Breschel celebrates overall win in Tour of Luxembourg

André Greipel won the last stage in the Tour of Luxembourg. The Lotto-Belisol rider arrived solo in the capital city. The overall victory in the five-day stage race went to Matti Breschel of Tinkoff-Saxo. He finished second in the stage ahead of MTN-Qhubeka's Daniel Teklehaimanot.

The last stage took the 100 remaining riders from Mersch to the capital city of Luxembourg over 168 kilometres. The stage finished off with a local cicruit which included the short but steep Pabeierbierg climb. It was a hot day again but unlike Saturday's stage the peloton was ready to race from the gun.

After a fast start where attacks were neutralized, the first bonus sprint came. Michael Mørkøv of Tinkoff-Saxo took the available three seconds ahead of former race leader Jempy Drucker (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) and Mørkøv's teammate Marko Kump,

In the lull after the sprint, Andy Schleck attacked the field. He got company from his Trek Factory Racing teammate Danny van Poppel , Greg Henderson and André Greipel for Lotto-Belisol, Guillaume Levarlet for Cofidis, Edwin Avila of Team Colombia, MTN-Qhubeka's Jacques Janse van Rensburg, Laurens de Vreese for Wanty-Groupe Gobert and Rusvelo's Sergey Firsanov. Five minutes was the maximum amount of time the peloton would allow them.

When the breakaway arrived in the capital city Greg Henderson attacked the group.

"I attacked the break early because I felt everyone was getting tired," Henderson told Cyclingnews. "I knew André would be able to sit on for some 30 kilometres in the group. He waited and then attacked the break. He reached me and I went full gas for one more lap with him sitting on my wheel."

The Lotto-Belisol tactics worked with the duo Henderson/Greipel enlarging the gap between them and the chasing peloton which included yellow jersey Matti Breschel.

"I opened some more time on the chasers and then sent Andre on his way. It was the longest lead-out I ever did in my career," Henderson said "And I wouldn't recommend it to anyone."

Greipel took his second win of the week in Luxembourg in an unusual for the German champion solo manner. Matti Breschel led the chasing group and secured his overall win in the 2.HC race.

"We did everything well tactically," Greipel said. "I went at the right moment. Even though I had cramps at the end, the legs were great today and I kind of surpised myself today as well."

Tinkoff-Saxo celebrated the overall victory and two stage wins by Breschel. "I knew we had a good opportunity of making a pretty decent result here but the boys really performed beyond my expectations," sports director Fabrizio Guidi said.

"Matti finished second on the line, and we can now finally celebrate for a number of reasons. Matti's back in superb form, the team supported him perfectly, Michael (Mørkøv) finished third overall and the results say it all."

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