Tour de Luxembourg 2023

Five-day stage race offers two uphill finishes, an individual time trial and plenty of scope for attacking racing in Luxembourg

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Tour de Luxembourg

Dates 20 Sept - 24 Sept
Race Length 709 kms
Race Category Elite Men

Overview

The Skoda Tour de Luxembourg is a five-day stage race that used to take place just a couple of weeks before the Tour de France, as a warm-up test before the main event, so to speak. Nowadays, the race has moved to a mid-September slot following the Vuelta a España, and has joined the UCI ProSeries calendar. In turn, it now serves as a last-ditch opportunity for many riders to secure a contract for the following season.

First raced all the way back in 1935, the Skoda Tour de Luxembourg has a long and illustrious history, and regularly attracts some of the world’s best riders. This year’s edition is no different, with 12 WorldTour teams, six ProTeams and two Continental outfits taking to the start line in Abbaye de Neumünster on Wednesday. Lidl-Trek will be back looking to retain their title with Mattias Skjelmose, but the Dane will of course face heavy competition from the likes of AG2R Citroën, Groupama-FDJ and UAE Team Emirates.

The race may take place in one of Europe’s smallest nations, but that doesn’t stop it from seeking out enough unique terrain for five action-packed stages. A lot of these stages crosscut each other, creating a route map that looks remarkably similar to a spider’s web.

The five-day event offers opportunities for just about every type of rider with a hilly day to kick off proceedings before a flatter Classics-style stage follows. A mountainous stage 3 is then followed by an individual time trial before stage 5 concludes in Luxembourg City.

With bonus seconds routinely deciding the outcome of the race it pays to be up there at the pointy end during each and every stage finish. Mattias Skjelmose, João Almeida, Diego Ulissi, Jesús Herrada and Andrea Pasqualon have won the last five editions of this race by doing exactly that; in fact, each one of these riders won at least one stage of this five-day race before going on to claim their overall titles.

Race key

Date: September 20-24, 2023

Country: Luxembourg

Category: 2.Pro

Editions: 82 (as of 2022)

First winner: Mathias Clemens

Most recent winner: Mattias Skjelmose

Route

Stage 1: Abbaye de Neumünster → Kirchberg (156.1km)

Stage 2: Mondorf-les-Bains → Mamer (183.1km)

Stage 3: Mertert → Vianden (169km)

Stage 4: Pétange → Pétange (ITT) (23.9km)

Stage 5: Mersch → Limpertsberg (176.2km)

Contenders

Leading the list of contenders will be Mattias Skjelmose of Lidl-Trek, given his status as the defending champion following last year’s victory over Kévin Vauquelin and Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), the latter of whom will also be on the start line again this year.

Both Skjelmose and Madouas are riders perfectly suited to the punchy hills of the Skoda Tour de Luxembourg, with neither being an out-and-out mountain goat over Europe’s longest mountains, but both being more than handy over the shorter, more explosive efforts. With this in mind, we can expect both to be in contention to repeat their podium finishes from last season.

Skjelmose may have the edge in the stage 4 time trial, having finished inside the top 10 of every ITT he has raced so far in 2023.

The Dane has taken another step forward so far this season, enjoying a fine spring Classics campaign both winning the Tour de Suisse and the Danish National Championship Road Race. His form has continued recently, finishing second at the Tour of Denmark and winning the Maryland Cycling Classic presented by UnitedHealthcare, before taking top 10 finishes in both of the Canadian Classics.

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As for Madouas, the French national champion won the Bretagne Classic in fantastic fashion at the start of the month and will have the benefit of multiple leaders within the Groupama-FDJ team. Alongside Madouas, the French squad can also count on the attacking prowess of David Gaudu and Thibaut Pinot - notably, this is Pinot’s final stage race as a professional before the curtain falls down on his career at Il Lombardia.

UAE Team Emirates and AG2R Citroën will both look to take the Skoda Tour de Luxembourg on the front foot, as well, with an array of attacking talent at their disposal.

The former have the in-form Marc Hirschi, fresh from his win at the Coppa Sabatini, America’s Brandon McNulty, and their 19-year-old talent, Jan Christen, who is looking for his first breakthrough performance in UAE Team Emirates colours. As for AG2R Citroën, their hopes will lie in Aurélien Paret-Peintre, Ben O’Connor and one of the sensations of 2023, Tour de France stage winner Felix Gall.

Elsewhere, Israel-Premier Tech are bringing the strongest ProTeam squad with Mike Woods, Dylan Teuns and Jakob Fuglsang, Soudal Quick-Step will be led by Julian Alaphilippe, Jumbo-Visma by Tiesj Benoot, Movistar by Alex Aranburu and Matteo Jorgenson, and EF Education-EasyPost are slated to be bringing Giro della Toscana runner-up, Richard Carapaz.

For the home nation, Bob Jungels (Bora-Hansgrohe) will carry the majority of the expectations, but an eye should also be kept on Tudor Pro Cycling’s Arthur Kluckers, who performed well in the National Championships in June.

Teams

AG2R Citroën
Alpecin-Deceuninck
Arkéa Samsic
Bora-Hansgrohe
Cofidis
EF Education-EasyPost
Groupama-FDJ
Jumbo-Visma
Lidl-Trek
Movistar
Soudal Quick-Step
UAE Team Emirates
Bingoal WB (PRT)
Israel Premier-Tech
Lotto Dstny
Team Flanders-Baloise
Tudor Pro Cycling
Uno-X Pro Cycling
Global 6 Cycling (CT)
Leopard TOGT Pro Cycling

Race history

Despite having a population of just 600,000 people, Luxembourg has produced 25 overall winners, the most of any nation across the 88-year history of this race. Some of their most accomplished riders have taken a win here too, including Fränk Schleck, Charly Gaul and Mathias Clemens. The latter heads the winners list in this race with five overall victories, taken during the 30s and 40s.

It has been 14 years since Luxembourg’s last win in this race, with Fränk Schleck back in 2009. Could 2023 be the year we see one of their top talents like Bob Jungels or Kevin Geniets end the drought and take home a big win?