The queen stage of the Tour de Luxembourg unfortunately didn’t go well for Romain Grégoire on Friday. On the very hard course around Vianden, the young Frenchman was unable to retain his yellow jersey, or even his place among the top GC riders, due to the day’s bad legs. Despite the support of his teammates, the rider from Besançon crossed the finish line about three minutes after the winner and new leader, Mattias Skjelmose.
Although nothing was set to be definitive on Friday evening, due to the individual time trial scheduled on Saturday, stage 3 of the Tour de Luxembourg was expected to make it all clearer on the race’s general classification. After two group finishes, the 3,000 metres of elevation gain on the menu towards Vianden suggested real gaps, especially since the brutal Niklosbierg climb (2.8 km at 9.3%) had to be tackled no less than three times in the last sixty kilometres. Wearing the yellow jersey since his victory in the opening stage, Romain Grégoire expected to be put under pressure, but he was initially able to rely on his teammates, and in particular Eddy Le Huitouze, to stay at the front of the pack and keep the breakaway within reach in the first part of the race. The seven early fugitives still reached the main climb of the day in the lead, but with an advantage of barely two minutes while the pace was already increasing in the peloton. A first selection took place, and shortly after the summit, around fifteen men broke away. “Many teams had an interest in making it hard, and we know there’s always movement on a circuit race,” said Benoît. “Tom entered the right move, and that was good for us, since he was one step ahead of Romain, who could come back on him later. Plus, there were almost no big favorites up front.”
“I couldn’t do anything,” said Romain Grégoire
In the transition section leading up to the second ascent, Lorenzo Germani, Olivier Le Gac, and Enzo Paleni worked well in the main peloton to keep the gap to less than a minute on this chasing group. Unfortunately, when the Niklosbierg climb was tackled again, Ben Healy put in a solid push, which Romain Grégoire followed for a few moments before being dropped, while a dozen of his rivals managed to join the front group. Although the yellow jersey got the support of Tom Donnenwirth and Enzo Paleni, he was already nearly thirty seconds behind at the top of this penultimate ascent. “Enzo and Tom did a very good job and allowed Romain to come back quite close to the first group, but then we came back on the climb, and it didn’t work out,” said Benoît. “The team did what they had to do, we tried to limit the losses as best we could, but when you don’t have the legs, you just don’t,” Romain said. “Mentally, I was ready, I was motivated, and everything was ready for a nice stage today, but as soon as I had to push a bit of power, I felt like my legs were stiff, and they weren’t responding at all. I couldn’t do anything; it was just a fight against myself.”
From the bottom of the final climb of Niklosbierg, the yellow jersey then fought with his strength to reach the finish line, nearly twenty kilometres further on. He eventually crossed it in 29th position, 2’47 behind the winner and new leader Mattias Skjelmose. “It’s a bad day, I’m gutted,” said the young man. “I don’t think the stage was too hard for Romain, I just think he had a bad day,” added Benoît. “We’re obviously disappointed because it was a really good stage for him, but that’s how it is. I still want to say congratulations to his teammates for the work they did again today. Eddy worked really well again at the start of the race. We’re now focusing on Sunday, with a stage that could suit Romain.”
