News

In 1958 the first women's world championship was held, and the champion was the Luxembourg cyclist Elsy Jacobs. The same year, she also set the hour record, which would not be broken until 24 years later. One more spectacular achievement: Jacobs was the national road champion from 1959 to 1974 uninterruptedly. Since 2008, Luxembourg has paid tribute to this great cyclist, first with a one-day event called Grand Prix Elsy Jacobs (2008-2011), and from 2012 with the extension of the competition to the current 3-stage format, with a prologue time trial and two circuit stages. With the change, the race was renamed as Festival luxembourgeois du cyclisme féminin Elsy Jacobs.

Route and favorites

Neither the 2.15 km prologue stage nor the second or the third stages have big mountain difficulties, which is why rouleurs and sprinters tend to stand out. In recent years, some of the best cyclists in the world have shone in this race, which speaks of its prestige: Marianne Vos (1200), with 3 victories, leads the winners list, followed by Anna Van der Breggen (1200), with 2. In 2020 the race was not held due to the health crisis of COVID19, so the last champion is Lisa Brennauer (1000) (2019). Lorena Wiebes (1200), Marta Bastianelli (800), Sofia Bertizzolo (800), Elisa Balsamo (800), Christine Majerus (800), Elisabeth Banks (600), Marlen Reusser (400), Chiara Consonni (600), Leah Thomas (600) or Leah Kirchmann (800) are some of the main cyclists on the starting list.