Marta Lach repeats victory with close sprint over teammate at Festival Elsy Jacobs à Garnich

It marked the first victory for Lach in one year, to the date, the Polish rider winning a photo finish at last year’s race from a five-rider group. This time she worked with her teammate to reach the front in a lead group of 12 riders, and then sprinted against her, as both SD Worx-Protime riders dashed for the line side-by-side.

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The 112.4km route began with four laps, 18km each, passing through Clemency and featuring just one categorised climb at 4.3%, taking the peloton on the western side of Luxembourg near the Belgian border. Then a more punchy four circuits with ascents over Rebierg (1.5km at 4.5%), led to the downhill finish to the line in Garnich.

The peloton remained largely together until the final four circuits when the pace picked up with 60km to go. With just under 35km to go, six riders pushed away as a threat: Mikayla Harvey (SD Worx-Protiime), Hannah Ludwig (Cofidis), Sidney Swierenga (Liv AlUla Jayco Continental), Anna Bruneel (AG Insurance Soudal Devo), Cleo Kiekens (Citymesh-Customm Pro Cycling) and Katie Scott (DAS-Hutchinson).

With two laps and 20km to go it was Harvey, Ludwig and Swierenga still setting the pace. The 18-year-old Canadian Swierenga was the final rider of the trio caught just before the bell rang for the final circuit, SD Worx duo Elena Cecchini and Barbara Guarischi doing much of the work to reel in the trio.

The rapid-fire attacks began with under 3km to go, with SD Worx-Protime once again leading the way. Lach and Gerritse worked together to finish the job, going to the line side by side as part of the 12-rider group that contested the sprint.

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