Ready for Tour de Luxembourg
Tomorrow that moment of the season is upon us: the Škoda Tour de Luxembourg. Leopard Pro Cycling is ready for five racing days on home soil.
The Race
In contrary to previous years, the Škoda Tour de Luxembourg will not start with the traditional prologue, but with a 133 kilometers long stage from and to Luxembourg City. As the finish is situated at a nasty uphill kick in the Kirchberg area, there is no such thing as an easy start to the race. Also the finish to stage two - Remich-Hesperange -, is far from simple as the Syren climb with an ascent up to a maximum of 18% is part of the finishing circuit. From the top of the climb, only four kilometers are left to the line.
On day three the bunch rides from Rosport to Schifflange which has the same scenario as the day before with many difficult climbs during the day. Coming to the local circuit in Schifflange, whoever wants to compete for the overall win must be on their guard as the two bonification sprints and the three ascents of the Poteau de Kayl are ingredients for a true battle.
On Friday, stage four is the only one above 200 kilometers. Starting in Rodange, at the border triangle with Belgium and France, the riders will head towards the Rolléngerbierg (7.7%), Putscheid (9.8%) and Tadler (5.4%) before they will arrive on the local circuit in Differdange. Here the Col de l'Europe (8%) will most likely play an important role in the battle for the stage win and GC classifications. This battle will take place on the final day as well. In the traditional stage from Mersch back to Luxembourg City, the four ascents of the difficult Pabeierbierg (9.4%) will decide over the final results.
The Škoda Tour de Luxembourg is broadcasted live via RTL and the Eurosport Player.
Previous years
The Škoda Tour de Luxembourg has no surprises for Leopard Pro Cycling. Already in 2011 the team won the GC with Linus Gerdemann and later more notable results were there with amongst others Bob Jungels (2012), Pit Leyder and Alexander Krieger (both 2018). Last year, Szymon Rekita finished the race in fifth position overall. Being a UCI 2.Pro race and the new place on the UCI race calendar - already before the coronavirus pandemic, the Škoda Tour de Luxembourg was moved from June to September - the organization has been able to welcome a very strong field of participants. With no less than 8 WorldTour teams at the start and the presence of the likes of Gilbert, Ulissi, Démare and Wellens, Leopard Pro Cycling can expect a big battle for good results.
Stages
15.09 | Luxembourg-Luxembourg | 133 km
16.09 | Remich-Hesperange | 164 km
17.09 | Rosport-Schifflange | 150 km
18.09 | Rodange-Differdange | 219 km
19.09 | Mersch-Luxembourg | 187 km
Who is riding?
Miguel Heidemann (GER), Colin Heiderscheid (LUX), Arthur Kluckers (LUX), Jan Maas (NED), Szymon Rekita (POL) & Mauro Schmid (SUI) - DS: Markus Zingen (GER) & Gregor Willwohl (GER)
Markus Zingen, Team Manager & Sports Director
"The Škoda Tour de Luxembourg is always our highlight of the season. In a complicated year like this one with a small race calendar this is not different. It was a good move from the organization to move the race to September. You can see a high quality start list, which makes the race even more a challenge. Nevertheless, we are looking forward to give it our all. As stated above, the race has no secrets for us, we have good experiences and results in the past years and therefore we can be very optimistic about this year's edition. Being on our home soil gives us extra motivation to show an active race. We will give everything to achieve some nice results with our youngsters."
Partners Cycling
