Lthe final victory of this 84th Skoda Tour of Luxembourg was partly played out this Saturday with a 4th stage in the form of an individual time trial! The contenders for the general classification had no room for error on this slightly hilly 15.5 kilometre time trial around the town of Differdange, and the fastest of them is called Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) ! In difficulty since its retirement on the Tour de Francethe Spaniard took advantage of his very good qualities in the solitary effort to finally bounce back and win in 19 minutes and 11 seconds (at an average speed of over 48 km/h), his first victory since the Tour of the Basque CountryHe is seven seconds ahead of a very good Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) and eleven seconds the Dane Mads Pedersen (Lidl – Trek), who led the provisional classification of this time trial for a long time.
Video – Mauri Vansevenant had taken power the day before
Van der Poel takes back the leader’s jersey… five riders within ten seconds overall!
Behind this trio, the favorites responded with Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates, 4th at 14″) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck, 5th at 19″). Not necessarily a big fan of the exercise, Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal Quick-Step) defended well and finished 18th at 54″. A result which offers us a rather exceptional and suspenseful scenario before the 5th and final stage, since the first five in the general classification are separated by only 10 seconds!
MVDP takes back his leader’s jersey from the Belgian by three small seconds, Juan Ayuso intercalating between the two at the same time as Vansevenant. Hirschi (4th to 8″) and Tiberi (5th at 10″) are also in ambush and totally in the race for the final victory, especially with the bonuses to be played on Sunday. Note the very good time of David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ, 13th at 36″), which allows the Frenchman to move up to 7th place overall, 39 seconds behind the Dutchman. Everything therefore remains possible with a steep 5th stage to conclude this Luxembourg week.
