Hubert Dupont was the best rider in the World a few years ago, especially in the period between 2009 and 2011, when he took wins in the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España. However, he dropped his performances quite a bit in the following years after he left Saxo Bank and joined the Rabobank - Belkin structure. Dupont was always close to the front riders but no longer was the dominant rider that had won the first two Grand Tours in the story. Nevertheless, he took another podium in the Tour de France in 2015 and in the Vuelta a España in 2013 during that stage.
Belkin had the problem when they signed Dupont as a leader for the team and Rob Ruijgh won the Giro d'Italia on that season. This caused the team to have no real leader for the Grand Tours in a few races and that is not a good recipe for success. Nevertheless, they managed to be 2nd in the World Tour rankings in the 2014 season but they entered a downward spiral that left him in the bottom places in the World Tour last season. Hubert Dupont found a way out before the 2016 season and went to the Euskaltel - Euskadi team, who did not have that kind of problem.
It is understood that Hubert Dupont agreed to be a helping rider for David Lopez in a few races each season. This gives the Spanish team a chance to have a wildcard in stage races as other teams have to be very worried about Dupont but the status of the team is clear. Nevertheless, this gave the French the opportunity to win the Volta a Catalunya this season, which is his first stage race win since he took the 2010 Vuelta a España. It was a very long period between wins that no one would have expected in 2010.
The 2017 season has been very productive so far for the Euskaltel team and they are clearly leading the team rankings with Alexander Kristoff, David Lopez and Hubert Dupont in the top 10 of the rankings. However, the chances for Dupont of taking another Grand Tour win, which is probably the ultimate target for him are rather slim while he is in the team as he has to be subordinated to the preferences of David Lopez. However, this season Lopez will skip the Tour de France so Dupont will have to do his best to get a good result in the Tour.
The Spring Classics is one o f the most interesting parts of the season and it draws to an end with the fourth monument of the season, the Liege - Bastogne - Liege. This is the monument for the hills riders and the puncheurs but those need to be able to survive the very tough route that the organizers have planned. The route is the same that was done last year, 260 kilometers long starting in Liege and finishing in Ans. It has all the iconic climbs like Saint-Roch, La Redoute, the Roche-aux-Faucons or Saint-Nicholas. The toughest part of the race starts with around 100 kilometers to go but the total climbing is close to 4,000 meters.
The race has been historically dominated by the Belgian riders with Bjorn Leukemans, Dries Devenyns and Jelle Vanendert taking 4 of the 5 editions of the race. Something similar might happen this year as most of the favorites are also Belgian, although two of them riding for Lotto - Soudal. Simon Gerrans was the only foreign winner, in 2014. That was a rather surprising win and Gerrans has not been able to get back to the level that he showed in that week, when he also took the Amstel Gold Race.
Favorites:
- Jelle Vanendert (Lotto - Soudal): Jelle Vanendert arrives in the fourth monument of the season on very good shape after taking the win in the Fleche Wallonne and the 3rd place in last weekend's Amstel Gold Race. The race in Liege will be much harder than the previous ones but that should give Vanendert bigger chances of taking the win as he proved on Wednesday to be the stronger rider over the hills. However, considering that his biggest rival might be in his own team it might be difficult to manage the race for Lotto.
- Bjorn Leukemans (Lotto - Soudal): Bjorn Leukemans has been the most successful rider in the Liege - Bastogne - Liege as he has not been worse than 2nd in the last 4 editions. However, he has been helping Vanendert in the previous races in the Ardennes and not riding for himself. This has not allowed us to gauge his fitness and casts doubts as to whether Lotto reached an agreement to let Vanendert ride for the win in this week an for Leukemans to act as support. It would be a surprise if Leukemans agreed to let go the chance to win one more monument.
- Joost van Leijen (Team Giant - Alpecin): Van Leijen is once again one of the favorites for the podium, although he has not been able to get anything better than a 4th place in the Amstel Gold Race in the past 2 races. The biggest problem for him is that he cannot be distracted for even 1 second as he will not have strong enough teammates to chase in the last kilometers of the race if he loses track of the front group or if he has to chase. Nevertheless, if he is as strong as he proved in the Amstel Gold Race he will be the one attacking rather than chasing.
- Philippe Gilbert (Vacansoleil - DMC): Philippe Gilbert will be satisfied with his performance in the Ardennes even if he has a bad result in Liege. The win he got in the Amstel Gold Race was the best in his career. However, he was third twice at the finish line in Ans so he must be itching to get something better out of this race. The best outcome for him would be attacking either in Saint-Nicholas or in Ans but he should not wait for a final sprint as he does not have the speed to battle it with the likes of Simone Ponzi or Joost van Leijen.
Other riders with a shot at the podium are Simone Ponzi (LottoNL - Jumbo), Emanuele Sella (Movistar Team), Frank Schleck (Etixx - Quickstep), Davide Rebellin (Astana Pro Team), David Lopez (Euskaltel - Euskadi) and Tom Slagter (Cannondale - Drapac).
The riders were going to have a nice day for the Liege - Bastogne - Liege with sun expected along the route. The race is 260 kilometers long so the ride towards Bastogne is not expected to be very hard. However, the problems for the riders will start with the Cote de Saint-Roch. They will then have to face many difficult climbs like Stockeau, La Redoute, La Roche-aux-Faucons and Saint-Nicholas. The climb to La Redoute used to be a breaking point for the race in the past but in the last few year the Roche-aux-Faucons makes the selection instead.
Many teams wanted to filter riders in the break of the day but Lotto and Etixx did not want a very big break to go. They fought for at least 50 kilometers with groups that were considered dangerous. Nevertheless, the group that finally made it had 9 riders, including Stefano Garzelli (Movistar), Jens Debusschere (LottoNL), Jure Kocjan (Katusha), Andriy Grivko (Giant) and Christophe Riblon (Cofidis). With 175 kilometers to go, shortly after the climb to the Cote de la Roche-en-Ardenne, they had a gap of 4' 15'' on the group.
The riders turned around in Bastogne and headed to the first difficulty of the way back: the Cote de Saint-Roch. The climb is short and really steep but the fact that is placed 139 kilometers to the finish line means that the peloton takes it easy in the climb and no riders even think about attacking in it. It is also quite isolated from the other difficult climbs. Vincenzo Nibali (Lampre), Nick Nuyens (Lotto) and Giovanni Visconti (Etixx) were leading the group but the gap had already grown to 7 minutes for the break. Bjorn Leukemans (Lotto) crashed a few kilometers before that but with no consequences.
The break riders were trying to maintain their gap as big as possible but the difficulties started with several climbs, like Stavelot and Haute-Levee, in rapid succession with less than 90 kilometers to go. Their gap had already come down to 4' 30'' even though the peloton was not really chasing hard to get them yet. Lloyd Mondory (Etixx) and Giovanni Visconti had taken over the chase as they apparently thought that the pace set by Lotto was not hard enough. Frank Schleck (Etixx) must be feeling good and with legs to attack in the hills closer to the finish line.
The pace increased quite a bit in the bunch at La Redoute but no one attacked as the pace that Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lotto) put at the front of the bunch was quite hard. Etixx was also committed to increasing the pace and Lloyd Mondory was not saving any energies in his bid to make the race tough for Frank Schleck. With 44 kilometers to go the break was not too far ahead and the peloton was getting smaller and smaller by the minute. However, what used to be a key breaking point of the race was again missed by the favorites. It is only in the cobbles races that we get attacks from this far out.
There were no attacks in La Redoute but Bjorn Leukemans attacked shortly afterwards and that put every other team in an alert mode. Lotto is one of the few teams that can take these risks as Jelle Vanendert (Lotto) is their main option and they can make other teams work. At the Cote de Forges, Leukemans had joined Stefano Garzelli and Beñat Intxausti (Discovery) and was leading the race. Joost van Leijen (Giant) and Greg van Avermaet (Euskaltel) were leading the chase and, while the gap was only 20 seconds, they were having a hard time trying to close it.
Bjorn Leukemans was eventually caught back by the group of the favorites shortly before the climb to the Roche-aux-Faucons. That was the climb where the race got completely broken as Jelle Vanendert attacked almost from the bottom of the climb and he was only followed by Frank Schleck, Greg van Avermaet, Joost van Leijen and Davide Rebellin (Astana). Simone Ponzi (LottoNL) was trying to bridge the gap but lost 25 seconds at the top of the climb, while a group of 16 including Philippe Gilbert (Vacansoleil) and Rui Costa (Ag2r) were 50 seconds behind. The gap for the front group was not final but anyone more than 1 minute behind was practically out of the race.
Davide Rebellin had held on to the front in the initial attack but dropped in a small climb after the Roche. He was caught by Simone Ponzi on the run towards Saint-Nicholas and the LottoNL rider even left him behind. Ponzi looked very strong in the flat sections and downhill but as soon as the road started to go up he was not strong enough to follow the best. He lost 30 seconds at the top of Saint-Nicholas, while Rebellin was 40 seconds behind the top 4. Meanwhile, a smaller group of 6 was chasing 1' 10'' behind the leaders including Bjorn Leukemans, Emanuele Sella (Movistar) and Philippe Gilbert.
Frank Schleck was suffering a lot at the top of the Cote de Saint-Nicholas and even lost touch with the other 3 riders. However, he joined again in the descent towards the bottom of the climb in Ans. However, as they turned left to face the uphill straight with 2 kilometers to go he was clearly the weakest in the group. It looked like Jelle Vanendert, Greg van Avermaet and Joost van Leijen were the riders that would be in the podium at the end of the day. The three of them are quite fast if it comes down to a sprint so their strategies are not obvious beforehand.
Jelle Vanendert was the first to attack in the climb to Ans but instead of dropping everyone like he did in the much harder Mur de Huy he was left behind by Joost van Leijen with 800 meters to go. Greg van Avermaet was trying to suck the wheel of the Dutch, who was proving to be very strong at the end of a very long day. Meanwhile, Frank Schleck had dropped and was losing 12 seconds, while Simone Ponzi was 21 seconds behind and Davide Rebellin was losing 51 seconds. It is worth remembering that Van Leijen rides for a Pro Continental team and was fighting for a monument.
Joost van Leijen wins in Ans! It was a great effort by the Dutch, who makes it clear that his win in the World Championship in 2010 was not entirely by chance. This is the first monument win for Van Leijen, who has done it riding for a Pro Continental team. Giant has clearly been performing much closer to a mid-range World Tour team than what it was supposed to be before the start of the season. They will clearly be back in the World Tour rankings next season. Meanwhile, Greg van Avermaet took the 2nd position as he managed to follow Van Leijen's wheel but could not get past.
Jelle Vanendert completed the podium, rolling over the finish line 6 seconds behind Van Leijen. It was a very good week for Vanendert even though he could not repeat his win in Liege like last year. The fourth place went to Frank Schleck, 29 seconds behind, while Simon Ponzi completed the top 5 in the race. The race was very entertaining and Lotto did not manage to grab the win even though they seemed the best placed to take the win with either Vanendert or Bjorn Leukemans. Nevertheless, the attack from the Belgian from far out was probably the trigger for a very interesting last part of the race.
It is sad to say goodbye to the spring classics but the cycling world moves on and it is now the turn of the Tour de Romandie. This race puts an end to the first part of the season and all the riders will have 1 month of holidays as there is no Giro d'Italia in 2017. The Tour de Romandie is a race that is well loved by the stage racers that are good time trialists as there is a prologue and a closing time trial in only 6 stages. The route will be the same that has been raced in the last couple of years. The key mountain stage will finish in Aigle with the climb to Villars-sur-Ollon as the last climb of the day.
The rider that has been most successful in Romandie has been Bauke Mollema, who took the last two editions of the race over the same route. He will obviously be among the favorites in 2017. Tejay van Garderen won in 2013 and has been a total of 3 times in the podium. However, he has not raced since the Tirreno - Adriatico and he stated that he will be in a supporting role in the race. The race is of HC category and therefore many teams have skipped it, like Cannondale and HTC. A total of 16 teams will be at the starting line in Ascona but it should be more than enough for them to put a good show.
Favorites:
- Chris Froome (Lampre - Merida): Chris Froome is one of the riders best suited to the kind of route that the Tour de Romandie offers. He is very strong both in the mountains and the time trials and there is only one stage, the second, where the tactics of weaker riders might put him in a difficult position. He was also in the podium last year so he already knows what he will be facing. Lampre needs the points in the World Tour rankings as they have not been anywhere this year and Froome got their only stage win so far in the Volta a Catalunya.
- Marco Pinotti (Team Sky): Pinotti is probably the best time trialist among the favorites for the final win in the race. He was also in the 2nd place of the podium last season and proved that he can go over the difficult 4th mountainous stage with the group of the best riders. If he can get over that stage close to the front of the GC his chances will grow exponentially. In the other balanced stage race this season the Italian, the Tirreno - Adriatico, the Italian could only be 5th but the team time trial did not do him any favors.
- Robert Gesink (Ag2r - La Mondiale): Robert Gesink has had an unremarkable season so far. Ag2r signed him two years ago to improve their profile in the stage races but he has only been able to do that occasionally. Most notably, he was 2nd in last year's Criterium du Dauphine. This season he has been nowhere close to the front of the races he has done, with an 11th place in the Basque Country as his best result. Nevertheless, the Tour de Romandie should be a good race for him as there are not that many climbers that can do well in the time trials.
- Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil - DMC): Our last choice for the favorites is an easy one. Bauke Mollema has won the last two editions of the Tour de Romandie and therefore it would be difficult for him not to be considered among the riders that could take the overall win. Mollema normally reaches the last time trial in a very good shape and kills the options of any riders that were ahead of him ahead of that stage. On the other hand, his season so far has been terrible and he has not even been close to the best riders in any race.
Other riders with a shot at the podium are Peter Stetina (BMC Racing Team), Tony Martin and Cadel Evans (Lotto - Soudal), Jerome Coppel and Frank Schleck (Etixx - Quickstep) and Michael Rogers (Trek - Segafredo).
The Tour de Romandie starts with a prologue that normally does not make big differences in the GC as it is less than 6 kilometers long. The stage will take the riders through the streets of Ascona, which lies on the shore of the Lago Maggiore. It is completely flat but there are lots of twists and turns, which will not benefit the specialists and will make the gaps smaller than usual. The weather will be quite nice and even though there are no bright skies there will be no wind and rain to bother the riders in the prologue.
Tejay van Garderen (Trek) was the first of the favorites for the stage to start. The fitness of the American is unclear as he has not raced since the Tirreno - Adriatico and already stated before the start that he was willing to be a helper for Michael Rogers. Nevertheless, he took the provisional first position as he crossed the finish line, 6 seconds better than Rein Taaramae (Katusha). There had only been a few riders starting ahead of Tejay so his time was not yet a clear reference for the day.
Trek had a very good team of riders against the clock and the next up was the World Champion, Cameron Meyer (Trek). The Australian has had a poor season so far. He wanted to take a chance in the Tour Down Under but could not manage to be among the best and could only be 4th in the time trial of the Tirreno - Adriatico. He was much better today as he improved on Bradley Wiggins' time, who had displaced Tejay van Garderen from the first position. He clocked a 7' 26'' that was 10 seconds better than the best time so far.
The next among the favorites was Tiago Machado (Tinkoff). The Portuguese is a good rider against the clock but he was probably not even dreaming of taking the stage win today. His season had not been anywhere close to what was expected from him but he was very close to a stage win in Pomarance during the Tirreno - Adriatico. His performance was not bad at all today and he clocked the provisional 2nd time as he crossed the finish line in Ascona. His time was only 7 seconds slower than Cameron Meyer's and that must give him hope for the rest of the race.
Lotto had not been a team for time trialists in the past but that completely changed last year and among others they signed Tony Martin (Lotto). The German has become a very solid rider against the clock but in his only time trial this year, the last stage in the Tirreno - Adriatico, he had only been 3rd. Today was set to be different as he beat Cameron Meyer's time by a margin of 7 seconds. That was a time that would be really difficult to beat for other riders coming behind as he had put more than 1 second per kilometer on the current World Champion.
Michael Rogers (Trek) is normally a domestique for other riders in the Trek team but it was meant to be different in this Tour de Romandie. Tejay van Garderen stated that he would be happy to help him in the race if Rogers was feeling good, which suggests that he will be the leader of the team in Switzerland. It will therefore be a very important race for him and he started his race in a very good shape by taking the provisional 3rd place, only 9 seconds behind Tony Martin. That would put him ahead of most of the favorites to be in the final podium.
Even though Etixx also brought Frank Schleck (Etixx) to the Tour de Romandie it seems clear that their rider for the GC should be Jerome Coppel (Etixx). The French is a very solid rider against the clock and he already won the final time trial of the Vuelta al Pais Vasco a few weeks ago. His performance today was quite good again and he grabbed the 4th provisional time, tied with Michael Rogers 9 seconds behind Tony Martin. This is a very good position to start the race for him as it will put him among the top contenders for the final podium.
Marco Pinotti (Sky) moved to Sky this season to look for the leading role in the stage races in the team. In his first race as the leader of the team he took the final 5th position in the Tirreno - Adriatico so he should also be among the riders with a chance in the GC. It was very tight at the front of the classification as he also stopped the clock 9 seconds behind Martin and grabbed the 5th position. The Sky rider should also be one of the best riders in the mountain stage so the prospect is quite good for him in Romandie.
The last among the favorites for the stage was Chris Froome (Lampre). The British had been in the podium last year and he was keen to have a good result for his new team. Otherwise they might find themselves in the Pro Continental category next season sooner than expected. The British had a good result but nothing spectacular. He crossed the finish line in 7th position, 14 seconds behind the winner of the stage: Tony Martin. It was not a great performance but he will be in the mix and well ahead of other riders that will be dangerous in the mountains.
This was the first win of the season for Tony Martin and also his first since he joined the Lotto outfit. Nevertheless, it is not expected that he keeps it for long as he may even have trouble to stay with the best in tomorrow's stage. Among the favorites that were not in the top 10 we had: Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil) and Robert Gesink (Ag2r) +18''; Cadel Evans (Lotto) +20''; Peter Stetina (BMC) +24'' and Frank Schleck (Etixx) +32''. The gaps were not big but Schleck already had a bit of time to recover.
