Description
May 3, 2026
Festival Elsy Jacobs à Luxembourg 2026 🇱🇺 (1.1) WE – Cessange – Cessange : 121,6 km
Festival Elsy Jacobs is a UCI 2.Pro classification that unfolds across the lush,
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May 3, 2026
Festival Elsy Jacobs à Luxembourg 2026 🇱🇺 (1.1) WE – Cessange – Cessange : 121,6 km
Festival Elsy Jacobs is a UCI 2.Pro classification that unfolds across the lush, rolling landscapes of Luxembourg’s Gutland and Ösling regions, where the roads rise and fall with the rhythm of a terrain shaped by gentle hills, dense forests, and open meadows. The course is a mix of wide, well-paved highways and narrow, winding lanes that cut through sleepy villages and climb into the wooded heights, their surfaces smooth but demanding, with gradients that rarely relent for long. The climbs, though not towering, are steady and punishing, their slopes often hovering between 5% and 8% for several kilometers at a time, forcing riders to settle into a grueling rhythm as the road snakes upward through the trees. The descents are fast and technical, their tight bends and sudden changes in camber requiring constant attention, while the flatter sections are exposed to the wind, which sweeps across the open ridges and turns the race into a tactical battle for position.The race dynamics are shaped by these repeated ascents, with attacks launching on the steepest ramps, the peloton thinning as the weaker riders are dropped in the wake of the relentless pace. The race often features a prologue or short time trial to open proceedings, setting the tone for the stages that follow, where the climbs and descents dictate the rhythm of the race. The finish typically arrives after a final, leg-sapping climb or a fast descent into a valley town, where a reduced bunch sprints for victory, or a lone rider who has escaped the chaos holds off the charging pack by a handful of seconds. The race’s structure—with its mix of climbing, descending, and time-trialling—ensures that no single type of rider dominates, the outcome hanging in the balance until the final, decisive effort.
Young British rider Erin Boothman (Liv AlUla Jayco Continental) notched her first pro victory with a searing sprint in wet conditions at Festival Elsy Jacobs à Luxembourg on Sunday.
The 19-year-old launched her acceleration at 200 metres to go in the 121.6km one-day race, holding off four other riders from an eight-rider breakaway group. Steffi Häberlin (SD Worx-Protime) went second ahead of local rider Nina Berton, riding for the MIX Luxembourg-Iceland squad rather than her EF Education-Oatly trade team.
It was a second day of racing in Luxembourg, the day before the former women’s junior Gent-Wevelgem winner going fifth in a five-rider sprint at Festival Elsy Jacobs à Garnich.
“I was a super-hard sprint, but at the end I won and I couldn’t be happier,” Boothman said in a social video posted by her team. “In the final half of lap, I dropped back and really watched the race in front of me, and then launched with 200 metres to go.”
The podium finishers were part of the day’s breakaway that moved away from the peloton with three full laps of the 15km circuit to the west of Cessange remaining: Boothman, Häberlin and Berton riding with Bodine Vollering (VolkerWessels Cycling), Katharina Sadnik (Visma-Lease a Bike), Nina Lavenu (AG Insurance Soudal Development), Magdalena Leis (UAE Development) and Lidia Cusack (Team USA).
“I was reluctant to commit [to the breakaway] because it was so early on,” Boothman said. “But then once we knew the gap was fully open, I went all-in for the breakaway. I knew I was one of the quickest in the final sprint.”
The terrain never flattened, with one section on Rue Tubis (200 metres of 8%) counting three times for mountain points, and the start/finish line in Cessange providing intermediate sprint points on another three laps. A few early attacks never stuck, as Visma-Lease a Bike and SD Worx-Protime were active in keeping the race together early on, including Saturday’s winner in Garnich, Marta Lach (SD Worx-Protime).
Once on the penultimate lap and under 30km to go, the group had a 35-second margin, the peloton bunched together behind.
It was not until the final lap that Leis was the first one in the front to show an interest in holding off the peloton. She attacked three times with under 5km to go. Each time she was reeled back, and Cusack struggled to hold contact with the group.
Once under the 1km to go kite, Lavenu made a move and Boothman latched on to her back wheel. The Briton then drove past the French rider with 200 metres to go and Häberlin followed but could not pass.
Results :
 WE </strong> - Cessange - Cessange : 121,6 km
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Festival Elsy Jacobs is a UCI 2.Pro classification that unfolds across the lush, rolling landscapes of Luxembourg’s Gutland and Ösling regions, where the roads rise and fall with the rhythm of a terrain shaped by gentle hills, dense forests, and open meadows. The course is a mix of wide, well-paved highways and narrow, winding lanes that cut through sleepy villages and climb into the wooded heights, their surfaces smooth but demanding, with gradients that rarely relent for long. The climbs, though not towering, are steady and punishing, their slopes often hovering between 5% and 8% for several kilometers at a time, forcing riders to settle into a grueling rhythm as the road snakes upward through the trees. The descents are fast and technical, their tight bends and sudden changes in camber requiring constant attention, while the flatter sections are exposed to the wind, which sweeps across the open ridges and turns the race into a tactical battle for position.The race dynamics are shaped by these repeated ascents, with attacks launching on the steepest ramps, the peloton thinning as the weaker riders are dropped in the wake of the relentless pace. The race often features a prologue or short time trial to open proceedings, setting the tone for the stages that follow, where the climbs and descents dictate the rhythm of the race. The finish typically arrives after a final, leg-sapping climb or a fast descent into a valley town, where a reduced bunch sprints for victory, or a lone rider who has escaped the chaos holds off the charging pack by a handful of seconds. The race’s structure—with its mix of climbing, descending, and time-trialling—ensures that no single type of rider dominates, the outcome hanging in the balance until the final, decisive effort.
Young British rider Erin Boothman (Liv AlUla Jayco Continental) notched her first pro victory with a searing sprint in wet conditions at Festival Elsy Jacobs à Luxembourg on Sunday.
The 19-year-old launched her acceleration at 200 metres to go in the 121.6km one-day race, holding off four other riders from an eight-rider breakaway group. Steffi Häberlin (SD Worx-Protime) went second ahead of local rider Nina Berton, riding for the MIX Luxembourg-Iceland squad rather than her EF Education-Oatly trade team.
It was a second day of racing in Luxembourg, the day before the former women's junior Gent-Wevelgem winner going fifth in a five-rider sprint at Festival Elsy Jacobs à Garnich.
"I was a super-hard sprint, but at the end I won and I couldn't be happier," Boothman said in a social video posted by her team. "In the final half of lap, I dropped back and really watched the race in front of me, and then launched with 200 metres to go."
The podium finishers were part of the day's breakaway that moved away from the peloton with three full laps of the 15km circuit to the west of Cessange remaining: Boothman, Häberlin and Berton riding with Bodine Vollering (VolkerWessels Cycling), Katharina Sadnik (Visma-Lease a Bike), Nina Lavenu (AG Insurance Soudal Development), Magdalena Leis (UAE Development) and Lidia Cusack (Team USA).
"I was reluctant to commit [to the breakaway] because it was so early on," Boothman said. "But then once we knew the gap was fully open, I went all-in for the breakaway. I knew I was one of the quickest in the final sprint."
The terrain never flattened, with one section on Rue Tubis (200 metres of 8%) counting three times for mountain points, and the start/finish line in Cessange providing intermediate sprint points on another three laps. A few early attacks never stuck, as Visma-Lease a Bike and SD Worx-Protime were active in keeping the race together early on, including Saturday's winner in Garnich, Marta Lach (SD Worx-Protime).
Once on the penultimate lap and under 30km to go, the group had a 35-second margin, the peloton bunched together behind.
It was not until the final lap that Leis was the first one in the front to show an interest in holding off the peloton. She attacked three times with under 5km to go. Each time she was reeled back, and Cusack struggled to hold contact with the group.
Once under the 1km to go kite, Lavenu made a move and Boothman latched on to her back wheel. The Briton then drove past the French rider with 200 metres to go and Häberlin followed but could not pass.
<strong>Results : </strong>
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