman had no chance to get away, and the sprint was on.
Despite the weight in numbers from, especially, Team Sky, Galimzyanov was the fastest at the finish to take his second win of the season after umpteen second and third places.
With no bonus seconds on offer at the finish line, and virtually the entire peloton finishing together, Cancellara holds onto his race lead.