Trentin storms to victory in Luxembourg as Hirschi triumphs in Toscana

Matteo Trentin took full advantage of a perfectly executed team lead-out today with an impressive victory on stage 2 of the Tour of Luxembourg.

A group of 8 riders formed the days breakaway on the 163km around Junlinster, though they would be picked up by the UAE Team Emirates lead peloton with inside the final 10km to go.

The final climb of the day with a maximum of 16% at 1km long came at the 7km mark , though UAE would hold strong and bring back any last minute attacks through Rafal Majka.

Rui Oliveira launched the sprint forcing the Quickstep Alpha Vinyl train to react with Trentin able to power past , beating Frenchman Florian Senechal on the downhill sprint to the line for his second win of the season.

Trentin: “It was a really nice final with a small climb and fast run through the city. We planned to do the climb with a hard but steady tempo with Majka and then focus on the leadout with Suter, Oliveira and our stagiaire Kluckers. The guys made a really good leadout and we forced Quickstep to go early and so we were able to come around in the last metres. The time-trial should decide the final GC but we’re focused day by day and making another good stage tomorrow.”

The third stage, from Rosport to Diekirch (188.4km) will be another day of rolling terrain.

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Meanwhile at the Giro Della Toscana Marc Hirschi rode a clever race to beat his breakaway companions to take a win upon return to racing in Italy.

The Swiss rider escaped in an elite move of 4 riders on the final decisive climb of the race which came just inside the last 40km to the line. The four were chasing lone leader Dani Martinez (Ineos-Grenadiers) who went clear over the last climb though with cooperation in the group behind would see the gap grow to no more than 30’’ on the chasers.

There was a game of cat and mouse in the finale as the breakaway looked at each other though Hirschi would prove the quickest as he made his move to outpace Diego Rota (Wanty-Intermarche) and Martinez who rounded out the podium behind.

 
Hirschi : “ It was a beautiful race and the perfect way to comeback to racing. In the climb I suffered a lot and couldn’t follow Martinez but we knew that in the last 20km we could work together and claw him back so we did that. I had good legs for the sprint and knew I could be the fastest so to cross the line first was a huge satisfaction. I’m looking forward to the next few days racing here in Italy.”

 
Tour of Luxembourg Stage 2 results

1. Matteo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates) 3:51:51
2.Florian Senechel (Quickstep Alpha Vinyl) s.t
3.Davide Ballerini (Quickstep Alpha Vinyl) s.t
10.Rui Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates) s.t

Tour of Luxembourg General Classification after stage 2

1. Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) 7:52:06
2. Sjoerd Bax (QuickStep-Alpha Vinyl) +7 ”
3. Matteo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates) +8 “

 
Giro Della Toscana Results

1.Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) 4:53:30
2.Diego Rota (Intermarche-Wanty) s.t
3.Dani Martinez (Ineos-Grenadiers) s.t