Today at 12:30pm, the start of the 81st edition of the Škoda Tour LuXembourg will take place from the National Sports and Cultural Centre (La Coque). On the program for this first day of racing: a 140 km loop that will crisscross through the north of the capital. Before reaching the finish line which will be on Boulevard Konrad Adenauer at the level of the European school in Kirchberg; the riders will have enjoyed some beautiful climbs. These include four GPM: Niklosbierg (6.13%), Gralingen (6.13%), Côte de Bourscheid (7.57%) and the Côte de Stafelter (6.5%), the latter being less than 10km from the finish.

The punchers should use the final, slight uphill, to go for the stage victory. Twelve months ago, Diego Ulissi had dominated his competitors. As the Italian will not defend his title this year, his UAE squad will count on Marc Hirschi. The Swiss national, stage winner in the 2020 Tour de France and winner of the Flèche Wallonne, had a more complicated year despite finishing 6th in Liège-Bastogne-Liège and 6th at the European Championships. Hirschi’s astounding riding qualities, should allow him to play a leading role in this race.

This will also be true for the Spaniard Jesus Herrada (Cofidis), winner of the 2019 edition, the Frenchmen: David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Antony Turgis (TotalEnergies) and Benoît Cosnefroy (Ag2r-Citroën) as well as the Norwegian, Markus Hoelgaard (UnoX). Other favourites of the race include Vincenzo Nibali and Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), Bob Jungels and Ben O’Connor (Ag2r-Citroën), Edvald Boasson Hagen and Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies) , Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal), Joao Almeida (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Bryan Coquard (B&B Hotels), Esteban Chaves (BikeExchange) and Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic).  This is surely a race you don’t want to miss.Departure at 12:30pm from the Coque. Arrival between 3:42pm and 4:21pm on Boulevard Konrad Adenauer in Kirchberg.