Linus Gerdemann took the first 2015 victory for Cult Pro Cycling when the German emerged as the strongest in the hilly second stage of the Tour de Luxembourg. Together with Marc De Maar (Roompot) he attacked on the hilly finishing circuit and managed to hold of an 11-rider chasing group before beating his Dutch companion in a sprint to take both the stage victory and the leader’s jersey.

In 2011, Linus Gerdemann won the Tour de Luxembourg overall and so proved that he still had the skills to win one-week stage races. However, he didn’t get many chances to ride for himself on the Leopard-Trek and the Radioshack teams and less than two years later he had to put his career temporarily on hold when no one wanted to sign the rider who was once regarded as the biggest German talent.

Last year he returned to the professional scene with the MTN-Qhubeka team but his comeback season was no big success. Apart from a stage win in the Tour d’Azerbaijan, he didn’t achieve any remarkable results and the season ended on a bad not as his team didn’t select him for the Vuelta.

For this season, he was signed as one of the leaders of the Cult team which had moved up to pro continental level. However, both he and the other stars in the team have had a hard time in the first part of the season and until today they had not taken a single win.

However, Gerdemann has now broken the drought and again it was the Tour de Luxembourg that turned out to be a happy hunting ground for him. In the hilly second stage to Walferdange, he turned out to be the strongest on a course that turned out to be too hard for race leader André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) who was dropped on the finishing circuit.

This opened the door for riders to attack and Gerdemann joined forces with Marc De Maar to bridge across to Fabio Duarte (Colombia) and Stijn Steels (Topsport) who were the two survivors from an early break. Those two were dropped on the final climb with less than 15km to go but De Maar and Gerdemann worked excellently together and didn’t seem to fade despite the loss of firepower in the break.

Behind them, an 11-rider chase group had formed but they were still 27 seconds behind the front duo when they entered the final 5km. That proved to be an insurmountable gap and in the end it was Gerdemann who was fastest in the 2-rider sprint. Jelle Wallays (Topsport Vlaanderen) won the sprint for third.

Greipel had been dropped with more than 20km to go and so Gerdemann also took the leader’s jersey. He will try to defend it in tomorrow’s third stage which is even harder than today’s. After a hilly first half with five climbs, the riders will tackle another steep ascent before they get to the 15.9km finishing circuit which will be tackled twice. It includes another tough climb before the riders descent to a slightly uphill finish.

A hilly stage

After the opening sprint stage, the terrain got hillier on stage 2 which brought the riders over 186.3km from Ell to Walferdange. After an easier first half with just three climbs, they went up another climb before they got to the 37.8km finishing circuit that includes a total of three categorized climbs. Doing most of a full lap, the riders tackled two of those before they crossed the finish line and ended the stage by doing a complete lap. The final climb summited with 10.5km to go, meaning that both attackers and strong sprinters would have a chance to shine.

It was another beautiful sunny day when the riders gathered for the start of stage 2. They held one minute of silence to commemorate a Luxembourg policewoman who died yesterday.

The break is formed

When the racing got underway, it was another fast start with lots of attacks. The first rider to try his hand was Edward Theuns (Topsport) but he was quickly brought back.

The next promising move was launched by Boris Vallee (Lotto Soudal), Maurits Lammertink (Roompot), and Loic Pestiaux (Wallonie) but they had no luck eithers. Instead it was Fabio Duarte (Colombia) who used a small lull to get clear before he was joined by Stijn Steels (Topsport), Johnny Hoogerland (Roompot) and Pestiaux.

KOM points for Duarte

The peloton was content with the situation and allowed the gap to go out to 34 seconds after 18km of racing. Just 5km later, it had gone out to 3 minutes before Steels won the first intermediate sprint.

At the 30km mark, the gap was already five minutes and the peloton was still not chasing hard. Meanwhile, Duarte launched a small attack to win the first KOM sprint before he again waited for his companions.

A big gap

At the top of the climb, the gap had gone out to 6.05 and moments later Duarte continued his KOM campaign by winning the second sprint ahead of Hoogerland and Steels. At the 50km mark, the gap was 7 minutes and so there was no panic when Steels had to chase back from a puncture.

The gap reached 7.38 after 60km of racing before the peloton started to control the situation a bit better, keeping the gap around 7 minutes for a while. However, it had gone out to a massive 8.16 when Duarte beat Steels, Pestiaux and Hoogerland in the third KOM sprint.

The chase gets organized

As the escapees went through the feed zone, they still had an advantage of 7.44 but the chase had not really started. Wanty and Lotto Soudal were sharing the pace-setting but as they passed the 100km mark they finally ypped the pace.

Duarte won the fourth KOM sprint where the peloton was riding a lot faster. Having brought the gap down to 6.40, they started to send the first riders out the back door in the hilly terrain.

The break splits up

Pestiaux was dropped from the break on the fifth climb of the day before Duarte crossed the line in first position to get closer to the virtual lead in the KOM classification. At this point, the gap was still 6 minutes while Pestiaux had already lost 2 minutes.

Cofidis were now also working in the peloton and this prompted Steels to up the pace. As they went up the sixth climb, Hoogerland was dropped before Duarte again took maximum points in the sprint.

Greipel is dropped

The terrain was now taking its toll in the peloton as Pestiaux went straight through the bunch while Adrien Petit (Cofidis) who was sitting in second overall, was also distanced. The faster pace had brought the gap down to 4.25 at the 138km mark where Hoogerland had lost 2.38.

Steels and Duarte started the finishing circuit with an advantage of 3.35 before the Colombian again scored maximum points in a KOM sprint as he distanced Steels. At the same time, Greipel was suffering and the German had to let the peloton go.

More points for Duarte

Steels managed to rejoin Duarte who still had an advantage of 2.45 with 30km to go. Meanwhile, the peloton had split in two after Christian Mager (Cult) briefly had tried to attack.

6 chasers briefly managed to get clear but as the peloton was in full pursuit, they were quickly brought back. However, they had a hard time catching the front duo who were still 2.05 ahead when Duarte won the next KOM sprint.

Gerdemann and De Maar bridge the gap

Here Linus Gerdemann (Cult) and Marc De Maar (Roompot) took off in pursuit and they managed to bridge the gap to make it a front quartet. Four riders were 45 seconds behind as they entered the final 20km while the peloton was at 2 minutes.

On the final climb, Gerdemann and De Maar dropped Duarte and Steels and it was the German who won the KOM sprint. Further back, an 11-rider chase group had gathered but they had a hard time catching the two leaders who had an advantage of 27 seconds with 5km to go. In the end, it came down to a 2-rider sprint and here Gerdemann turned out to be the fastest.