Carrara shines amid storms

Matteo Carrara won the Tour of Luxembourg after finishing third behind Gorka Izagirre on a rain-shortened final stage.

Thunder and lightning force early halt in Luxembourg

Matteo Carrara won the Tour of Luxembourg after finishing third behind Gorka Izaguirre on a rain-shortened final stage on Sunday. The 149.5km route from Mersch to Luxembourg should have culminated with five 7.7km laps of the capital but a thunderstorm which flooded the roads forced a halt two laps early after 135km. In what became the final lap four riders - Carrara (Vacansoleil), Izaguirre (Euskaltel), Sergei Ivanov (Katusha) and Yukihiro Doi (Skil-Shimano) - broke clear from the peloton. It was Izaguirre who beat Ivanov in the sprint on the Place Guillaume but Carrara, who held a one-second advantage over Fränk Schleck (Saxo Bank) on the general classification heading into the final day, knew he'd done enough to wrap up overall victory. And later it was ruled that the stage four results didn't count for the GC anyway, with Ivanov the man losing out as his performance would have been enough to move him up to third. Either way Schleck would have finished second and Team Sky's Juan Antonio Flecha fourth but RadioShack's Lance Armstrong, who lost time on the final loops and crossed the line in 48th, remained in third position on the unchanged GC. The stage had earlier started under blue skies and sunshine and there was a six-man breakaway just 3km after the start. Their lead was never allowed to go much beyond two minutes and they were caught with relative ease shortly after the start of the loops. The change in weather then added some late drama but Vacansoleil maintained control of the race to set up Carrara for the overall victory. The points classification went to Ivanov while Jorge Montenegro (Andalucía) topped the climbing standings. Stage four result: 1 - Gorka Izagirre - (ESP) - Euskaltel - (3:01:23)
2 - Sergei Ivanov - (RUS) - Katyusha - (same time)
3 - Matteo Carrara - (ITA) - Vacansoleil - (same time)
4 - Steve Houanard - (FRA) - Skil-Shimano - (same time)
5 - Jimmy Engoulvent - (FRA) - Saur-Sojasun - (same time)
6 - Tiago Machado - (POR) - RadioShack - (same time)
7 - Saïd Haddou - (FRA) - Bbox-Bouygues - (same time)
8 - Juan Antonio Flecha - (ESP) - Team Sky - (same time)
9 - Eduard Vorganov - (RUS) - Katyusha - (same time)
10 - Simon Gerrans - (AUS) - Team Sky - (same time)
Overall standings: 1 - Matteo Carrara - (ITA) - Vacansoleil - (17:43:21)
2 - Fränk Schleck - (LUX) - Saxo Bank - (+1)
3 - Lance Armstrong - (USA) - RadioShack - (+30)
4 - Juan Antonio Flecha - (ESP) - Team Sky - (+34)
5 - Sergei Ivanov - (RUS) - Katyusha - (+34)
6 - Björn Leukemans - (BEL) - Vacansoleil - (+35)
7 - Alexandre Geniez - (FRA) - Skil-Shimano - (+39)
8 - Andreas Klöden - (GER) - RadioShack - (+50)
9 - Grégory Rast - (SUI) - RadioShack - (+51)
10 - Sandy Casar - (FRA) - Française des Jeux - (+52)