Jimmy Engoulvent pulled out a short but marvelous ride in the Tour de Luxembourg prologue, finishing the incredibly short 2.7 km stage in just about 3 min 41 sec to win by 9 seconds. Engoulvent, a French rider for Saur Sojasun team, really excelled on the final mini-climb and put the stage out of reach early. Teammate Cyril Lemoine finished second, Radioshack's Gregory Rast third, another Saur Sojasun rider Jimmy Casper in fourth, and USA's own Lance Armstrong rounded out the top 5. Armstrong said he felt steady and looks like he may be a legitimate contender in the upcoming days. The other contenders did not fare so well, but are all still in contention. Radioshack's Andreas Kloden took 10th, 3 seconds behind teammate Armstrong and 13 off the overall leader Engoulvent. Defending champ Frank Schleck finished 25th with a 3:58, Jens Voigt took 47th and Kim Kirchen finished 49th, with both Voigt and Kirchen finishing with a 4:03. Keep in mind that this was a very short stage, and the real results should be coming in tomorrow after the actual Stage 1 concludes. Here's what tomorrow's stage looks like.
A few bumps every now and then but nothing too drastic. I don't expect it to come down to an all out sprint, but I am not ruling out the possibility. The last few kilometers downhill could make things interesting, but only if the field makes it over the small climbs beforehand. I would not expect any of the top leaders to make their final moves tomorrow, but considering the race is only 4 stages don't expect the leading teams to let breakaways to get too comfortable.
OVERALL STANDINGS AFTER PROLOGUE:
1. Jimmy Engoulvent
2. Cyril Lemoine -9
3. Gregory Rast -9
4. Jimmy Casper -10
5. Lance Armstrong -10
10. Andreas Kloden -13
25. Frank Schleck -17
47. Jens Voigt -22
49. Kim Kirchen -22
just as a side note tomorrow's stage is 179.7km. forgot to mention that in the article.
ReplyDelete-bran34