Tour de Luxembourg 2024 – Stage 5 [LAST 10 KM]

September 22, 2024

84th Skoda Tour de Luxembourg 2024 🇱🇺 (2.Pro) ME – Stage 5 – Mersch – Luxembourg : 176,9 km

The Tour de Luxembourg is an annual stage race in professional road bicycle racing held in Luxembourg. The Tour de Luxembourg is classified as a 2.Pro race, the highest rating below the World Tour, by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the sport’s governing body. In 2006, the Tour became part of the UCI Europe Tour, and became part of the UCI ProSeries in 2020.

A dramatic closing stage at the Tour de Luxembourg has seen Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) walk away with the overall victory, with the Italian overturning a 10-second deficit to race leader Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in Luxembourg.

The 23-year-old scores his first career stage race victory after getting away in a late move inside the final 10km of the hilly 176.9km stage.

He finished fourth on the day, though with his group crossing the line 26 seconds up on Van der Poel, it was more than enough to snatch away the win at the conclusion of five days of racing.

David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) won the final stage from the late attack, beating Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) and Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies) to the line by three seconds.

As for the final standings, Tiberi comes out on top with a 15-second gap to Van der Poel, while Gaudu also moves up four places to round out the overall podium, 16 seconds down.

Only four classified climbs dotted the route between Mersch and Luxembourg, but with over 3,100 metres of elevation gain, there were plenty more hills and rises on the final stage of the Tour de Luxembourg.

The tricky parcours saw attacking from the off, including a breakaway of GC favourites early on which saw Van der Poel briefly try a solo attack. Of course, such a move wouldn’t last, and eventually a three-man group broke clear to form the break of the day.

Johannes Staune-Mittet (Visma-Lease A Bike), Archie Ryan (EF Education-EasyPost) and Lorenzo Milesi (Movistar) got in the move as the trio gained three minutes on the peloton with Lidl-Trek and Soudal-QuickStep leading the chase behind.

Despite the early skirmishes, there would be no further long-range attacking before the closing local circuit in Luxembourg. Two sets of bonus seconds were up for grabs on the hilly lap, though the breakaway riders swept up the first lot 25km from the line.

The move came to an end as UAE Team Emirates upped the pace heading into the last two laps of the circuit, with their man Marc Hirschi attempting a move before the closing lap. He was tracked by Van der Poel as well as former leader Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal-QuickStep), with the latter duo taking one and two bonus seconds at the second sprint behind Wilco Kelderman (Visma-Lease A Bike).

More attacks flew on the closing lap, with Van der Poel forced on the defensive. He couldn’t stop every move, however, and so a group including Tiberi, Kelderman and Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) managed to build a small gap.

Tiberi wasn’t prepared to settle, though, and so the Italian launched a major attack to capture the overall lead inside the final 10km of the race. Simmons, Gaudu and Jegat went along and the strong group managed to build their lead to 40 seconds.

Behind, Van der Poel attacked over the last climb of the race, with only Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) able to match his acceleration. It was too little, too late for the world champion, though. Despite dragging back around 10 seconds on Tiberi, he’d still cross the line too far back to defend his leader’s jersey.

Out front, Gaudu attacked late for the stage win and, as it turned out, the final spot on the race podium, while Tiberi could celebrate a milestone with his first stage race triumph.

Results :

Final General Classification :