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RACE: ŠKODA Tour de Luxembourg stage one, Luxembourg > Luxembourg
DATE: Wednesday 20 September
For 156 kilometres, IPT’s plan for the opening stage of the SKODA Tour de Luxembourg had performed out near-perfectly.
Krists Neilands helped make sure that the day’s three-man breakaway group didn’t achieve an insurmountable lead over the peloton, earlier than he positioned his team-mates completely for the beginning of the Cote de Stafelter climb. Michael Woods then neutralised an acceleration on the Stafelter, which all however ensured a lowered bunch dash for victory, earlier than Hugo Houle helped reposition his teammates approaching the road.
The one factor left to tick off was an ideal closing 400 metres. Step ahead, Corbin Sturdy.
Just a little over a 12 months on from his final professional victory on the Tour of Britain, the Kiwi delivered a peaceful, composed, and – most impressively – prolonged dash to take the win. Sturdy sat second wheel, behind Uno-X Professional Biking’s Anthon Charmig, heading into the ultimate nook. Even after the Danish rider rose out of the saddle some 250 metres from the road, Sturdy held again a few seconds longer, earlier than beginning his dash across the similar time as Diego Ulissi (UAE Staff Emirates) did to his left.
Having hit the entrance with 150 metres remaining, the IPT rider was mightily spectacular, displaying no signal of weak spot whilst others behind surged for the road. The technique devised for the stage throughout a recon a day earlier had performed out completely. “I used to be actually pleased with the stage win,” Sturdy mentioned. “We got here right here with a very robust staff, and we rode exceptionally on stage one. The blokes did an ideal job all day and I used to be in a position to end it off.”
This victory was a part of Sturdy’s late-season flourish, which started on the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec on 8 September, the place he positioned second. The Kiwi then took third on the Circuit Franco-Belge somewhat over per week after his Luxembourg triumph, earlier than ending fourth on the Giro del Veneto on his penultimate street racing day of the season.
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