Tour de Luxembourg 2023 – Stage 3 [FULL STAGE]

September 22, 2023

Tour de Luxembourg 2023 – Stage 3 🇱🇺 – Mertert – Vianden : 168,4 km

The race has since joined the UCI ProSeries calendar however, and in doing so has been moved to a mid-september slot, changing it from a warm-up event to a last-ditch attempt for many riders to secure a contract for the following season. The race may take place in one of Europe’s smallest nations, but that doesn’t stop it from seeking out enough unique terrain for five action-packed stages. A lot of these stages crosscut each other, creating a route map that looks remarkably similar to a spider’s web. The five-day event offers opportunities for just about every type of rider with a hilly day to kick off proceedings before a flatter Classics-style stage follows. A mountainous stage three is then followed by an individual time trial before stage five concludes in Luxembourg City.

Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) was the pick of the puncheurs at the Tour de Luxembourg, taking victory on the queen stage 3 with an 18km solo attack ahead of Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) and Dylan Teuns (Israel-Premier Tech).

Healy originally struck out 33km from the finish and bridged to one of the day’s early breakaway members, Bastien Tronchon (AG2R Citröen), before dropping the Frenchman ahead of the final lap around the picturesque castle in Vianden.

The Irish Champion took the overall lead of the race from Søren Kragh Andersen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) with the winning margin of 15 seconds and the 10 bonus seconds earned on the line giving Healy a 19-second advantage over Hirschi going into the final two stages.

UAE Team Emirates controlled the majority of the day but were unable to reel back in the Irishman for either Brandon McNulty or Hirschi, with Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) marking moves in the peloton for his teammate and stifling any concerted effort to chase.

Tomorrow’s 23.9km time trial starting and finishing in Pétange will be very decisive for the GC standings, with Healy and McNulty likely to be the best-suited among those chasing overall victory.

“We had two cards to play with me and Richard [Carapaz] and going long for me is my strength and then we could use Richard behind if I got caught back,” said Healy after the stage. “I just had the legs today to make it stick so Richard didn’t have to do anything.

“I don’t think anyone will ever admit to liking these stages,” joked Healy. “The rain is never nice to ride in, but for sure I perform well in the rain and it doesn’t slow me down.

“Now it’s just [about] trying to hold onto this jersey and it’m pretty confident in my TT and now I have a nice buffer as well going into tomorrow and we have a strong team to look after the jersey if I keep it tomorrow for the last stage as well, so I’m pretty confident.”

HOW IT UNFOLDED
The third stage in Luxembourg saw a delayed start due to a road accident among motorists, which left some of the teams in traffic. Normality resumed once racing was underway with a five-rider breakaway forming up the road with Bastien Tronchon (AG2R Citröen), Oliver Knight (Cofidis), Rémy Mertz (Bingoal WB), Gilles De Wilde (Flanders-Baloise) and KOM classification leader Mats Wenzel (Leopard TOGT).

Their advantage reached 5 minutes as a maximum before EF Education-EasyPost began to slowly chase in aid of Richard Carapaz’s ambitions, with race leader Kragh Andersen’s Alpecin-Deceuninck team sitting second in the line.

Rain was on and off throughout the opening 100km, but the peloton was calm as all eyes were on the final finishing circuit and triple-ascent of the Montée de Niklosbierg, which preceded the finish through the gates to the picturesque castle in Vianden.

The break’s gap started to fade as the first ascent of the stage’s decisive climb loomed, with the teams interested in the overall wanting to put their respective leaders in the best position. Hirschi and Alaphilippe were right towards the front and not taking any chances.

UAE Team Emirates took control on the lower slopes and began to separate those without the legs from the potential stage winners while at the front of the race, Tronchon had dropped his fellow escapees 50km from the finish.

The break would come back together just before the second ascent of Montée de Niklosbierg incoming, which is where Tronchon would again pull away as clearly the strongest in the break.

With 33km remaining from the finish, Healy launched the first attack from the peloton, exploding out of the pace set by UAE Team Emirates. The Irish champion would join forces with the Frenchman who had spent the whole day in front and their advantage would stabilise around 25 seconds.

Tronchon and Healy’s presence up front allowed their teammates to sit in the wheels, leaving Lidl-Trek, UAE Team Emirates and Soudal-QuickStep to try and sort out some semblance of a chase behind, but their lack of immediate cooperation allowed the leading duo’s gap to extend past 40 seconds.

UAE refound their formation ahead of the final ascent up the full climb but with a 50-second deficit to Healy, they still had a lot of work to do to catch the powerful Irishman who had now dropped Tronchon and gone solo 17.9km from the finish line.

Fellow Irish rider and one of Healy’s teammates next year, Archie Ryan (Jumbo-Visma), and McNulty looked the strongest behind, but despite their best efforts, neither was able to get away from Carapaz who was marking everything behind before Hirschi and Teuns got up the road.

They would get as close as 15 seconds to Healy, but the Irishman clearly had his fifth win of the season wrapped up and with Kragh Andersen struggling after dropping on an earlier climb, Healy was also about to take the leader’s jersey going into the final weekend.

Hirschi sits closest to the Irishman 19 seconds down with Teuns at 25 and other GC threats in McNulty and Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar) sat 47 seconds down with an ITT and a 177km hilly stage left to race. Overall victory would mark Healy’s first in a professional stage race.

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