DIFFERDANGE, 7th of June – 2014
A 205 kilometer long hilly stretch was on the menu during today’s third stage of Tour de Luxembourg where Tinkoff-Saxo have been dominated the turn of events with Matti Breschel’s stage win yesterday while Michael Mørkøv was second overall before the start of today’s stage.
Tom Dernies (B/Wallonie-Bruxelles), Pit Schlechter (Leopard Development Team), Ivan Balykin (RUS/RusVelo) and Ruben Menendez (E/Differdingen-Losch) formed the long-lasting breakaway while Trek Factory controlled the pace of the pack.
Entering the first of three laps on the hilly circuit in Differdange, Tinkoff-Saxo’s Michael Mørkøv launched a bold attack in order to gain seconds in the GC and was shadowed by Trek Factory’s Fränk Schleck who decided to counter-attack and created a small lead but was soon neutralized.
Thundering out on the final lap, Greg Henderson and Daniel Teklehaimanot worked up a comfortable lead to the minimized field of favorites and hitting the foot of the climb Col de l’Europe, Fränk Schleck launched another attack and bridged to the front duo.
With 6 kilometers remaining, the pack was once again complete. But on the final climb, Tinkoff-Saxo’s Matti Breschel was catapulted forward by teammates Ivan Rovny and Oliver Zaugg and they held the pace high making it to the finish line where the Dane once more demonstrated superb form.
DS, Fabrizio Guidi had a hard time describing how happy he was:
“Tactically, this is one of my best experiences in my time as sports director. We stayed close to the front in the first part of the stage without spending energy and in the finale, we did a perfect job. It sounds simple to catapult a rider onwards but most times, your opponents will have a chance to stay on your wheel. However, Ivan and Oliver did it at just the right time and place and we had three riders in the front group consisting of five, which is remarkable. Ivan and Oliver kept the pace high and on the finish line, Matti is just scarily fast at the moment and he took the stage win fairly easily. Now, we’re in the lead of the race. And we want to pack the leader’s jersey in our luggage when we leave the race tomorrow afternoon,” said an immensely proud Fabrizio Guidi.
