Breschel wins stage 3 of Tour de Luxembourg

Matti Breschel took his second stage win in the Tour of Luxembourg on Saturday. The Danish Tinkoff-Saxo rider also took the yellow jersey with one stage to go. Rudy Molard (Cofidis) finished second ahead of Rusvelo's Sergey Lagutin.

With two riders in the top five of the overall, Tinkoff-Saxo had several cards to play in the longest stage of the Tour de Luxembourg.

"It's always hard to say in cycling of course. In an open race like the Tour of Luxembourg it's hard to make a plan," Breschel said to Cyclingnews after his victorious ride.

The third and longest stage led the peloton from Eschweiler to Differdange over 205,8 kilometres. With eight rated climbs, many more unrated climbs on the way and temperatures well over 30 degrees, it promised to be a very hard day for the 101 riders left in the bunch.

Straight from the gun, a group of four riders went clear, and the peloton let them have four minutes very soon. Tom Dernies (Wallonie-Bruxelles), Pit Schlechter (Leopard-Trek), Ruben Menendez (Differdange) and Ivan Balykin (Rusvelo) worked well together while Wanty-Groupe Gobert, the team of race leader Jempy Drucker, kept them under a manageable lead.

Trek Factory Racing were the first team to start riding into the final. The lead of the now five riders, MTN-Qhubeka's Jay Thomson bridged a 2,5-minute gap on his own, dropped to half a minute only. In the first of the three local laps, the break was caught and Fränk Schleck attacked the field on the Col de l'Europe, a 1500-metre climb of 8% average grade.

He was brought back, but the eldest of the Schleck brothers tried again. Other attackers included Linus Gerdemann (MTN-Qhubeka), Greg Henderson (Lotto-Belisol) and Daniel Teklehaimanot (MTN-Qhubeka) but the Wanty-Groupe Gobert riders had strength in numbers upon crossing the finish line for the penultimate time.

The race exploded in the last 9.4-kilometre lap. After the Col de l'Europe, a group of five riders went clear. Sergey Lagutin for Rusvelo, Rudy Molard for Cofidis and three Tinkoff-Saxo riders: Ivan Rovny, Oliver Zaugg and Matti Breschel.

"It was not the plan we would be up front with three riders. It's hard to make a plan before a stage like this. We had a couple of plans. We played on different cards," Breschel commented. "Ivan attacked and then I attacked."

Breschel sprinted to his second stage win in two days ahead of Molard and Lagutin and also took the yellow jersey of Drucker's shoulders. "I have that jersey. But only for now," Breschel said.

The last stage in the Tour of Luxembourg brings the peloton from Mersch to Luxembourg-City over 168,2 kilometres. The Rollingergrund climb in the five local laps will define the overall winner of this year's race.

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