Alexander Porsev proved that Alexander Kristoff is not the only Katusha sprinter when he beat Gerald Ciolek (MTN-Qhubeka) to take the win in the first stage of the Tour of Luxembourg less than 24 hours after his Norwegian teammate's victory in the Tour de Suisse. On a rainy day, Jimmy Engoulvent (Sojasun) finished safely in the bunch to defend his lead in the overall classification.

Alexander Kristoff may be the high-profile sprinter in the Katusha team but he is certainly not the only rider with a fast finish in the Russian squad. Less than 24 hours after Kristoff's win in the Tour de Suisse, Alexander Porsev proved that he is one of those when he narrowly held off Gerald Ciolek to win the first stage of the Tour of Luxembourg.

The stage was off to a fast start as numerous riders wanted to join the early move. The first to try his hand was Jay Thomson (MTN-Qhubeka) but the South African champion was quickly reeled in.

However, Thomson did not want to give up and when the right move went clear after more than 20km of racing, he was one of two riders to be successful. The other was Duber Quintero (Colombia) and at the 25km mark, the duo was already 2.45 ahead.

For a long time Staf Scheirlinckx (Accent.jobs) tried to bridge the gap but the Belgian never managed to accomplish his mission. Instead he fell back into the peloton which was controlled by the Sojasun team of race leader Jimmy Engoulvent.

With 125km to go, it started to rain and in general it was a miserable day in Luxembourg. The peloton had now stabilized the gap at around 5 minutes while Quintero picked up enough KOM points to take the early lead in the mountains classification.

The peloton now started to chase, thus bringing the gap down to 3.10, and so Thomson decided to go off on his own. He left Quintero behind and managed to extend his advantage back up to 4 minutes while the Colombian was picked up and later dropped from the peloton.

The Blanco team had ambitions for Moreno Hofland in a sprint and so they started to chase hard. At the same time, there was a strong wind which caused nervousness in the peloton. The rapid pace saw Thomson getting caught with 33km still to race.

Tim De Troyer (Accent.jobs) and Christian Helmig (Differdange) both tried solo attacks in the final part of the race but got nowhere. Instead, Katusha,  Vini Fantini, Vacansoleil and Euskaltel fought hard for control inside the final kilometers of the stage as they wanted to set up their sprinters Porsev, Andriato, Van Poppel and Lobato respectively.

In the end, it was Katusha which came out triumphant as the Russian team delivered Porsev to a win. Ciolek finished 2nd while Lobato had to be content with 3rd.

Engoulvent finished safely in the bunch to defend his lead. He will get a tough ask in tomorrow's second stage which finishes with a two laps on a tough circuit containing a hard climb.

Result:

1. Alexander Porsev 4.40.50

2. Gerald Ciolek

3. Juan Jose Lobato

4. Yauheni Hutarovich

5. Matteo Pelucchi

6. Danny Van Poppel

7. Edwin Avila

8. Rafael Andriato

9. Jean-Pierre Drucker

10. Moreno Hofland

General classification:

1. Jimmy Engoulvent 4.44.32

2. Danny Van Poppel +0.01

3. Jonathan Hivert

4. Jean-Pierre Drucker +0.02

5. Mathias Brändle +0.03

6. Paul Martens +0.04

7. Damien Gaudin +0.06

8. Bob Jungels +0.07

9. Remi Cusin

10. Marco Marcato

Points classification:

1. Alexander Porsev 20

2. Gerald Ciolek 16

3. Juan Jose Lobato 13

4. Yauheni Hutarovich 11

5. Matteo Pelucchi 9

Mountains classification:

1. Duber Quintero 21

2. Jay Thomson 18

3. Sacha Weber 6

4. Evaldas Siskevicius 2

5. Jean-Lou Paiani 2

Youth classification:

1. Danny Van Poppel 4.44.33

2. Matthias Brändle +0.02

3. Bob Jungel +0.06

4. Moreno Hofland +0.07

5. Maxime Daniel +0.08

Teams classification:

1. Sojasun 14.13.45

2. IAM +0.11

3. Blanco

4. Vacansoleil +0.12

5. Accent.jobs +0.20