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Whereas Frank Schleck brought to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg a stage victory in the Tour de France, 40 years after Edy Schutz, the ACC Contern had in 2006 the disillusion to cancel its after-Tour critérium, the
Gala Tour de France. Indeed, a more than tight budget combined to the revelations related to the Spanish anti-doping operations on the days before the Tour de France and the hostile climate in cycling milieu enhanced the organizers to withdraw the race from the calendar. A decision that we certainly regretted while following the exploits of Schleck the elder on the slopes of Alpe d'Huez or of Schleck the younger in the Tour of Saxony. A new edition of the Gala is right now programmed in August 2007. The other organizations of the ACC Contern in 2006 have all been nice successes, especially as the sun was out at most of them.
In 2006, the ACC Contern decided to catch up with the tradition of a "cycling-weekend" spread out over two racing days and after our usual trip to the world cyclo-cross championships in January, appointment was given on April 29 and 30 for the Grand-prix François Faber and the Grand-prix Ostfenster. In collaboration with the Kim Kirchen fan-club, willing to promote
cycling among the young people of their municipality, the bicycle-club of Contern organized the
82nd Grand-prix François Faber in Niederanven, together with an event for young riders and the possibility for all cycling-fans to head out for a training ride together with Kim Kirchen. About sixty children between 6 and 10 years of age participated to their event on a course in the forest, before the 119 riders of the Grand-prix François Faber lined up for 100 km on a selective course. The race was tarnished by a crash in the third out of five
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laps with one rider severly injured, but on the sporting level, it was a huge success. In spite of the presence of some of the best Swiss espoirs and of the former professional Julien Laidoun, the riders from the continental team of Differdange imposed their law, while the good surprises came from the young Luxembourger Ben Gastauer and the national champion Daniel Bintz. From the beginning, the race started quickly and the group was divided into two parts. Twelve contestants settled at the head of the race in the second lap and would stay there until the end: the riders from Differdange Knudsen, Johansson, Dressler and Forner, the Swiss Beuret and Sala, the French Laidoun and Drujon, the Belgians Mars and Rouet as well as the riders from Schifflange and Tétange, Gastauer and Bintz. In the penultimate lap, Morten Knudsen, who made a very big impression, accelerated in the climb of Bourglinster and only Ben Gastauer managed to follow the Dane. Fearing a possible return of the other riders from Differdange, Gastauer made most of the work at the head of the race and then was dropped by Knudsen in the last ascent of Bourglinster. Morten Knudsen reached the finish next to the football ground of Hostert for a solo victory and took the 82nd Grand-prix François Faber with 22 seconds of advance on Gastauer and 41 on his Swedish team-mate Johansson. Daniel Bintz took 10th place and finished second Luxemburgish rider.
The following day took place the traditional
Grand-prix Ostfenster, 15th of the name, and the CC Cambray as well as many Belgian riders came to
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Berbourg in order to challenge the team of Differdange with defending champion Vincenzo Centrone
Like usually, the race started very early on the difficult circuit around Berbourg and 11 riders broke away in the first climb of the côte de Wecker already: from Differdange Centrone, Johansson, Kristensen and Reuter, from Cambrai Krushevskiy and Baele, from the Swiss team MegaBike Ackermann and Tapparel as well as Laurent Fontaine (VC Ardennes), Steve Fries (UC Dippach) and Daniel Bintz (LC Tétange).
For the second day in a row, the national champion was in the good break. The major team were represented in the lead and the peloton was already at 2 minutes after two laps. Whereas the young Swiss did much work in the first group, the first rain drops started to fall down on the riders, soon replaced by true cloudburst which flooded on the race. Serguey Krushevsky increased the speed in the fifth lap and after his acceleration, the leaders were reduced to 7: the four riders from Differdange plus Krushevskiy, Ackermann and Tapparel. A new acceleration of the Uzbekian left only two riders in the lead, himself and Frederik Johansson, with two minutes of advance on the next chasers. Krushevskiy was definitely the strongest and he took advantage of a moment of inattention from Johansson in the penultimate lap to fly away to victory in a race he had already animated the previous year. The rider from CC Cambray crossed the finishing line with one minute and a half of advance on Johansson and more than four minutes on the third, Sylvère Ackermann. In absence of Ben Gastauer, the previous winner Vincenzo Centrone finished first Luxemburgish rider in 9th position. Only 24 of 101 starters also finished the race under pouring rain and cold temperatures.
Before the Charly Gaul Tour which was held on September in Luxembourg, the ACC Contern organized in collaboration with Voyages Emile Weber a bus trip to the Gran Fondo Charly Gaul / Trento-Monte Bondone.
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This cyclo-sport event was organized by the Tourist office of Trento to honour the 50th anniversary of the legendary victory of Charly Gaul in a stage of the Giro 1956 with arrival on top of the Monte Bondone. The course of the race headed to Passo Manghen before leading back to the Monte Bondone and finishing after another 21 kilometers of climbing in Vason, on the place of the arrival of the mythical stage 50 years ago. Forty brave riders and their supporters took part in the four day trip to Italy and were surprised by the good physical condition of the participants, led by Gilberto Simoni who promoted the race. Matteo Podesta, the winner, carried out 149 mountainous kilometers with the exceptional average speed of 27 km/h whereas the best Luxembourgers also had strong performances with Jean-Paul Welter and Olivier Laterza in 22nd respectively 23rd place. Norbert Simon finished 10th of the small Gran Fondo including "only" the climb of the Monte Bondone itself, which had been renamed in "Salita Charly Gaul" in 2005.
Another somewhat unusual event has been organized by the ACC Contern at the beginning of September in Wormeldange. At the
request of the Luxemburgish Federation of bakers and confectioners as well as the Federation of pastry-cookers
the ACC Contern indeed took in hand the technical organization of the
21st World Championships of the bakers, pastrycooks and confectioners
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A little more than one hundred participants showed up from different parts of the world to battle out the world titles in 7 categories. Whereas the Japanese rider owned the reward for the contestant who had carried out the longest way in order to come to Luxembourg, Germany took the biggest part of the cake with 4 world titles: Erwin Pöllet, Stiefling Horst, Hubert Kollascheck and André Kahrger. Belgium ensured itself two rainbow-shirts with Dirk Raman and Gerard Hophra, whereas the Swiss woman Marlène Stamm, like the other winners, owned her weigth in chocolate at the end of the female race where Luxembourgish Danielle Krier also managed to grab a podium place. Under the bright sun of Wormeldange, the moods were good and if the sporting performances on the selective circuit around Dreiborn and Oberdonven were of very high quality (37,5 km/h of average speed for the winner of the queen category André Kahrger), the most important was undoubtedly the human contacts on this day organized after an initative of the brothers Christian and Henri Schumacher.
One week later took place the cyclo-sport event
La 17ème Charly Gaul in Contern with a new partner for ACC Contern: RIVELLA drinks indeed contributed in an important way to the improvement of the infrastructures, particularly at the start and finish and in the feeding zones. It was the first "La Charly Gaul" since his death in December 2005 and
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the great champion was in all the minds on this particular Sunday that was much sunnier than predicted in all the forecasts. Maybe these forecast were at the origin of the decrease of the number of participants since 809 competitors lined up, i.e. one hundred less than the previous year. The courses avoided this year the Moselle valley and the East of the country and headed directly towards the North, tackling some classic climbs in Luxemburgish cycling such as the "Groesteen" or the "Beeforter".
And it was in these two climbs that the peloton splitted up since 19 of the 304 category A riders found themselves in the leading break after Beaufort and should battle out the victory among them. Didier Wegner approached the last climb within two kilometers of the finish with a considerable lead, but after about thirty kilometers of solo break, the Belgian was tired and exploded in this wall with up to 13 % of maximum slope. He was overtaken by several other competitors, led by Damien Richard. But the Luxembourger Philippe Herman mangaged to hold the wheel of the Frenchman and beat him in the sprint for the victory. Pascal Triebel took the third place after 169 kilometers with 1900 meters of difference in altitude, whereas Sione Jongstra was the best lady for the second consecutive year. Edy Carier, winner of the very first Charly Gaul in 1990, took the victory in the category men of more than 60 years. 505 competitors took the start of the B-race over 109 kilometers and with some climbs less than the big sister. The beginning of the race was rather calm and a hundred men were still together at the foot of the biggest climb, just before Beaufort. Among the strongest competitors were Pierre-Paul Gruen and Sebastian Kokolshka, but also Jeam-Michel Thimister and Peter Schroen, the winner of the previous year. The two last ones are friends since a long time and they broke clear together and joined the finish line in Contern with more than 2 minutes of advantage on the next chasers. The podium was completely Belgian in the end since Thimister won in front of Schroen, whereas Vincent Melon succeeded in getting rid of Pierre-Paul Gruen in the Bärbelskraiz climb for the third place. Monique Lucovicy was the best women in this race.
Like the previous year, the Grand-prix de la Commune de Contern
in cyclo-cross profited from splendid weather in October and the absence of a real big favourite promised spectacular racing with suspense until the end.
Among the strongest on the traditional course around the rue de Moutfort in Contern were the Czechs, but also the Belgians with the National Amateur Champion David Willemssens, a man who regularly finishes in top-ten spots in the big races troughout the winter. But under the eyes of Frank and Andy Schleck, the Belgian knew a very bad start and had to chase hard for several laps. Willemssens didn't abdicate and after three laps, he had chased down Hekele and Chrobak, the fastest starters. Ondrej Lukes had not missed the Willemssens train and thus after three laps, the four men formed the head of the race, with another quator chasing shortly behind: De Kort, Chicosz, Meys, Kaiser. Suspense remained until the end even if the Belgian champ accelerated in the penultimate lap and took the lead alone. But Jan Chrobak remained closely behind and even managed to come back into the wheel of the leader on the very last lap. But Willemssens was fresher and held off Chrobak in the last meters to take the victory with a few seconds of advantage. Emile Hekele and Ondrej Lukes on the next positions confirmed the good performances of the Czechs, while an ill Gusty Bausch finished only 12th but nevertheless best Luxmebourger. In the young categories, the race was also very close and Hammer, Dias Dos Santos, Hutmacher and Rauber only splitted up in the last lap, during which the German Josef Rauber left his Luxembourg competitors behind. In the beginner category, Gabriel Forget dominated the race and took the victory without any problems.
Looking back at 2006 (part I)
Looking back at 2006 (part II)
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