Skoda Tour de Luxembourg 2025 Stage 5

September 21, 2025 The time trial served to spread out the GC and the overall doesn't look to be in jeopardy for Brandon McNulty but the final stage could be tricky if ridden aggressively. It's a classic stage in Luxembourg with 3,100M of elevation gain but very few sustained climbs. The 176KM course starts in Mersch and heads North to Diekirch and across the Sûre (Sauer) River before turning West through Kautenbach. Halfway through the stage, the riders turn back South towards Luxembourg city for two laps on an 11.5KM circuit around the Bambësch forest for the finish in the Limpertsberg quarter of the city. Just under 2KM from the line on each lap is an 800M, 9% punch up the Papeierbierg. There is not a meter of flat on the entire course and could be tough to control if attacks start early enough. The wonderful racing conditions that the riders have experienced this week unfortunately came to end this morning. Rain had fallen overnight and when the riders started their neutral roll-out from Mersch, it was on wet roads. Low clouds were hanging around but with 81KM to go, the rain had stopped and the break of 12 riders were 3 minutes ahead of the peloton after a hard start. Such a large group was able to put a lot of pressure on UAE-XRG forcing them ride quite hard even though no one up front was within 3 minutes of the GC lead. Groupama-FDJ started to believe in the chances of Romain Grégoire for the stage win so they went to the front with 68KM to go and quickly had the gap under 2 minutes. The pace was high enough to split the peloton in a few pieces. Decathlon AG2R knitted things back together but it put everyone on high alert. Tudor Pro Cycling came to ride with Groupama-FDJ and with 44KM to go, Lidl-Trek added a man as well. Both Groupama-FDJ and Lidl-Trek had men in the break who then stopped working. As expected, the break lost cohesion and the gap tumbled. When Max Walker of EF-Education EasyPost made the first attack from the break at 42KM to go, the gap was down to 1 minute 15 seconds. Rain began to fall and the accumulated fatigue of the week was starting to set in. Riders in the break were constantly attacking each other and the group was whittling down. The chase was strong as well and with the endless ups and down, the peloton was significantly reduced. At 32KM from the line, Mats Wenzel of Equipo Kern Pharma attacked from the break away and went clear with Enzo Paleni of Groupama-FDJ but just 1KM later through the village of Bridel, Paleni couldn't handle the pace of the Luxembourger and drifted back into the chase group. With the break now in pieces, the bunch settled into a more steady chase pace which allowed Wenzel to hold a bit over a minute as he entered the circuit with 30KM to go. The bunch hit the Papeierbierg for the first time and the group exploded. Ben Healy of EF-Education EasyPost attacked at the steepest part and few could follow. Romain Grégoire got on the wheel but the rest lent on race leader Brandon McNulty to haul it back. Wenzel went through the finish line for 2 laps to go, 20 seconds ahead of the remnants of the break that also now included Healy and Grégoire after their attack. The rest of the favorites were another 5 seconds back with McNulty isolated and pulling by himself. Healy and Grégoire blew through the rest of the break and came across to Wenzel with 20KM to go. Marc Hirschi of Tudor Pro Cycling was next to extricate himself from the favorites group but he was stuck in a chasse potate and never made it to the leaders. Reinforcements came for McNulty which settled the attacks and brought control into the favorites group. On the Papeierbierg for the penultimate time with 13KM to go, Wenzel was dropped by Healy and Grégoire and Hirschi was reincorporated back into the peloton who had drifted to 50 seconds behind the two leaders. Healy and Grégoire got out to 1 minute 15 seconds which forced Lidl-Trek to start pulling with UAE-XRG to keep the Irishman from challenging Mattias Skjelmose for second overall. Søren Kragh Andersen did the work and brought it back to 50 seconds by the bottom of the Papeierbierg with 2KM to go. Healy went to the front and rode as hard as he could on the Papeierbierg because he needed to drop Grégoire before the sprint. Grégoire had the measure of Healy and even put in an attack of his own. Healy couldn't respond and Grégoire raced clear. Healy kept it within 25M but could not close the gap and it was Grégoire who crossed the finish line first, arms aloft. Healy coasted a few moments later, 55 seconds ahead of Senna Remijn of Alpecin-Deceuninck who won the sprint from the favorites group for third place. The favorites more less all finished together which meant that Brandon McNulty sealed the overall by 47 seconds over Mattias Skjelmose and 1 minute 4 seconds on Richard Carapaz. Healy managed to jump six places to finish sixth overall at 1 minute 20 seconds.