Le Tour de Luxembourg

It may be a small thing to most in the cycling community, but to have world class cyclists fly down my street in the final stage of the Tour de Luxembourg was quite the thrill. Because we are always home-town fans, Jeni and I support the Radioshack-Leopard-Trek team. The owner is Luxembourgish, and of course Fränk and Andy Schleck currently race for the squad. Unfortunately neither Fränk nor Andy were in this year's tour, but, nonetheless, it was a good race for Radioshack-Leopard-Trek and for Luxembourg!

The 2013 Tour de Luxembourg consisted of four stages throughout the Grand Duchy as well as a Prologue Time Trial through the city center. Unless the city hosts a Grand Prix this may be the fastest anyone will ever navigate the streets of our lovely Ville. After the prologue the riders lined up from best time to 'worst' time, and then set off from the center of town at the Place Guillaume II. They really just went around the corner to their buses and were driven to the official starting point just outside the city limits :)

Befitting a race in Luxembourg, the skies were nice and overcast for the start at Place Guillaume.

On your marks...

...get set...

...and GO! It really was an anticlimactic start to the race, but that dude in yellow, Jimmy Engoulvent of France, was the winner of the Time Trail.

So there I was at the beginning of the race. I was so close to the riders as they came through, I thought my camera might knock into them as they passed.

Bob Jungels - a Luxembourgish rider for Radioshack-Leopard-Trek (RLT) - heading for the start.

The boys from the hometown squad of RLT did very well, indeed. Giacomo Nizzolo (ITA) won the second and third stages and Bob Jungels (LUX) won the fourth. Bob's win on the last stage had him momentarily in second place overall, but he was docked 10 seconds for breaking some arcane cycling rule.(?) Here's the quote from the official website;

"The initial complaint of Jungels receiving a track-style hand sling from teammate Danilo Hondo was awarded a 10-second time penalty as well as 200 euro fine, but he was allowed to keep the stage win.  The time penalty took Jungels out of the white jersey as best young rider and off the final podium."

The winner of the 2013 Tour de Luxembourg with the best cumulative time was German rider, Paul Martens of team Blanco Pro. I just read that his bike was stolen when he went up to the podium to receive his trophy! My what a crooked town we live in! HaHa! 

Now, to set the stage here is a picture of the front of our apartment building.

...and here is Bob Jungels racing by on the final lap of the race through the Ville.

Yep, that's our trash in that bin!

How Exciting for us!!

Finally, here is a brief video I took. I believe this was lap two of five. Please ignore the rube at 52 seconds...please.