Tour de Luxembourg: Reinderink pulls off a masterstroke and solos to win stage 3

Pepijn Reinderink (Soudal-QuickStep) put on a spectacular show on the roads of Luxembourg, breaking away from the day’s breakaway and holding on tooth and nail to the finish line to take a solo victory in stage three of the Tour de Luxembourg.

The Dutchman dropped his teammates 7km from the finish, managing an increasingly narrow margin until the finish line, where he edged out the revelation Davide Piganzoli (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Frenchman Thomas Gachignard (TotalEnergies) by just one second. Gachignard's teammate, Mattéo Vercher, rounded out the top four, four seconds behind.

With this result, Piganzoli moves up four positions in the general classification and takes the lead of the race, with a six-second advantage over Gachignard and nine over Vercher.

The stage, a challenging 179.6km route from Wiltz to Diekirch, featured ascents of Um Knupp, Montée de Knaphoscheid and Um Knupp again, before two final circuits with double passages up Montée de Haemerich and Montée de Seitert, each followed by a descent towards the finish line in Diekirch.

After his success on stage 2 the previous day, Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost) started as the overall leader, with just four seconds ahead of Pierre Gautherat (Decathlon CMA CGM) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech).

The race heated up from the first kilometers, with numerous attacks breaking the peloton, but it wasn't until the 35th kilometer that a large breakaway managed to gain decisive ground. The leading group included prominent names such as Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Noah Ramsay (Alpecin-Premier Tech Development), Antoine L'Hote (Decathlon CMA CGM), Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek), Gil Gelders, and Pepijn Reinderink (Soudal-QuickStep), as well as Pietro Mattio (Visma-Lease a Bike), Pierre Thierry (TotalEnergies), and Leo Hayter (Modern Adventure Pro).

The breakaway continued to widen its lead towards the second climb, Montée de Knaphoscheid, maintaining a 1'45" lead on the pink jersey group as they finished on the third climb of the day, Um Knupp.

The decisive moment came when the leading group approached the final circuit: the first split occurred on the Montée de Haemerich. Arrieta made the first move, pulling Reinderink along with him, and the pair entered the final lap with a narrow lead. Meanwhile, Gachignard rejoined on the Montée de Seitert, closely followed by Piganzoli.

On the final climb of the Montée de Haemerich, Reinderink found the energy to launch another attack, this time managing to open a small gap on the chasing Gachignard. Looking back, however, the Dutchman noticed that Piganzoli and Vercher were in hot pursuit, with Arrieta, Oomen, and Behrens only 10 seconds behind, and just 3km from the finish.

Having crossed the summit with a seven-second lead over the three now grouped pursuers - Piganzoli, Gachignard and Vercher - Reinderink dived towards the finish line in Diekirch, where he crossed the line to take victory.