Skoda Tour de Luxembourg 2024 Stage 1

September 18, 2024 There are not many flat roads in Luxembourg and the route for Stage 1 is constantly up and down for the 158KM race. Many riders are present to hone their final training before the World Championships in fewer than 2 weeks. Pepijn Reinderink of Soudal Quickstep, Mattia Bais of Polti-Kometa, Alexandre Kess of the Luxembourg National Team, and Vincent Van Hemelen of Flanders Baloise went up the road in search of intermediate prizes. Van Hemelen dropped away with about 85KM to go but the three remaining riders still maintained a lead of 5 minutes 45 seconds. Kess was next to drop as the gap remained over 5 minutes with 62KM to go. Their gap was coming down but so were the kilometers with the gap at 3 minutes 30 seconds with 30KM to go. Lidl-Trek and Visma-Lease a Bike were pulling but stopped, forcing UAE to do all of the work. Bahrain-Victorious and Alpecin-Deceuninck threw a rider at the chase which made the difference, pulling the break back to just 1 minute with 15KM to go. With 10.5KM to go, the break hit the Côte de Stafelter, a 2.6KM climb at 6.5% with 1KM over 10%. The speed in the bunch was not exceptional but it was enough to bring the break back into the fold. The majority of the peloton went over the top with 8KM to go as Lidl-Trek took control down the descent and into the final kilometer. The last kilometer dragged at 5%. Visma-Lease a Bike strung the bunch out but with 200M to go, Mathieu van der Poel of Alpecin-Deceuninck launched his sprint from third wheel and crossed the line with at least two bike lengths between him and Christophe Laporte of Visma-Lease a Bike. Andreas Kron of Lotto-Dstny took third with 46 riders finishing on the same time.