Tour de Luxembourg: Davide Piganzoli wins stage 4 time trial and increases his overall lead

The 64th rider off the start ramp, Raccagni was the first to break the 27-minute mark. The second-year pro then settled into the hot seat, watching rider after rider come through until the final starter finally bested his time.

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Piganzoli sped through the intermediate time check, besting Raccagni by 14 seconds, but though he faded in the second half of the course, he managed to hold on to take the win.

“It was really hard, but we start the the day thinking about to do a time trial full gas. So just to have the habit to go full for one time in a time trial, and it went super nice,” Piganzoli said.

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“The second part was a bit for the most specialist because was super fast. But, I arrived with 15 seconds on the intermediate sprint and was not confident, but I know that I can go faster also in the in the second part.”

Piganzoli increased his overall lead to 47 seconds over his closest rival. Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies) moved up to second overall, two seconds ahead of his teammate Thomas Gachinard. Aurélien Paret-Peintre (Decathlon CGM CMA) also moved up one spot to fourth overall, five seconds off the podium.

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The 24-year-old rider was confident going into the final stage, 177km from Mersch to Luxembourg-Limpertsberg.

“I’m quite confident about the team, about my skill. So for sure tomorrow we have to play a good game. But yeah, we are ready.”

From Ettelbruck, the hourglass-shaped route passed through the hamlets of Grentzingen and Welsdorf, ran alongside Colmar-Berg Castle, and reached Mertzig for the intermediate time check, 11.4km into the stage, before heading back to Ettelbruck. The 20.4km route was front-loaded with climbing, with a total of 350 metres of elevation gain. The final three kilometres are all downhill and include three sharp turns before the finish line at Place Marie-Adélaïde.

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Under sunny skies, the second of 95 riders to leave the start ramp, Jardi Van der Lee (EF Education-EasyPost), set the early fast time of 28:53. He did not stay long on the silver hot seat, as Thibault Guernalec (TotalEnergies) set the new mark to beat with 27:20.

Julius Johansen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), the 22nd rider to start, bested the Frenchman’s time by 11 seconds to take over the top of the leaderboard. Brit Leo Hayter (Modern Adventure) briefly held the fast time, but Raccagni clocked a time of 26:52.

The 68th rider to start, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-PremierTech), was 46 seconds down to Raccagni at the intermediate time check and lost more time in the second part of the stage, finishing 2:42 down.

Among the last 10 riders leaving the start ramp at two-minute intervals, Aurélien Paret-Peintre (Decathlon CGM CMA) first clocked the fastest intermediate time of 16:41 before race leader Piganzoli was faster after 11 kilometres.

But Paret-Peintre faded in the second half, the flatter portion, and slotted into fifth place, 16 seconds from Raccagni with four riders left to finish. Though Piganzoli also lost time in the second half, he held on to take the win.