CERATIZIT FESTIVAL ELSY JACOBS
THE BIG
LITTLE RACE
Luxembourg’s Festival Elsy Jacobs is a club-run, international-level stage race with a community feel and a big history. Procycling was there this spring to find out more
Writer Owen Rogers
Image Bas Czerwinski/ Getty Images
The Luxembourg village of Garnich is normally buzzing after the final stage of Festival Elsy Jacobs. Smoke from the barbecue would drift towards the podium over knots of people. In the queue, fans would weigh up the choices. Burger or hot dog? Which sausage? A grillwurscht, a red mettwurscht or a cheesy Blanne Jang? Nearby, Andy Schleck and his family would wait for the presentation with the rest of the crowd, and wearing her red white and blue national champion’s jersey, Christine Majerus should be the centre of attention.
But covid-19 means there was no barbecue in 2021, and no crowd. Majerus headed to the SD Worx team bus and only photographers waited for the presentation. At least you could hear laughing from behind the stage while the jersey winners chatted as they waited to raise their arms for the pictures.
Emma Norsgaard had the biggest smile, having finally reached the top step after a string of podium placings throughout the spring. The Danish champion won both road stages, the young rider and points jerseys and Movistar’s first stage race GC since the women’s squad appeared in 2018.
Over the years, the race has built itself up into an impressive event, with some equally impressive winners. Emma Pooley, Marianne Vos, Anna van der Breggen and Kasia Niewiadoma have all won
Marianne Vos (r), pictured here in the 2011 race, has won Elsy Jacobs three times, a record
Images: Cor Vos.
Garnich, a sleepy village with a population of little more than 2,000 people, a few kilometres west of Luxembourg City on the Grand Duchy’s border with Belgium, might seem an odd place for an international cycling race. But it is where Elsy Jacobs, the first women’s road race world champion and Hour record holder, was brought up, and through the years the race has built itself up into an impressive event, with some equally impressive winners. Emma Pooley, Marianne Vos, Anna van der Breggen and Kasia Niewiadoma have all won, as has home heroine Majerus.