Skoda-Tour de Luxembourg 2014 (2.HC), 04.06 - 08.06

[Dazed and Confused]

Take Two. Tour de Schleck

Prologue - 4 June : Luxembourg ITT, 2.55 km

Stage 1, next day:

Stage 2:

Stage 3:

Stage 4:

Official site: http://www.aotdl.com/

Some of the riders involved:
1. Lotto Belisol (Greipel, Debusschere)
2. Trek Factory Racing (van Poppel, Rast)
3. Cofidis, Solutions Cr?dits (Petit, Garc?a)
4. Team Colombia (Chalapud, Torres)
5. Tinkoff-Saxo (M?rk?v, Breschel)
6. Leopard Development Team (Kirsch, Zangerle)
7. MTN - Qhubeka (Ciolek, Teklehaimanot)
8. Team Differdange - Losch (Coenen, Lampa)
9. RusVelo (Zakarin, Lagutin)
10. Wanty - Groupe Gobert (Leukemans, Drucker)
11. Neri Sottoli (Andriato, Taborre)
12. Wallonie - Bruxelles (Delfosse, Evrard)
13. Team St?lting (Herklotz, Politt)

Complete list: http://www.procyclingstats.com/race/Skoda_Tour_de_Luxembourg_2014-Startlist

A clip from the prologue last year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RDjWB5lgdc

 

[escartin]

seems that Jimmy is not riding so maybe the prologue will be wide open this year...

missing it in its entirely this time, for about the 3rd or 4th time in last 6 years. successfully planned to leave about 2 hours before it starts and return after it finishes . that said, all I would normally watch is the prologue and the final stage.

I am probably in that video somewhere . plus I did a half-marathon last weekend and on nearly every training run and ran up that cobbled climb in the prologue.

 

[Gloin22]

Herklotz can win this race.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Herklotz can win this race.

yea, not exactly an earth shattering field here.

 

[roundabout]

I see that murititus has finally reached the Grand Duchy as well

 

[Christian]

No Jimmy! That is sad. Another win and he would have gotten a free meatball sub.

Oddly weak field this year, I wonder why that is. Usually there are more WT teams. Differdange used to be the only CT, now there are three (though Leopard I understand).

Really hard to say who will win this. The prologue should already give a good indication of who has a shot. Trek also didn't send an overkill team like they have in the past, so that might make for a more open race.

Unfortunately I won't be able to go see a stage this year

 

[christopherrowe]

Anybody know of a way to follow this race live? Even a ticker?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

What's with the whole race being in the south of the country? The Col de l'Europe stage is fine, not sure about the Murito finish in Schifflange, and is there seriously nowhere like Diekirch, Ettelbr?ck or Vianden willing to host a finish? For shame.

This could be the most amazing short stage race, like an encapsulation of much of Classics season in five days. The parcours is usually pretty good, this one is I'm afraid a little disappointing. There's a semi-climber's stage and a Murito finish, but I always liked them having the semi-climber's stage in the south and the real Ardennes killer in the north-central part of the country, then the cool cobbled finish on the final day.

 

[Roude Leiw]

Anybody know of a way to follow this race live? Even a ticker?

Wort.lu usually had a ticker. Should remain the case as they still sponsor the race

 

[Modemfearer]

Oddly weak field this year, I wonder why that is. Usually there are more WT teams. Differdange used to be the only CT, now there are three (though Leopard I understand).

This year's field is so weak, because the Tour de Luxembourg interferes with the Dauphin?e (it usually does) and this year Tour de Mayence (where most French WT Teams are).

Problem has been identified and will be solved in next year's Race, as per the Organisator (see Tageblatt Article of 3/6/2014).

 

[christopherrowe]

Wort.lu usually had a ticker. Should remain the case as they still sponsor the race

Thanks so much. Looks like they're not starting until quite late in the day.

 

[escartin]

yeah, the prologue doesn't start til 7 normally.

horrible day here, cold and wet.
was just in the centre and spotted the first team buses arriving:

 

[manafana]

a good race to get close to the riders?

not a bad warm up for teams looking for something a bit easier building to the tour.

No Jungels is annoying national champion and a race he can do well in.

actually looks pretty open

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Prologue starts in a few minutes.

Ticker: http://www.wort.lu/de/sport/skodato...prolog-im-liveticker-538f4c9ab9b39887080309a7

Trying to find a clean start time list....

 

[christopherrowe]

Trying to find a clean start time list....

Could have sworn I saw one on that newspaper site earlier as an Excel file but now I don't see it anywhere.

Edit to add: Nah, I found what I'd seen and it's some wacky "slide show" of screen caps of a spreadsheet or something.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Could have sworn I saw one on that newspaper site earlier as an Excel file but now I don't see it anywhere.

Edit to add: Nah, I found what I'd seen and it's some wacky "slide show" of screen caps of a spreadsheet or something.

user friendly eh.

anyway Housebuilder with 4:25

 

[Christian]

Heavy rain now, and Herklotz with new best time

 

[christopherrowe]

Here are the final 25 to start. I make no guarantees about my spelling, particularly of surnames, as this is hastily typed in from a laser-printed screencap I had to use a magnifying glass to read (for I am old, old!).

As of this writing, the fastest posted time reported is still Sebastian Delfosse of the Walonnie - Bruxelles team with 04:34:06. He started fourth on the day, at 19:18 local time.

Speaking of which, the times listed are local to the Grand Duchy, of course.

20:34 | Diego Milan Jimienz | Team Differdange - Losch
20:35 | Joel Zangerle | Leopard Development Team
20:36 | Florent Mottet | Wallonie - Bruxelles
20:37 | Francesco Failli | Neri Sottoli
20:38 | Bjorn Leukemans | Wanty - Groupe Gobert
20:39 | Inur Zakarin | Rusvelo
20:40 | Andreas Stauff | MTN - Qhubeka
20:41 | Juan Patalo Valencia | Colombia
20:42 | Cyril Lemoine | Cofidis, Solutions Credits
20:43 | Danny Van Poppel | Trek Factory Racing
20:44 | Matti Breschel | Tinkoff - Saxo
20:45 | Jens Debusschere | Lotto Belisol
20:46 | Nils Politt | Team Stolting
20:47 | Johan Coenen | Team Differdange - Losch
20:48 | Alex Kirsch | Leopard Development Team
20:49 | Laurent Evrard | Wallonie - Bruxelles
20:50 | Fabio Taborre | Neri Sottoli
20:51 | Jean-Pierre Drucker | Wanty - Groupe Gobert
20:52 | Andrej Solomennikov | Rusvelo
20:53 | Daniel Teklehaimanot | MTN - Qhubeka
20:54 | Juan Esteban Arango Carvajal | Colombia
20:55 | Rudy Molard | Cofidis, Credit Solutions
20:56 | Frank Schleck | Trek Factory Racing
20:57 | Manuele Boaro | Tinkoff - Saxo
20:58 | Andre Geipel | Lotto Belisol

 

[christopherrowe]

Heavy rain now, and Herklotz with new best time

Oops, failed to see that. Sorry for the misinformation in the previous post.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

So Lotto got Greipel as last man....

 

[christopherrowe]

Sergey Lagutin should be starting just now, followed by Linus Gerdemann (I remember him!). This ticker is kind of maddening. Almost half the field should have started by now and they're posting training pictures.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

yea, pathetic information flow.

 

[christopherrowe]

yea, pathetic information flow.

They're making sure we're up to speed with the boys from Trek and Leopard, though!

Ah, Linus is in with 04:25:02.

I wonder if the winner can make four minutes, how fast would that be in the rain? (Well, obviously the same as it would be in the dry, but you know what I mean.)

 

[Mellow Velo]

So, none of the usual start/finish static cameras, this year?

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Ticker reports 150 spectators at the line. Sh!te weather, but thats not many.