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Alejandro Valverde wins Liege-Bastogne-Liege for the fourth time (+ video)Valverde wins 2017 Liege-Bastogne-Liege (via Twitter).jpg

Alejandro Valverde wins Liege-Bastogne-Liege for the fourth time (+ video)

Olympic champion Anna van der Breggen wins first-ever women’s Liege-Bastogne-Liege
by Alex Bowden
Sun, Apr 23, 2017 16:16
13

Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) has won Liege-Bastogne-Liege for the fourth time and will donate his prize money to the family of Michele Scarponi following the Italian’s death yesterday.

Valverde had announced his intentions before the race after Scarponi was killed in a collision with a van during a training ride.

Before the start, the peloton also paid tribute.

After a long day of racing, the day’s break was caught with around 10km to go and what remained of the peloton was stretched and further thinned out on the Côte de Saint-Nicolas which came with around 6km to go.

With a kilometre to go, Davide Formolo (Cannondale-Drapac) had a gap of a few seconds, at which point Dan Martin (Quick-Step Floors) attacked and passed him.

Valverde, however, appeared by far the strongest rider. The Spaniard cruised up to Martin and had enough in reserve that he was then able to open a gap in the last few hundred metres, easing up way before the line.

Martin followed and Michal Kwiatkowski (Sky) won the sprint for third.

Valverde’s win followed a fifth victory in La Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, Olympic champion Anna van der Breggen (Boels-Dolemans) had won the first ever women’s Liege-Bastogne-Liege with a late attack. Team-mate Lizzie Deignan won the sprint for second place.

There was a certain sense of déjà vu about the result as Van der Breggen also won Amstel Gold and Fleche-Wallonne earlier in the week with Deignan second in both races.

Alejandro Valverde
Liege-Bastogne-Liege
Alex Bowden

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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13 comments

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riotgibbon | 7 years ago
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Gilbert is a recent world champion, and just moved to Quick step from BMC. He escaped at Flanders, but would have almost certainly been brought back if Sagan hadn't crashed. Very good season, if he repeats it 5 more times, all the through the year and not just in Spring, then I'll be more suspicious. We'll see

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dottigirl | 7 years ago
1 like

I'd love to watch and enjoy the recent performances of Valverde and Gilbert, but I'm feeling they're a bit dubious too. 

How is Valverde sustaining this level of performance? How has Gilbert stepped up from an also-ran to a repeated winner/contender? Shit tactics by the rest aside, how is it no one can stay with them?

Makes me sad. I wish more of the women's races were televised too - at least those don't smell so much.

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Jackson replied to dottigirl | 7 years ago
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dottigirl wrote:

I'd love to watch and enjoy the recent performances of Valverde and Gilbert, but I'm feeling they're a bit dubious too. 

How is Valverde sustaining this level of performance? How has Gilbert stepped up from an also-ran to a repeated winner/contender? Shit tactics by the rest aside, how is it no one can stay with them?

Makes me sad. I wish more of the women's races were televised too - at least those don't smell so much.

It's ridiculous to say Gilbert has "stepped up" when he's been crushing bike races since he was a kid, won a Tour de l'Avenir stage at 18 and won his 1st monument 8 years ago. No one who followed cycling before it was invented by Britain in the 2012 Olympics would call him an "also-ran". And he's nowhere near the level of doping suspicion as Valverde who was literally popped in Operacion Puerto. 

While I agree the women's races need to be on TV, who got 2nd in all three races in the Ardennes week? Lizzie Deignan, she of the crap alarm clock and three missed dope tests, and a husband who knows some good (bad) doctors.

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drosco | 7 years ago
0 likes

Strangely, Philippe Gilbert is suddenly on fire late in his career too. Soloing the Tour of Flanders...

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drosco | 7 years ago
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Whenever we see performances that seem too good to be true in pro cycling, we all know what's coming next.

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riotgibbon | 7 years ago
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didn't he avoid Italy/the Giro entirely for years because of a ban, then was detained there one year when the Tour crossed over?

 

no, not quite:

http://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/latest-news/valverde-better-late-than-...

he just sat that one out. Christ, that article was written in 2010

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1961BikiE | 7 years ago
2 likes

Every race Valverde wins just fills me with the bile I felt when Vino won the 2012 Olympic RR. I don't know how he fails to be caught red handed, surely the UCI must buzz round him looking to catch him out. If it was just one or two wins a season I'd perhaps be accepting but he's 37 and wins or is very close to the top in races throughout the entire season. It just doesn't sit well at all when younger riders struggle to put together race winning form a couple of times per season.

Mutant or cheat? I know where my money lies

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jollygoodvelo | 7 years ago
4 likes

Classy move indeed.

 

He's either one of the most incredibly versatile, most gifted bike riders of his generation, or a cheat with a brass neck so big you could see it from space.  I know where my money lies.

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riotgibbon | 7 years ago
4 likes

Not a Valverde fan, for the obvious reason, but donating all his prize money from this week to Scarponi's family is a gentlemanly act.

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surly_by_name replied to riotgibbon | 7 years ago
3 likes
riotgibbon wrote:

Not a Valverde fan, for the obvious reason, but donating all his prize money from this week to Scarponi's family is a gentlemanly act.

If normal convention being followed and winners prize money pooled for all of the Movistar riders who took to the start line, then there's a distinct possibility that the gesture wasn't just AVs. I assume he checked in with them first that they were cool with this.

Valverde is apparently a very nice guy (although Joaquin Rodriguez might beg to differ after 2013 WC in Florence). And I don't think other teams rode in a manner that made L-B-L difficult for Movistar. His results so far this season are incredible. Pais Basque, Catalunya, Murcia, Fleche, Liege. One commentator described him as "toying with the opposition" at Pais Basque. He is getting similar results to 2006/7, when he was seeing Fuentes. He is 37.

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riotgibbon replied to surly_by_name | 7 years ago
1 like
surly_by_name wrote:
riotgibbon wrote:

Not a Valverde fan, for the obvious reason, but donating all his prize money from this week to Scarponi's family is a gentlemanly act.

If normal convention being followed and winners prize money pooled for all of the Movistar riders who took to the start line, then there's a distinct possibility that the gesture wasn't just AVs. I assume he checked in with them first that they were cool with this.

Valverde is apparently a very nice guy (although Joaquin Rodriguez might beg to differ after 2013 WC in Florence). And I don't think other teams rode in a manner that made L-B-L difficult for Movistar. His results so far this season are incredible. Pais Basque, Catalunya, Murcia, Fleche, Liege. One commentator described him as "toying with the opposition" at Pais Basque. He is getting similar results to 2006/7, when he was seeing Fuentes. He is 37.

 

I think that sharing prize money around the team is a grand tour thing, isn't it?

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Welsh boy | 7 years ago
4 likes

I really feel for Dan Martin, beaten again by the convicted doper.  Like Jackson says, hooray for Valverde.

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Jackson | 7 years ago
0 likes

Valverde... hooray....

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