Second place at Flèche Wallonne for the second year in succession was disappointment for Katusha’s Joaquim Rodriguez, especially as it followed a second place in the Amstel Gold Race three days before. The Spanish rider, who won the season-long International Cycling Union (UCI) WorldTour last year had hoped to go one better this time, after losing out to Cadel Evans last year, but came across a Philippe Gilbert in unbeatable form.
"I would have liked to have won, said Rodriguez, “this course [Flèche Wallonne - ed] suits me much more than Amstel Gold Race’s one; but it was almost impossible to race against such a Gilbert. Honestly, I didn’t expect an attack from him so early; such an action was more expected from us, while theoretically he would have to wait for a final sprint in order to win this race.”
Gilbert launched his move with 300 metres to go, on one of the precipitous Mur de Huy’s steepest sections, and managed to keep the effort up to the line. Rodriguez, and teammate Daniel Moreno, found themselves unable to live with the initial acceleration and were unable to close it as Gilbert failed to fade.
With Liège-Bastogne-Liège coming up this weekend, Rodriguez is working on the optimistic assumption that Gilbert will not be able to hold his exceptional form for much longer.
“It wasn’t as expected,” Rodriguez said. “Gilbert made an early attack, and in such a shape he did what he wanted to and he won easily. However, I’m positive about Sunday at Liège-Bastogne-Liège; not a lot of riders were able to win all of the three competitions of the "Ardennes Triplette". For example, Danilo Di Luca, in 2005, easily won Amstel Gold Race and Fleche Wallonne, but then he wasn’t at his best at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and he lost it.
“Gilbert is the favourite, that’s for sure,” he conceded, “but I proved I’m in a good shape too and I’ll try to win on Sunday for sure."