DIFFERDANGE, Luxembourg, June 3, 2011 (AFP) – Germany’s Linus Gerdemann won the Tour of Luxembourg 200km second stage from Schifflange to here on Friday, the Leopard rider inheriting the leader’s yellow jersey from his Swiss teammate Fabian Cancellera.

Gerdemann, 28, came through the toughest stage of the race to edge out French rivals Arthur Vichot, Jeremie Galland, Mickael Delage and Tony Gallopin.

The German showed his fighting qualities as a climber in the closing stages of the day’s proceedings which saw the racers have to take on three times the seven percent gradient over 1.5km Col de l’Europe climb.

Cancellera meanwhile lost more than three minutes to slide down the rankings and it was a similarly disappointing day for home racer Frank Schleck, who trundled in before his fans two minutes off the pace down in 32nd place.

Gerdemann now leads Frenchman Alexandre Geniez by 2sec and Gallopin by 3sec after notching his 11th career win but first of this season.

Saturday’s third stage is a 185km run between Eschweiler and Roos.

Tour of Luxembourg results after the
200.7km second stage at Differdange on Friday:

Stage
1. Linus Gerdemann (GER/Leopard), 200.7km in 5hr 16min 19sec, 2. Arthur
Vichot (FRA) at 9sec, 3. Jeremie Galland (FRA) 9, 4. Mickael Delage (FRA) 9,
5. Tony Gallopin (FRA) 9.

Overall
1. Linus Gerdemann (GER/Leopard) in 10hr 08min 55sec, 2. Alexandre Geniez
(FRA) at 2sec, 3. Tony Gallopin (FRA) 3, 4. Maxime Monfort (BEL) 5, 5. Mickael
Delage (FRA) 8.