Danny van Poppel won the opening prologue of this year’s Tour of Luxembourg, after setting the fastest time along today’s 2.55 kilometer course.
The Dutch rider beat Jempy Drucker (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) and Alex Kirsch (Leopard-Trek) with a time of 3:58:72, which was enough leveraged his Luxembourg rivals by 3 and 4 seconds respectively.
Race Details
Today’s individual time trial around the capital city of Luxembourg, saw heavy rainfall, which made for some treacherous conditions along the fast descent, sharp corners and cobbled climb of this year’s prologue.
Van Poppel had this to say after the race.
"I knew the course.". "It’s very well suited for me. Last year I was second at only one second."
In the absence of last year’s winner, Jimmy Engoulvent and his Europcar team, Van Poppel was an ideal candidate to win today’s ITT event.
"It made me the race favorite which made me very nervous. But I trained hard for this race. It’s short and explosive. The cobbled climb is something I like. That’s where I made the difference. And in the corners I took risks."
Van Poppel was the only rider to execute a time of under four minutes – marking the second win of his career since turning pro.
Last March, the 20-year old rider won the first stage in this year’s Three Days of West Flanders.
“It’s a special win. I focused on this day. If worked hard so I am very happy that it worked out," he concluded.
As for Drucker, his performance today, earned him another top ten finish in this season’s race calendar.
Mostly a sprinter, the Luxumbourg rider will focus his attention toward the "sprint stages", and taking on the likes of other formable sprinters such as André Greipel – who finished in 34th spot today.
"I won’t take any risks," Greipel said before the start of today prologue.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QHuQQLrai8
Top 20 Finishers
1 Danny van Poppel (Ned) Trek Factory Racing 0:03:59 2 Jean-Pierre Drucker (Lux) Wanty – Groupe Gobert 0:00:04 3 Alex Kirsch (Lux) Leopard Development Team 0:00:04 4 Cyril Lemoine (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:00:08 5 Adrien Petit (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:00:11 6 Silvio Herklotz (Ger) Team Stölting 0:00:13 7 Marcel Sieberg (Ger) Lotto Belisol 0:00:13 8 Michael Mørkøv (Den) Tinkoff-Saxo 9 Manuele Boaro (Ita) Tinkoff-Saxo 0:00:13 10 Andrei Solomennikov (Rus) RusVelo 0:00:14 11 Sebastien Delfosse (Bel) Wallonie – Bruxelles 0:00:15 12 Sean De Bie (Bel) Lotto Belisol 0:00:17 13 Rudy Molard (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:00:18 14 Roman Maikin (Rus) RusVelo 0:00:19 15 Gregory Rast (Swi) Trek Factory Racing 0:00:20 16 Fábio Silvestre (Por) Trek Factory Racing 0:00:20 17 Gregory Henderson (NZl) Lotto Belisol 0:00:20 18 Romain Hardy (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:00:20 19 Nils Politt (Ger) Team Stölting 0:00:21 20 Dennis Coenen (Bel) Leopard Development Team 0:00:22
General classification after prologue
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