Wëllkomm zu Lëtzebuerg! The Classique du Grand Duché maybe isn’t the biggest race of the PT triple-header – as it takes place at the same time as two one-week stage races –, but it surely is a hard one: nearly 228 km full of bumps and steep climbs are sufficient to tire even the best riders.
Last winners
2022
Peter Sagan (Moser – Sygic)
2021
Anthony Turgis (Farfetch Pro Cycling)
2020
Miguel Angel Lopez (Evonik – ELKO)
2019
Peter Sagan (Moser – Sygic)
2018
Arnaud Demare (Team Puma – SAP)
2017
Peter Sagan (Moser – Sygic)
2022 results
1
Peter Sagan
Moser - Sygic
5h51'59
2
Sean De Bie
Aegon - Peroni
s.t.
3
Jay McCarthy
Amaysim Cervelo
s.t.
4
Miguel Angel Lopez
Evonik - ELKO
s.t.
5
Charalampas Kastrantas
ELCO - ABEA
s.t.
6
Attila Valter
EA Vesuvio
s.t.
7
Clement Koretzky
ELCO - ABEA
s.t.
8
Michal Kwiatkowski
MOL Cycling Team
s.t.
9
Tiesj Benoot
Philips - Force India
s.t.
10
Simon Yates
Zwift Pro Cycling
s.t.
11
Nans Peters
Gazelle
s.t.
12
Cyril Barthe
Polar
s.t.
13
Valentin Madouas
Team Puma - SAP
s.t.
14
Sjoerd Bax
EA Vesuvio
s.t.
15
Wilco Kelderman
Los Pollos Hermanos
s.t.
16
Moreno Hofland
Gazelle
s.t.
17
Georg Preidler
Aker - MOT
s.t.
18
Floris Gerts
Huski Chocolate
s.t.
19
Alberto Bettiol
De Stijl Cycling
s.t.
20
Vincenzo Albanese
cycleYorkshire
s.t.
21
Sarawut Sirironnachai
King Power
s.t.
22
Diego Ulissi
EA Vesuvio
s.t.
No 4th victory here for Sagan: he changed team during the offseason, and Binance decided to send it to Paris-Nice. No Démare nor Turgis either, as both are now in PCT. But we’ll indeed see a former winner in Luxembourg: Miguel Angel Lopez is back after last year’s fourth place. But he won’t be alone.
2023 edition
MO
HI
ST
RS
AC
DH
Miguel Angel Lopez
79
84
76
74
78
71
Silvio Herklotz
84
81
79
80
76
76
Well, there they are. Two superstars, with strong abilities both and the hills and in the mountains, good endurance and acceleration. They should easily take the first positions, even though Lopez hasn’t always be able to do so. Moreover, they have strong support with them, which should allow to control the race and make it selective enough: Blums, Koch and Foss for Evonik, Madouas, Egger, Schinnagel and Fortunato for Puma.
But a surprise can always happen, isn’t it? Let’s see who are those who will want to disturb this apparent supremacy:
MO
HI
ST
RS
AC
DH
Matej Mohoric
71
83
78
72
77
79
Jay McCarthy
67
82
80
75
74
71
Michal Kwiatkowski
77
80
73
75
74
68
Attila Valter
77
80
76
75
78
71
Caio Godoy
81
76
75
76
75
68
Clement Koretzky
70
80
75
68
77
69
Bartosz Warchol
80
74
76
77
70
68
Petr Vakoc
71
81
75
71
74
66
Tomohiro Kinoshita
72
83
80
77
77
71
Emanuel Buchmann
76
81
73
74
73
70
Patrick Müller
67
80
76
71
73
63
Toms Skujins
70
83
80
77
76
66
Zico Waeytens
71
80
72
70
73
75
Bruno Borges
70
80
75
73
81
65
Aker – MOT brings in Mohoric as their main leader. He finished 9th in 2021, in a bunch arrival. His main support/co leader will be Preidler (11th in 2021, 17th last year), but after that, their helper will mainly try to protect them on the flat, as they might struggle to keep up with the pace when we’ll go uphill.
Amaysim ended 3rd with McCarthy last year, but they were a PCT team then. The lack of ability in the mountains might hurt the Australian if Puma or EA Vesuvio decide to make the race hard. The main helper would be Patrick Lane, though with Hamilton and Drizners, they have some competent punching domestiques.
Binance will be counting on one of the strongest MO/HI hybrids, Michal Kwiatkowski, to have a good result. He was 8th last year for MOL.
His support his mainly Paulinho, who’s still competent, but aging and might not still be here when his help will be needed.
Newly promoted teams Cedevita (Gaudu, Svab) or Carlsberg (Rojas, Eg) don’t have much to expect from this race, and will want to be in the break.
Albanese finished in the main group last season, to bring in a 20th place for cycleYorkshire. It’s about what they can expect with Romo and Holmes leading the team. Ballerini could be very dangerous, if he was able to finish in the leading group, which will probably not be the case.
Double threat for EA Vesuvio, with Valter and Godoy who complete themselves very well. The two leaders have excellent physical abilities, and are well supported by Geniets, Wirtgen or Bax, who finished 14th last season. Valter was 6th and could aim for a top 5.
If Koretzky came in 7th last year, he surprisingly wasn’t the best finisher for ELCO – ABEA: that was Kastrantas, with a strong top 5. The two are back again, and though Koretzky won the French national championship, he doesn’t get any younger. Still, he remains one of the strong puncher of the division, has decent climbing abilities and a good team with him.
Only 6 riders came in Luxembourg for Gazelle, but except for Teunissen who’s more a flat beast, all of them should be a strong support for Warchol. He should be able to do better than Peters’ 11th last season.
Not much to say about . Like last year and the year before, they clearly gave up on this race of the triple header. Their best shot at a decent result is Jonas Vingegaard, and in such a field, it’s not much.
The same can’t be said about ISA – Hexacta: Vakoc is a strong classic puncheur, and he’s got some good lieutenants in the name of Cepeda Hernandez and Parra Bustamente.
Most of the time, a low number of riders can mean that a team is only there because they have too, as a PT team. It’s clearly the case for King Power : though Quita has some qualities, he’s not really equipped for a good result in such a field. He was 24th last season.
Other name, same situation for Lidl Cycling: Van der Poel will probably do what he can, but he certainly won’t equal Turgis’ win in 2021.
The Minions could disagree with my earlier statement: they bring in Kinoshita, and the Japanese surely can do something in Luxembourg. Slagter will be his only support, though, and he might not have the stamina to do this for long.
MOL is another team without much hope for this race. With Kwiatkowski, Waeytens and Preidler all there, but in other teams, their three main scorers in the previous seasons are gone. Maybe Filutas or Dina can surprise me.
Title holder Moser is in the same boat. The only thing is that the name of their out-outsiders are Khederi and Neuman. Same story for Polar (Le Roux, Carpenter) and Rabobank (Champoussin, Gerts).
After missing the Top 30 last year as a PT team, Team UBS – Tissot comes back as a PCT team, with Buchmann as a solid leader, accompanied by Müller, Badilatti and Schelling. A strong team with the German, 14th two years ago.
Less support for Skujins, as only Chernetskiy can really help Tinkoff - La Datcha Team. The Russians were 29th last year with their Latvian leader, and 18th in 2021 with his lieutenant, who has since then declined.
No recent history for PCT team Trans Looney Tunes, but they are lead by Waeytens, who had some success (10th) for MOL two years ago. 19th the same year for Duolingo, Min will be a valuable helper, and might hope for a similar position. Calmejane and Bystrom also are solid riders for this team.
And lastly, ZARA - Irizar comes with a team of youngsters: except their veteran leader Borges (8th in 2021), they have no rider over 24, even though some of them already are valuable helpers on the hills (Finkler, Miquel).
And that’s it! A long day of racing awaits us. Good luck to all the riders.
“...the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably."
A. Roy
“...the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably."
A. Roy
Probably one of only a few chances for McCarthy to get a decent result. He hasn't done too well so far this season, but hopefuly he can bounce back and repeat last year's result here!
A podium will be brilliant, a top 5 the goal, and a top 10 the must. Definitely pressure here for Mohoric, as it's one of few days that should suit him very well this season.
Not much to do about MAL and Herklotz, fingers crossed we get a huge fight for the win amongst those two. Behind, Mohoric must fancy his chances, I'd say, fingers crossed he's on a good day and can fight for the final podium spot!
First tell in the tale of whether Koretzky is a worthy leader or not. Atleast he has a very solid team of helpers around him, so maybe we can strike some luck like we did last season with Kastrantas. A rider like Soulious or perhaps Vila or Vincent are pretty well equipped to snatch some minor points.
The competition is fierce though, so best not get the hopes up too high.
First big race of the season for us. A good result is important as we are lacking results so far and would be far behind comparable teams already if not. Not sure if a top 2 result is as sure as the preview makes it look but thats of course the goal
Borges realistically can't aim much higher than a Top 10 which would be a great result! He does, however, have the highest ACC of those listed so if it's not too tough then maybe a fast finish can grab an insane result. A supporting cast of U25s is going to be a familiar sight for us. Hopefully a chance for a breakaway showing.
We sent a dev squad here. And looking at the startlist, i can't say we made the wrong choice. With neither Tirreno nor Paris-Nice offering much puncheur GC opportunity, this was always gonna be stacked.
A breakaway appearance would be cool.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
Decided to give this a shot with Silvio for the first time!
It'll be exciting to see him face MAL for the one of the rare duels, although a win is not expected here.
Ideally we should start his schedule with a podium though, and I'm optimistic we can get it done.
The hills are longer than in other puncheur classics, and good descending is vital to get into the necessary front position before the final climb to the line.
That's a really poor display from Gerts in his first showing of the Dutch jersey and the newest edition of the game, in a race that I thought is not too mountainous and where he had great results in the past. Any chance weather could be affecting riders?
But Champoussin saves the day for us. Really hopeful for his future with this result.
I'll happily take it. Of course a win would have been cool but 2nd is well within expectations and the rest of the team showed up with Blums taking 10th, Polanc 19th and both Foss and Koch finishing top 50. That's almost better than a race victory. In fact i think we might have outscored Puma here by a point
Apparently, we somehow ended up with carmine red for our bike, helmet and accessories instead of the expected yellow. I suspect that might have been part of the reasoning why i struggled so much to spot my riders in the peleton in the January races. I thought they were simply not riding near the front of the peleton because those races would suck for us anyway
Very cool moment to see Herklotz vs Lopez and even if this isn't the route for a ding-dong battle at least we did see the cream rise to the top. And as knockout said even if MAL had to settle for second place Blums and Polanc with great great rides to provide some valuable depth scoring!
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [PT] Xero Racing
Gaudu made the crucial split like I hoped he would. If he can place in the top 20 in the hilly classics for most of the season, then that would be pretty good
