Van der Poel started his sprint with roughly 300 metres to go on the uphill finish and crossed the line ahead of runner-up Christophe Laporte (Visma-Lease a Bike) and third-placed Andreas Kron (Lotto Dstny) in Luxembourg.
Van der Poel now leads the overall classification into the 155km stage 2 race from Junglinster to Schifflange on Thursday.
His performance bodes well for his prospects in defending his road race world title at the upcoming UCI Road World Championships at the end of the month in Zurich.
"It's always nice to win the first stage and it's been a while since I could raise my hands," Van der Poel said. "I enjoyed today. It was a beautiful stage and I look forward to the next stages of the race."
How it Unfolded
The peloton tackled 158km during the opening stage of the Tour de Luxembourg which included four categorised climbs: Montee de Niklosbierg (4.6% at 6.1%), Cote de Bourscheid (3.4km at 7%), Cote de Eschdorf (2.5km at 8.6%) and the final climb over the Cote de Stafelter (1.8km %8.6%) located 10km from the finish line.
In the first 30km of the stage, a four-rider breakaway set off, including Pepijn Reinderink (Soudal-QuickStep), Vincent Van Hemelen (Flanders-Baloise), Mattia Bais (Polti Kometa), and Alexandre Kess (Philippe Wagner/Bazin).
The quartet extended their lead to more than six minutes as the race reached the halfway point, while UAE Team Emirates, Visma-Lease a Bike, and Lidl-Trek led the chase from the peloton behind.
The breakaway split apart after the back-to-back hors category climbs; Cote de Bourscheid and Cote de Eschdorf, reduced to just three riders as Van Hemelen fell off pace.
Kess was the next to drop off the back of the break, briefly caught between the leaders on the field and the peloton, which had slashed the gap in half to just over three minutes 30km to go.
As Alpecin-Deceuninck, Bahrain-Victorious and Lidl-Trek joined the chase that led the field, they reeled in Kess and cut the gap to Reinderink and Bais down to two minutes on the flatter roads heading toward the last climb of the day, Cote de Stafelter.
The field ate into the gap, down to one minute, as they raced into the base of Cote de Stafelter. The duo looked over their shoulders near the top of the climb to see the main field looming just 10 seconds back. Bais was reeled in first followed by Reinderink, and the reduced field was back together over the top of the climb and on the descent back into Luxembourg.
Lidl-Trek and Lotto Dstny led the field into the final 2km with Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) pulling into the final kilometre as the roads kicked up toward the finish line. Visma-Lease a Bike took over on the final climb with Wilco Kelderman leading out his teammates in the last 500 metres.
But it was Van der Poel who launched his sprint first and opened a gap on his rivals, crossing the line with his first victory since he won back-to-back Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix this spring.
Kirsten Frattini is the Deputy Editor of Cyclingnews, overseeing the global racing content plan.
Kirsten has a background in Kinesiology and Health Science. She has been involved in cycling from the community and grassroots level to professional cycling's biggest races, reporting on the WorldTour, Spring Classics, Tours de France, World Championships and Olympic Games.
She began her sports journalism career with Cyclingnews as a North American Correspondent in 2006. In 2018, Kirsten became Women's Editor – overseeing the content strategy, race coverage and growth of women's professional cycling – before becoming Deputy Editor in 2023.
