Second win and “good feeling” for Madovas before leaving for Australia

(Belga) Valentin Madovas (Groupama-FTJ) won the last stage of the Tour du Luxembourg after the opening stage. The 26-year-old Frenchman beat overall winner Matthias Skelmos Jensen in Saturday’s sprint in the Grand Duchy’s capital. Madovas now heads to Australia to compete in the road race for the world championships on Sunday 25 September.

“We did everything we could to wrest the captain’s jersey from Matthias Skelmos Jensen, but it didn’t work,” Madovas lamented afterwards. “At first this attack by Lars van den Berg immediately caused some tension in the peloton. In the last kilometer, Kevin Jenitz and I separated. However, Skelmos Jensen knew how to react and Kevin Voegelin was with us. Stage win and general classification. It was just a few seconds. Only made the difference, but that’s how it is. I won two more stages in this five-day race, and I’m very satisfied with that.” With three wins in his pocket in the last two weeks, the Frenchman now heads to the World Championships. “I feel good, I can go to Australia with a good feeling,” he admitted. “With the French team, we have a strong team starting for the World Championship, who knows what we can do?”. I look back on my time in Luxembourg with satisfaction. I wore the captain’s yellow jersey there for several days. Too bad our final plan to take the yellow jersey for good didn’t work out.” (Belga)