Unstoppable Gilbert outsprints Schleck brothers for brilliant Liège-Bastogne-Liège win
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Sunday, April 24, 2011

Unstoppable Gilbert outsprints Schleck brothers for brilliant Liège-Bastogne-Liège win

by VeloNation Press at 10:47 AM EST   comments
Categories: Pro Cycling, Spring Classics, Race Reports and Results, Liège-Bastogne-Liège
 
Belgian uses head and legs to leave Luxemburgers in his wake

philippe gilbertPhilippe Gilbert took the Ardennes Triple by winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège in a three-up sprint against the Schleck brothers Fränk and Andy. The trio went after the break of the day on the penultimate climb, the côte de la Roche aux Faucons. The three arrived on the finishing straight together, with Andy trying to put his brother Fränk into the position to win, but Gilbert's sprint was irresistible. Fränk came in second and Andy was third.

The winner was a little exhausted after the 255 kilometers. "I need some air!" he said as he was crowded in by the media. After a few minutes, he had at least his air back. "I have no words to explain this. It is the best day in my sports career. I appreciate every moment." He enjoyed going up the steep climb of La Redoute. "It was a crazy ambiance up there. It is 'magnifique'."

Frank Schleck was disappointed with how things turned out, but accepted that they could do little. "Philippe was simply the strongest...we said we didn't want to reach the finish with him, but we couldn't drop him. We have to be satisfied with what we did. He was unbeatable today."

Last year's winner Alexandre Vinokourov was riding the race for the final time. He hoped to do something, but lost out to Gilbert, a rider who he has described as the strongest classics rider this spring. The Astana leader had bad luck, breaking his derailleur in the decisive part of the race. "I exchanged bikes with [Maxim] Iglinsky, they were about the same size." But the Kazakh rider, who had won twice here before, was unable to mount a comeback.

Ten-man break rides through sunny Belgium

A first break attempt by Sébastien Delfosse (Landbouwkrediet), Jesus Herrada Lopez (Movistar) and David Le Lay (AG2R) came after only three kilometers. Ten kilometers down the road, they were joined by Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana), Eduard Vorganov (Katusha), Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil), Tony Gallopin (Cofidis), Mickaël Delage (Française des Jeux) and Yannick Talabardon (Saur-Sojasun). Mathias Frank (BMC) was the last to join, yielding a ten-man breakaway.

After almost 50 kilometers, the gap was 3'15. It slightly dropped down under three minutes, but atop the first climb of the day, the côte de Saint-Roch, the gap was back up at 3'20. The pace was brisk, with the first two hours ridden at an average speed of 42 km/h. The leaders came to the turnaround point in Bastogne (km 101) with an advantage of 3'40. Omega-Pharma Lotto was controlling the pace, keeping the gap at something more manageable than the 17 minutes at Flèche Wallonne.

When the final approached with the côte de Wanne, 98 kilometers from the finish, the gap hovered around the four-minute mark. On Stockeu, individuals, like Lars-Peter Nordhaug, Johnny Hoogerland or Preben van Hecke, made moves. But the Leopard-Trek team took over the work on the front and reeled these efforts back in.

The work reduced to gap to one and a half minutes, with Le Lay, Delage and Talabardon dropping back from the front. On the Côte de la Haute-Levée, a counter move formed with Enrico Gasparotto, Juan Manuel Garate, Dario Cataldo, Jérôme Pineau, Damiano Caruso, Laurens Ten Dam, Kanstantsin Siutsou, Blel Kadri, Greg Van Avermaet. Through the second feed zone in Stavelot, with 85 kilometers to go, the chase group was 40 seconds behind the leaders and 45 seconds ahead of the peloton.

Herrada, Frank, Gallopin, Vorganov and De Gendt emerged on the front after the Col du Rosier. But their gap to the chasers dropped constantly and with 63 kilometers to go, the groups merged. The peloton was around a minute behind.

For twenty kilometers, the peloton was contend to let the gap slowly go up to one and a half minutes. With the col de la Redoute approaching, Leopard-Trek took responsibility, as the gap had gone up to a maximum of 1'43.

On la Redoute, the gap reduced constantly, with Fuglsang pulling the group. At the top, the break - reduced to seven riders - was only 45 seconds ahead. The front runners were Gasparotto, Pineau, Van Avermaet, Garate, Ten Dam, Kadri and Siutsou continued ahead. Behind, Omega-Pharma Lotto and Leopard Trek entered into some discussions, with Euskaltel-Euskadi ending up doing some of the chase work. With 30km to go, the gap was 30 seconds.

With the peloton still undecided on who was to do how much work, the gap opened up again to 45 seconds with 26 kilometers to go. Leopard-Trek realized that Omega-Pharma Lotto was using its recent string of successes to not put any work in at this point. Fuglsang and Monfort took over for the Luxembourg team to try to get the break back.

On the penultimate climb, the côte de la Roche aux Faucons, Gasparotto and Van Avermaet took off from the break. Behind, the Schlecks jumped with Gilbert in tow. All three traded turns on the front, quickly reaching the leaders. Pineau had moved back up to Gasparotto and Van Avermaet just before the top. The six men started the descent with around half a minute on the chasers. On the next false flat, Gasparotto and Pineau had to let go, while Van Avermaet hung on to the three superstars with ease.

The gap to the peloton came as close as 24 seconds, but with 12 kilometers to go, the elastic had snapped. As they passed the soccer stadium from Standard de Liège, the gap was 40 seconds.

Gilbert attacked towards the top of the St Nicolas, dropping Van Avermaet and Andy Schleck. Fränk Schleck sat on Gilbert's wheel and with five kilometers to go, Andy was back. The trio reached the finishing straight together, where Gilbert made his decisive move to the joy of the home crowd.



 

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Liège - Bastogne - Liège, Belgium (WorldTour) Results: Liege - Ans (255.5km)

  Click on the arrowsat the top of the column to sort the race results.
Country Result Name Team Time
bel BEL 1 Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto ) 06:13:18
lux LUX 2 Frank Schleck (Leopard-Trek) s.t.
lux LUX 3 Andy Schleck (Leopard-Trek) s.t.
cze CZE 4 Roman Kreuziger (Astana) 00:00:24
col COL 5 Rigoberto Uran (Team Sky) s.t.
den DEN 6 Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo Bank-Sungard) s.t.
bel BEL 7 Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing) 00:00:27
ita ITA 8 Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) 00:00:29
bel BEL 9 Bjorn Leukemans (Vacansoleil-DCM) 00:00:39
esp ESP 10 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Euskaltel - Euskadi) s.t.
rus RUS 11 Alexandr Kolobnev (Katusha) 00:00:43
aus AUS 12 Simon Gerrans (Team Sky) s.t.
ger GER 13 Paul Martens (Rabobank) s.t.
esp ESP 14 Igor Anton Hernandez (Euskaltel - Euskadi) s.t.
esp ESP 15 Oscar Gomez Freire (Rabobank) s.t.
ita ITA 16 Damiano Cunego (Lampre-ISD) s.t.
bel BEL 17 Jelle Vanendert (Omega Pharma-Lotto ) 00:00:47
usa USA 18 Tejay Van Garderen (HTC-Highroad) 00:00:53
bel BEL 19 Kristof Vandewalle (Quick Step) 00:00:57
fra FRA 20 Jérome Pineau (Quick Step) 00:00:58
den DEN 21 Nicki Sörensen (Saxo Bank-Sungard) s.t.
bel BEL 22 Ben Hermans (RadioShack) s.t.
slo SLO 23 Janez Brajkovic (RadioShack) 00:01:01
ned NED 24 Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil-DCM) s.t.
swe SWE 25 Thomas Löfkvist (Team Sky) s.t.
esp ESP 26 Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver (Katusha) 00:01:14
esp ESP 27 David Lopez Garcia (Movistar) 00:01:16
blr BLR 28 Vasil Kiryienka (Movistar) 00:01:26
can CAN 29 Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Cervelo) 00:01:40
ned NED 30 Robert Gesink (Rabobank) s.t.
den DEN 31 Jakob Fuglsang (Leopard-Trek) s.t.
kaz KAZ 32 Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) 00:01:43
esp ESP 33 Daniel Moreno Fernandéz (Katusha) s.t.
fra FRA 34 Jonathan Hivert (Saur-Sojasun) 00:02:10
bel BEL 35 Jerome Baugnies (Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator) 00:02:13
fra FRA 36 Arnold Jeannesson (Française Des Jeux) 00:02:29
gbr GBR 37 Steven Cummings (Team Sky) 00:02:31
fra FRA 38 Ludovic Turpin (Saur-Sojasun) 00:02:34
fra FRA 39 Biel Kadri (Ag2r-La Mondiale) 00:02:36
fra FRA 40 Christophe Le Mevel (Garmin-Cervelo) s.t.
ita ITA 41 Danilo Di Luca (Katusha) 00:02:38
esp ESP 42 Haimar Zubeldia Agirre (RadioShack) s.t.
ita ITA 43 Giampaolo Caruso (Katusha) s.t.
ita ITA 44 Enrico Gasparotto (Astana) s.t.
ned NED 45 Addy Engels (Quick Step) 00:03:00
bel BEL 46 Dries Devenyns (Quick Step) s.t.
ned NED 47 Bauke Mollema (Rabobank) s.t.
fra FRA 48 Rémy Di Gregorio (Astana) 00:04:03
esp ESP 49 Juan Manuel Garate (Rabobank) 00:05:18
blr BLR 50 Kanstantsin Sivtsov (HTC-Highroad) s.t.
ita ITA 51 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ag2r-La Mondiale) 00:06:42
ger GER 52 Tony Martin (HTC-Highroad) 00:07:16
ned NED 53 Laurens Ten Dam (Rabobank) 00:07:18
fra FRA 54 Alexandre Geniez (Skil-Shimano) 00:07:35
ned NED 55 Dirk Bellemakers (Landbouwkrediet) s.t.
ven VEN 56 Jose Rojas () s.t.
fra FRA 57 Mickael Buffaz (Cofidis) s.t.
usa USA 58 Craig Lewis (HTC-Highroad) s.t.
bel BEL 59 Maxime Monfort (Leopard-Trek) s.t.
esp ESP 60 Gorka Verdugo Marcotegui (Euskaltel - Euskadi) s.t.
ita ITA 61 Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil-DCM) s.t.
bel BEL 62 Davy Commeijne (Landbouwkrediet) s.t.
fra FRA 63 David Moncoutié (Cofidis) s.t.
ned NED 64 Bram Tankink (Rabobank) s.t.
rus RUS 65 Eduard Vorganov (Katusha) s.t.
uzb UZB 66 Sergey Lagutin (Vacansoleil-DCM) s.t.
ita ITA 67 Daniele Pietropolli (Lampre-ISD) s.t.
ita ITA 68 Francesco Gavazzi (Lampre-ISD) s.t.
fra FRA 69 Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) s.t.
kaz KAZ 70 Maxim Iglinskiy (Astana) s.t.
bel BEL 71 Bert Scheirlinckx (Landbouwkrediet) s.t.
ita ITA 72 Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale) s.t.
esp ESP 73 Benat Intxausti (Movistar) s.t.
usa USA 74 Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Cervelo) s.t.
usa USA 75 Peter Stetina (Garmin-Cervelo) s.t.
ita ITA 76 Diego Ulissi (Lampre-ISD) s.t.
est EST 77 Rein Taaramäe (Cofidis) s.t.
fra FRA 78 Pierrick Fedrigo (Française Des Jeux) s.t.
pol POL 79 Maciej Paterski (Liquigas-Cannondale) s.t.
fra FRA 80 Jérome Coppel (Saur-Sojasun) s.t.
fra FRA 81 Amaël Moinard (BMC Racing) s.t.
fra FRA 82 John Gadret (Ag2r-La Mondiale) s.t.
ita ITA 83 Francesco Reda (Quick Step) s.t.
fra FRA 84 Tony Gallopin (Cofidis) s.t.
fra FRA 85 Fabrice Jeandesboz (Saur-Sojasun) s.t.
usa USA 86 Matthew Busche (RadioShack) s.t.
sui SUI 87 Michael Albasini (HTC-Highroad) s.t.
sui SUI 88 Mathias Frank (BMC Racing) s.t.
irl IRL 89 Philip Deignan (RadioShack) s.t.
esp ESP 90 Ivan Velasco Murillo (Euskaltel - Euskadi) 00:08:01
ita ITA 91 Simone Ponzi (Liquigas-Cannondale) 00:08:55
bel BEL 92 Pieter Jacobs (Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator) s.t.
ita ITA 93 Alessandro Spezialetti (Lampre-ISD) 00:08:56
bel BEL 94 Thomas Degand (Veranda's Willems - Accent) 00:09:22
bel BEL 95 Kevin Van Melsen (Veranda's Willems - Accent) s.t.
pol POL 96 Rafal Majka (Saxo Bank-Sungard) s.t.
ita ITA 97 Valerio Agnoli (Liquigas-Cannondale) s.t.
bel BEL 98 Sven Van Den Houte (Veranda's Willems - Accent) s.t.
fra FRA 99 Remi Cusin (Cofidis) s.t.
nor NOR 100 Lars Petter Nordhaug (Team Sky) 00:11:02
bel BEL 101 Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM) 00:11:29
bel BEL 102 Laurens De Vreese (Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator) 00:13:32
ita ITA 103 Dario Cataldo (Quick Step) s.t.
ita ITA 104 Damiano Caruso (Liquigas-Cannondale) s.t.
ger GER 105 Fabian Wegmann (Leopard-Trek) s.t.
ita ITA 106 Ivan Santaromita (BMC Racing) s.t.
ita ITA 107 Manuele Mori (Lampre-ISD) s.t.
fra FRA 108 Julien El Fares (Cofidis) s.t.
den DEN 109 Brian Vandborg (Saxo Bank-Sungard) s.t.
fra FRA 110 Jérémy Roy (Française Des Jeux) s.t.
usa USA 111 Thomas Danielson (Garmin-Cervelo) s.t.
esp ESP 112 Xabier Zandio Echaide (Team Sky) s.t.
ger GER 113 Johannes Frohlinger (Skil-Shimano) s.t.
bel BEL 114 Jan Bakelants (Omega Pharma-Lotto ) 00:15:13
bel BEL 115 Francis De Greef (Omega Pharma-Lotto ) 00:15:14
ita ITA 116 Eros Capecchi (Liquigas-Cannondale) 00:15:17

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