Trek Factory Racing’s Bob Jungels added the road title to the time trial he won this past Thursday to take home the sweet double in the Luxembourg National Championships on Sunday.

 

“This feels really good!” said an elated Jungels. “It’s always nice to race at home and then to take both jerseys is always special. And now to take them to the Tour [de France] is overwhelming. It’s always nice to have it and then to show it in the Tour is really big.”

 

Jungels, 22, came into this year’s time trial and road Championships sporting top form as he prepares for his first Tour de France next Sunday, and he won both the time trial and road events convincingly.

 

A road race is usually a more difficult race to capture, but Sunday’s contest unfolded flawlessly for Jungels, and in the end it was the strongest man that won.

 

Jungels explained, “We knew we had to make a hard race so it did not come to a sprint. So Ben Gastauer (Ag2R-La Mondiale) attacked from the start line, so straight away we went full gas up a small climb and at the top we were only four guys left and we did the whole race with the four of us.

 

“After that is was an elimination race, which suited me. We lost one guy with 60kms to go, and then another we could see was struggling on the climbs each lap and so in the end it came down to Gaustauer and me.”

 

Jungels eventually shed Gastauer to solo into the Luxembourg Champion’s jersey by almost a minute.   Gastauer held on for second and Pit Schlechter (Leopard Development) rounded out the podium.

 

Jungels was double Luxembourg National Champion in his first elite nationals in 2013 before ceding the titles to his Trek Factory Racing teammates last year.

 

The pressure was on this year to keep the National jerseys in the team, and with Fränk Schleck sidelined by a knee injury and Andy Schleck now retired, the onus was to Bob Jungels and Laurent Didier to bring home both titles.

 

Jungels rose to the occasion, winning both the time trial and road championships, and when asked how this time around compares to 2013 he answered, “In 2013, it was my first year professional so that was really special for me, but I think this year I was the favorite, a lot of people expected it, and that is not always easy because you have a lot of riders against you.  And now this year I get to wear the jersey in the Tour, and that is really, really special.”