The 72nd Tour of Luxembourg is a cycling stage race that took place from May 30th to June 3rd, 2012. Traditionally, the tour consisted of a prologue and four stages. In 2012, the entire route ran over a distance of 726.4 kilometers. The race was part of the UCI Europe Tour 2012 and was classified in the highest category 2nd HC.
A prologue was on the program on the first day of the tour . The Frenchman Jimmy Engoulvent was the fastest on the 2659 meter long route . This is the third time he has won the prologue of the Tour of Luxembourg after 2007 and 2010 .
The first stage of the tour was on the second day. Two outliers, Albert Timmer and Jesus Rosendo , soon ran away and were able to extend their lead to up to three minutes. But the duo was taken off the field about 60 km before the finish. But just a few kilometers further, the German Jens Voigt set out to try his luck alone, but was stopped 12 km from the finish. This led to a mass sprint in which André Greipel clinched his tenth win of the season.
On the third section, numerous riders tried their luck in a breakaway group, but were not really left out. And so the peloton came almost completely to the first mountain classification after 30 km. This went to Albert Timmer, who was able to further extend his lead in the mountain classification. Shortly afterwards, Kévin Van Melsen and Gediminas Kaupas managed to break away from the field and gain a lead of up to seven minutes. 48 km from the finish line, the target passage was crossed for the first time and so only three 16 km long laps had to be completed. In the last lap, the duo was finally overtaken. Two kilometers before the finish, Andreas Klöden tried again with a breakaway attempt, but it quickly ended again. Like the day before, there was a mass sprint, which André Greipel won again.
With the fourth day of the race, the longest and most difficult stage was on the agenda. Albert Timmer, Mathew Hayman , Jérôme Cousin , Jens Debusschere and Staf Scheirlinckx pulled away from the field early on. Timmer secured the first three of the seven mountain classifications of the day, who secured so many points that the jersey of the best climber could no longer be taken from him. The breakaway group of this stage was able to pull out a lead of over 6:30 before it began to melt again. This was mainly the work of the RadioShack-Nissan team , which apparently still had a lot to do that day. And so it was when Fränk Schleck with his teammates Andreas Klöden and Jakob Fuglsang as well as Wout Poels ran away on the first ascent to the Col de l'Europe . The final lap had to be driven three times and in the end Poels was able to assert himself against all others in the sprint.
On the last day of the race, there was soon a four-man breakaway group. Tom Stamsnijder , Jimmy Casper , Jürgen Roelandts and Damien Gaudin set out to try their luck on the 153.5 km long course. Due to heavy rain and falls, many drivers ended the race early, only 60 drivers made it to the finish. The four outliers were able to gain a lead of up to 3:25 minutes at times. Because of the bad weather, the race management decided to take the time as soon as the first finish was reached and to run the 6.8 kilometer long finish loop, which had to be driven seven times, without evaluation. Shortly before the stage winner should be counted, Roelandts dared an attack and saved 25 seconds over the finish line while his three competitors were swallowed by the field. Even at the very end of the tour, Roelandts was the first to cross the finish line as a soloist .
Ratings in the course of the race
The table shows the leader in the respective classification after the respective stage.
Luxembourg
Overall rating
Scoring
André Greipel ( LTB )
Mountain scoring
Young talent evaluation
Jimmy Engoulvent
Jürgen Roelandts
