Mathias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) claimed a hard-fought victory on stage 3 of the Tour de Luxembourg, out-climbing Jordan Jegat (Totalenergies) and Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates XRG) in Vianden.
The hilly circuits and a finish at the town's castle blew the general classification apart, with only a dozen riders at the head of affairs on the uphill finish.
Overnight leader Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) lost contact with the leaders on the steep climb of the Montée de Niklosbierg and tumbled out of the top 10, with Skjelmose assuming the race lead.
The Dane leads Jegat by four seconds thanks to the time bonus, with McNulty third at eight seconds thanks to a two-second gap between the top two finishers.
"It was a difficult final. Everyone knows if you attack early you have the motorbike. Marc [Hirschi] was really strong and it was difficult to catch him back. Luckily, Brandon [McNulty] started his sprint early and I could overtake him at the last moment," Skjelmose said.
How it unfolded
The sun was out again for the third stage of the Tour of Luxembourg, but there was an ominous feeling in the air as the riders faced a 170.5km stage from Mertert to Vianden that included three closing circuits, each with an ascent of the Montée de Niklosbierg (2.8km at 9.3%).
The peloton was content to let an early breakaway go quickly and open up a large gap of six minutes in the first hour of racing.
The move included Simon Guglielmi (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Thomas Gachignard (TotalEnergies), Ådne Holter (Uno-X Mobility), Silvan Dillier (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Henri-François Renard-Haquin and Victor Papon (Wagner Bazin WB), and Joshua Gudnitz (Team ColoQuick).
They made it past the first ascent of the Montée de Niklosbierg with two minutes still in hand, but Papon, Gudnitz and Dillier struggled on the steep slopes and had to let go.
Behind, the peloton also came apart, first because of a crash on the approach to the climb and then under pressure from an attack by Søren Kragh Andersen (Lidl-Trek). He drew away a group of 15 riders, including Dillier and Papon, who latched on as the group came past.
More riders bridged across to the first chasing group after the second ascent of the Niklosbierg, and the gap to the breakaway continued to come down as Renard-Haquin led over the top.
The pressure continued to come from the chasing group, and as the breakaway struggled to hold a gap, Holter was dropped and caught by the favourites behind.
As they reached the foot of the Niklosbierg for the final time, Gachignard attacked but was caught by the chasing group along with the rest of his breakaway companions.
UAE Team Emirates XRG, with five riders in the group, kept pushing the pace, leaving race leader Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) fighting off the back of the ever-shrinking group.
Only nine riders were left in the lead: Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), Mattias Skjelmose and Toms Skujins (Lidl-Trek), Brandon McNulty and Rafał Majka (UAE Team Emirates XRG), Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies), and Marco Brenner and Mathys Rondel (Tudor Pro Cycling).
They were chased closely by McNulty's teammate, Jhonatan Narvaez, and Tudor's Marc Hirschi.
An attack from Brenner and then from Skjelmose briefly split the lead group, with Majka dropped, but McNulty sat up and let his teammate rejoin. Majka immediately went to work, pushing the pace to keep more riders from coming back.
It didn't prevent Hirschi, Narváez and Urko Berrade (Kern Pharma) from coming back, however.
Hirschi immediately launched an attack with 6.5km to go, forcing UAE to burn some matches, and with his teammates to slow the chase, Hirschi came into the final 2km with a seven-second lead.
On the long, cobbled, uphill drag to the finish, Hirschi fought with a few seconds as McNulty accelerated with 400m to go, but it wasn’t the American who came past; it was Skjelmose and then Jegat.
Results
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