When stage three of Tour de Luxembourg finally got underway, the riders knew the stage would be a wet one, but Dylan Teuns showed his spirit and pressed on regardless of the extreme weather. He climbed to third on the stage, moving him to third place overall with two days of racing left.
The queen stage of the Tour de Luxembourg was always going to be tough, as with a long time trial coming the next day, the climbers and puncheurs had the opportunity to gap the time trial specialists in the overall classification. This meant that from the first climb, the pace was very high. Once the day’s breakaway was caught, EF – Education First’s Ben Healy led a solo attack on the peloton. On the final categorised climb of the day, Marc Hirschi (UAE) attacked, but Teuns saw his opportunity and went with him. Despite chasing hard together, Teuns and Hirschi were unable to catch Healy, who took the win. At 75 meters to go, Hirschi attacked, and Teuns could not quite catch him, and settled for third on the day.
“It was a super hard stage because of the weather, it was very extreme again with a lot of rain, and the climb on the circuit was really hard,” Teuns explained. “It was just a matter of picking the right moment to follow the right attack. When I was able to, we still had to chase Healy, and we couldn’t quite catch him.” Having climbed to third on the day, Teuns has moved up to third overall on the general classification, but knows he has more to give. “In the end third is good, and there’s still two days ahead to get a good place on GC, so we will see how the next days go.”
Sports Director Oscar Guerrero was pleased with Dylan’s performance and determination, and happy with how the team reacted to the tricky stage.
“The race went well for us, with a small break, and giving the responsibility to other teams. The idea was to attack on the last two ascents of the climb, but we didn’t have the legs because of the hard pace and the weather. We waited for the last time, and at the top, Dylan attacked with Hirschi and they got a small gap. They were following Healy who was in front by thirty seconds, but they couldn’t get to him. He finished 18 seconds ahead of Dylan, and 46 seconds of the main group. I’m very happy with the performance of the team again today. We had good spirit, and I’m happy with Dylan, as he fought until the last meter to win the stage. He showed that is getting better and better in every race. Now he is third on the GC, but we still have two days ahead to keep fighting for the best GC, and the last stage.”
Tomorrow’s stage sees the riders take on a 24 kilometer time trial, where the overall victor of the Tour de Luxembourg could be decided.
