Thanks for the "great" video..... 4000 replies, another milestone!

So, no more reports today. Have to play LBL first, and go to my family in the South of Holland to celebrate X-mas eve (and go to the church of course, as we musn't forget to real reason why we celebrate X-mas!).

WHy is that? I thought it was for all the presents?

CONGRATZ with the 4000 replies and 200 pages!

You enjoy your holidays, you've already given us already for now

Enjoy Christmas dienblad and then come back ready and refreshed to report another 200 pages

great job with 200!!!

@ sutty: I can already tell you, that there won't be another 200..... Then I'd set an achievement that fantastic, people start accusing me of doping

Wallonnie and Liège are preparing for the centennial edition of Liège - Bastogne - Liège. It's the 4st monument of the year and the closening of the spring classics season.
Eddy Merckx is record holder in La Doyenne with 5 wins. Last year, Andy Schleck took his 2nd LBL win, after geating home favourite Philippe Gilbert in the sprint in Ans.




255.5 kilometres have to be done, including 10 categorized hills and a total of 3618 height metres.










*** Damiano Cunego (Radio Shack), Philippe Gilbert (Dexia), Andy Schleck (Sky).
** Simon Gerrans (Dexia), Roman Kreuziger (Movistar), Joaquím Rodríguez (Kausha).
* Igor Anton (Euskaltel), Gregory Bernard, Ben Hermans (Astana).

Our Goal
With 2 Top 5 finishes in the previous 2 Ardennes classics, a Top 5 is our goal, but will be very hard to achieve!

Very curious to see what Bernard has left for us here!

It's a win, maybe for Bernard, the Cannibal the II?

Top five or top 10

Bernard for the podium this time!

After a way too strong early breakaway has been caught even before the first hills showed up (most important riders in it were Oscar Gatto (Hi 74), David Arroyo (75) and Matthew Lloyd (77)), a new breakaway was formed. This breakaway turns out to be the BOTD.
Karsten Kroon (Rabobank), Brent Bookwalter (Sony Ericsson), Michele Gaia (Lampre), Jonathan Dufrasne (Wallonie), Mitja Nahoric (BMC), Oscar Gatto (Farnese Vini), Egoi Martínez (Euskaltel), Leonardo Piepoli (Acqua et Sapone) and David Arroyo (Movistar) start the ascend of the Mur St. Roch (0.9km at 11.2%) with a margin of 2'38 to Vladimir Karpets (Saxo), who's trying to bridge the gap, and 4'44 to the peloton.


But when the peloton is making the sharp turn before the hill starts, Igor Antón crashes. Last year's winner of the Giro, who hasn't shown himself so far this season, needs some time to get up, and as the peloton breaks into a few pieces on this short steep climb, he looses contact with the other favourites.



Next hill is the Cote de Wanne (3.0km at 6.5%). Karpets has joined the 9 leaders, and the 10 have a margin of 4'14 to the peloton. Together with Movistar and Radio Shack, we have taken control of the pace of the peloton, and can see the BOTD further up the hill.
The reason that the pace of the peloton is increased, is that a big group with outsiders rides 4 minutes behind the peloton and we don't want them to return. Besides Antón (Hi 83), a lot of Omega Pharma-riders (Vandewalle 77, Bakelants 76, Hivert 78, Rolland 77), as well as Simon Spilak (77), Matthew Lloyd (77) and Peter Velits (77) have been surprised.



Karpets ha staken it easy for a short while, and starts to increase the pace of the BOTD in the ascend of the next hill, the Cote de la Haute Levée (2.2km at 7.3%). Piepoli has already been dropped and now Kroon is doing the same thing. Nevertheless, the peloton (with our Jack Bobridge doing most of the work in the chase) is approaching (2'51).



In the ascend of the Haute Levée and the next hill, the Col du Rosier, the peloton (2'28 behind the BOTD) is breaking into more smaller groups. Only 55 riders are capable of following. LL Sánchez (76) Capecchi (76) and JJ Cobo (79) follow at 5'58, a group with Bole (76), Gavazzi (77) and Poels (77) at 6'30 and the group Antón / OPQS at 8'47.



Vladimir Karpets has dropped the other leaders before the summit of the Cote de Maquisard and now starts the Mont Theux (2.8km at 5.8%) with a margin of 1'26 to the former BOTD and 2'52 to the peloton (53 riders). The group Sánchez/Cobo/Poels follws at 7'44 and the group Antón at 10'14. Game over for them all.



The final of La Doyenne starts with the Cote de la Redoute (1.7km at 9.9%, max 22%). Karpets is still in the lead, followed by the peloton at 2'21 (the former BOTD has been caught).
Radio Shack, Movistar and Sky set a high pace at the steep slopes of the Redoute, making many riders to loose contact with the group. 1 rider of Petronas - Monster Energy is able to position himself among the first riders, and it's again Gregory Bernard. Both Vanendert and Sagan have a very bad day (daily form of -5), and are starting to fall behind....



Christophe Le Mével (Europcar, 76) attacks out of the peloton at the summit of La Redoute. Then the Sky riders hit the breaks, and wait for their leader Andy Schleck, who got blocked at La Redoute.
Consequently, a few groups are formed. 2'18 behind Karpets rides the first group with from Radio Shack Fuglsang (78), Nibali (80) and Cunego (81), from Movistar Rojas (75), Contadr (79), Kreuziger (82) and Barredo (78), and Daniel Moreno (Euskaltel 78) and Bernard (81). The second group with the Sky's Kreder (79), Urán (79) and A. Schleck (83), as well as Valverde (80) & Gerrans (81) from Dexia, Vanendert (80) and Madrazo (77) follows at 2'46 and a group of 20 with Nieve (79), Rodríguez (80), Hermans (80), Gilbert (85), D Gendt (80), Scarponi (78), Sagan (79), F. Schleck (81) and Visconti (80) at 3'08.



The first 3 groups join each other in the race towards the foot of the Cote de la Roche aux Faucoms (1.7km at 9.9%). Karpets still leads them by 1'36. Gregory Bernard is taking the lead of the chasing group, as he feels that climbing in his own pace costs him the least amount of energy.



But before the summit of the Roche aux Faucons, ANdy Schleck attacks. Last year's winner gets countered by Roman Kreuziger Kreuziger and Simon Gerrans.



The 3 can close the gap to soil leader Vladimir Karpets at the summit of the Roche aux Faucons. Also Damiano Cunego, winner of the Amstel Gold Race, is closing the gap, and he immediately attacks. The chasing group with Gilbert and Bernard follows at '34.



The group Schleck / Kreuziger / Gerrans hesitates what to do, and Cunego is gone. Not only that, also the chasing group rejoins. So with th elong descend to Liège almost done, Cunego has a margin of '23 to a group with Kreuziger, A. Schleck, Bernard, Hermans, Rodríguez, Gilbert, De Gendt, Gerrans and F. Schleck and '45 to a 2nd group with Valverde, Urán, Scarponi etc. The Cote de Saint-Nicolas is waiting for them!



With Cunego riding solo through the Italian neighbourhood in Liège, his team mate Thomas De Gendt attacks out of the chasing group.... What is he doing here? He's wasting Cunego's chanches this way...



And in the early part of the last categorized climb of the day, the Cote de Saint-Nicolas (1.2km at 9.4%), Cunego gets caught, making it a 22-men leading group, with Bernard. in 10th position


Ben Hermans attacks before the summit of the Saint-Nicolas. Alejandro Valverde (haven't seen him al race long) counters, just as Rodríguez, A. Schleck and Cunego.



Hermans stalls pretty early, leaving the opportunity for Valverde and again Cunego to create a small gap. They have a gap of only 9 seconds to Kreuziger, Gilbert, A. Schleck, Bernard, Gerrans, Hermans, De Gendt and Rodríguez.



The last ascending 2 kilometres in Ans have started. Cunego is still leading the race, looking for his first ever win in La Doyenne. Gilbert follows at '17, with Bernard and Hermans in his wheel. Also Gerrans, A. Schleck and Kreuziger follow closely.



Cunego is running out of energy, and it's Czech Roman Kreuziger who is the first to overtake him. Gilbert is in 3rd place, Bernard in 4th, but the danger is riding in 5th place, as Andy Schleck has got the highest speed of the 5 at the moment.



And that highest speed brings Andy Schleck his 3rd Liège - Bastogne - Liège victory, his 2nd in a row. Kreuziger takes the 2nd place, Cunego the 3rd, Gilbert the 4th, and guess who finishes in 5th???????
Yeah, Gregory Bernard takes the 5th place, just as in the Amstel and La Flèche!!!

1	Andy Schleck	Sky ProCycling	6h35'25
2	Roman Kreuziger	Movistar Team	s.t.
3	Damiano Cunego	Radio Shack - Nissan	s.t.
4	Philippe Gilbert	Dexia	s.t.
5	Gregory Bernard	Petronas - Monster Energy	s.t.
6	Simon Gerrans	Dexia	s.t.
7	Ben Hermans	Pro Team Astana	s.t.
8	Thomas De Gendt	Radio Shack - Nissan	+ 18
9	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	s.t.
10	Alejandro Valverde	Dexia	+ 26

WIth the Ardennes classics done, Sky and Radio Shack prooved to be the best teams. Dexia disappointed, as they never acted as a team (Gerrans and Valverde riding for their own, instead of helping Gilbert). But the biggest surprise must be our Gregory Bernard, finishing in 5th place all 3 races in his 2nd year of professional cycling!!

Oooh very nice 5th place again
Exciting race, but there's two times the same screenshot in the report.

Very nice race, I really enjoyed it!

Noticed that to, changed it already. And thanks!

Bernard <3.

Bernard is riding brilliantly at the moment, his third 5th place in a row, lets hope he can soon get a victory for all his efforts

Does he get to continue his streak or is he going on a break now?

Bernard now has a 3-month break, before returning for the Tour of Pologne, the Vuelta Asturias and La Vuelta.
And remember, he won a race ast year, I believe Coppa Sabatini or Tre Valli Varesine (a race like that, a 1.1 classic in Italy).

I'm curious to see what he'll do in Poland, with some hilly profiles he should get a nice opportunity there!

The last race before the Giro d'Italia starts is the Tour de Romandie. This 6-stage World Tour race serves as a great general rehearsel for the Giro. Stephen Roche is the record winner with 3 wins in the previous 67 editions. Last year, Gustav Erik Larsson won the race, mostly thanks to his TT-abilities.






The route is a copy of the 2010-edition, meaning a prologue, an ITT, 2 hilly stages and 2 mountain stages. It kicks off with a 4.3km flat prologue in the streets of Porrentruy. The next day, the riders head to the South for a 175km stage to Fleurier, with 3 classified climbs, with the last summit 40km before the finish. Next to follow is a 172km stage with start and finish in Fribourg.


The last 3 stages will decide the GC. First the 4th stage, a 23km ITT around Moudon with a climb with 300 metres of height differece in the first 7 kilometres. The 5th, and first mountain, stage brings the riders to France, to the town of Chatel. The route features two 1st category climbs, the Pas de Mongins and the Col du Corbier, with the summit 25km before the finish. Still, the last 15km are slightly ascending. The final stage features 3 1st category climbs. Immediately after the start in Sion, the road starts ascending to the highest point of this Tour de Romandie, the Anzère (1544m). After a short descend follows the climb to Crans Montana. Then, after 45km of flat roads, awaits the Ovronnaz, 20km before the finish in Sion.









*** Alberto Contador (Movistar), Wilco Kelderman, Janez Brajkovic (Sky).
** Jurgen Van den Broeck (BMC), Thomas Löfkvist (Sony Ericsson), Richie Porte (Saxo Bank).
* Beñat Intxausti (Euskaltel), Vasil Kiryienka (Astana), Andreas Klöden (Sony Ericsson).


We'll aim for a top 3 in the GC with Kelderman and a stage win as well.