Liege - Bastogne - Liege, 'La Doyenne' of the classics is the last race from the Ardennes trio. The race will finish right after the short climb of the Cote de Ans, but the main attacks are expected to happen earlier on the Cote de Saint Nicolas and on the Cote de la Redoute.
Sky brought here the same riders as in La Fleche Wallone. With the recent result from Amstel Gold Race and La Fleche Wallone, where Flecha finished in front of Gerrans and Lovkvist, the Spaniard is definitely our big gun for La Doyenne.
If the Sky team is the same as in the Fleche, the startlist is even a better one that in the previous Wallone race. All the stars from Amstel and Fleche are present for this one plus some new names including last year's winner, Andy Schleck, his brother Franck, the 7 times winner of the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong and the 2 big guns from Rabobank, the 2 times winner of La Vuelta a Espana and one time winner of the Giro d'Italia, Denis Menchov, and the Dutch young gun Robert Gesink.
Team Sky for Liege - Bastogne - Liege: Sylvain Calzati Kjell Carlström Juan Antonio Flecha Chris Froome Simon Gerrans Peter Kennaugh Thomas Lövkvist Serge Pauwels
The final one from the Ardennes Classics is here. Valverde will try to top his 3rd places from Amstel Gold Race and Fleche Wallone, while Gilbert and Rodriguez will look to make a double
A few big names, such as Leipheimer, Kreuziger, Di Gregorio, Efimkin and Dan Martin, were present in the main breakaway of the day. They got a maximum advantage of almost 10 minutes but still their adventure ended quite early, with 50 kilometers before the finish
On Cote de la Redoute, the big moves started and 3 riders got away and took the lead of the race. Two of the big favorites were there, Cunego and Valverde, and Yaroslav Popovych. Behind them were made some other small groups, Flecha and Gerrans being in the third and the fourth group
Inside the last 10 kilometers of the race, right before the Cote de Saint Nicolas, Valverde, Cunego and Popovych were joined in front by Gesink, Wegmann, Contador and Rodriguez. The other chasing groups weren't too far either
Cunego and Valverde lead the group on Cote de Saint Nicolas but neither was able to get away. Still there were some changes in the leading group, while Popovych was dropped off from the group, 2 riders joined the group. The two new comers were Nocentini and Ivanov
Right before the final slopes of the day, on the Cote de Ans, Popovych managed to get back in the leading group. He brought with him Flecha, Gerdemann and Kolobnev, which increased the number of riders in the leading group to 14
As those four were joining the leading group, Gilbert attacked and got away. Valverde and Cunego tried to keep it up with him but the Omega Pharma rider looked just too strong compared with his opponents
The Belgian entered the last kilometer in a clear solo lead and with the Cote de Ans almost over it will be even harder for his chasers to catch him
Cunego, Valverde and Rodriguez were leading the sprint in the chasing group, behind Gilbert, but it looks like they are fighting only for the second spot now
And Phillipe Gilbert wins La Doyenne of the classics, taking the Amstel Gold Race -- Liege - Bastogne - Liege double, this also being his second Monument win of the season, after Milano - Sanremo!
After 2 third places, Valverde got this time the 2nd place, while the third place went now to Damiano Cunego. The Katusha duo who took the double in Fleche Wallone, made by Rodriguez and Ivanov, was now 3 places lower
Flecha was again our best rider and this time he even grabbed a place in the top 10, taking the last spot there. Gerrans, on the other hand, had a terrible day and finished only 21st, while Lovkvist was even lower, on the 35th position
Tour de Romandie is the last big race before the first Grand Tour of the year, the Giro d'Italia. The queen stage of the race is going to be the fifth the only stage classified as a high mountain one even though the finish isn't an uphill one. The fourth stage, which is a team time - trial could also prove to be quite important as well as the short opening prologue.
Bradley Wiggins will lead Team Sky in Romandie for the general classification, while Arvesen, Vigano and Boasson Hagen are here for the sprints. Also the team that is going to ride here is going to be almost the same as the one who will start the Giro.
And it looks like Wiggins will have a nice chance to win Tour de Romandie this year as the startlist isn't an impressive one, his main opponents being Plaza, Zubeldia, Brajkovic and Larsson. Wiggins will look for his second big win this season after he took the overall win in Castilla y Leon, where he faced stronger riders than here.
Team Sky for Tour de Romandie: Kurt Asle Arvesen Michael Barry Edvald Boasson Hagen Dario Cioni Chris Froome Serge Pauwels Davide Viganò Bradley Wiggins
Tour de Romandie 2010 opens up, just like in 2009, with a short prologue in Lausanne. The big favorites of the day are Gustav Larsson, Bradley Wiggins and David Millar
Even though their super star, Alejandro Valverde, isn't here, Caisse managed an amazing result, Plaza, Amador, Fran Perez and Uran dominating the provisional rankings for most part of the stage
David Millar was one of the favorites to take the win today, but he wasn't able to beat any of the Caisse d'Epargne riders, finishing 11 seconds behind Ruben Plaza, who was the fastest from the Caisse group
Another big name on paper, the German Champion, Bert Grabsch, was even more disappointing, being far away from Plaza, finishing 19 seconds slower than the Spaniard
Brajkovic, one of the Radioshack leaders and the Slovenian national champion, lost 14 seconds to Plaza. The other Radioshack big gun, Zubeldia lost only 9 seconds to the Caisse rider, which means that he will lead The Shack now, being also stronger in the mountains than Brajkovic
The first rider able to break the Caisse domination was Gustav Erik Larsson, who managed to take the lead quite clearly from Plaza, by 7 seconds which is quite a nice gap in only 6 kilometers
Boasson Hagen also managed to be faster than 3 of the Caisse d'Epargne riders, only Plaza being faster than him. Hagen lost 12 seconds to Larsson and 5 seconds to Plaza
Bradley Wiggins was the last rider to start and he was very close to win the stage but in the end he was only 3 seconds slower than Gustav Erik Larsson, who becomes the first leader of this year's Tour de Romandie, while Hagen took the lead in the young riders classification
The second stage in Romandie is made for sprinters. And as with the general classification favorites there are no top sprinters here, which means that the Sky train made by Arvesen, Vigano and Hagen might have an easy job to take the stage win
Santambrogio was first at the top of the first climb of the day, while Offredo did the same thing on the second climb. But in the end the one who got the most points on the three climbs of the day was Konovalovas and he took the KoM jersey. The escapes were caught on the last climb of the day and the pack head to a mass sprint
The second climb proved a little bit too hard for Vigano and he was dropped off from the pack. Pauwels and Michael Barry stayed with him but they didn't manage to bring him back in the pack, which means that we can count only on Arvesen and Boasson Hagen for the sprint
But there are more bad news for Team Sky. As the preparations for the mass sprint were made and the Sky and the La Francaise des Jeux train were heading to the front of the pack, one of the FdJeux riders, Sulzberger crashed bringing Hagen down with him as well. A few other riders were also involved in the crash, including Fran Perez, who finished 6th in the prologue
Even with their leaders down, the lead - out men, Meersman and Arvesen, still managed to stay in front of the pack and they even managed to get quite a nice gap. When the gap was big enough to secure one of them the stage win, Arvesen made his move and had no problems taking the lead from the Belgian rider
Arvesen was unstoppable in the final kilometer and he took his second win of the season, after the stage win he got in Paris - Nice. Behind him Meersman was caught by the pack and finished only 10th, the podium being completed by Vaitkus and Capecchi. Hagen lost more than 2 minutes and a half today but the good news is that he didn't get any kind of injuries. Another good news for Team Sky is that Arvesen managed to gain a few seconds over the pack and he took the yellow jersey from Larsson
alexkr00 wrote:
Thanks. Can't wait to finish Romandie and head to the Giro
Yes alex I really know what you mean
Only 3 stages left to play now but I will also have to do the review of April, the preview of May and also a 'special' Giro presentation before I can get to the real deal
There are 4 climbs in the second half of the stage today so the stage is rated as a hilly one. The main favorites are Uran, Ginanni and Wiggins and it will also be interesting to see if Arvesen will be able to defend the leader's jersey
Santambrogio missed the KoM jersey by a few points in the previous stage but with the points won on the third climb today he managed to take the jersey from Konovalovas.
At that point of the stage the main breakaway of the day was already history even though they had an maximum advantage of more than 10 minutes. But behind them Vigano, Barry, Pauwels, Cioni and especially Boasson Hagen did an amazing job to bring them back in the pack with quite a long distance until the finish
Inside the last 20 kilometers of the stage the first big moves of the day were made. The 2 main favorites to take the stage win today, Ginanni and Uran attacked an managed to get quite soon a nice gap over the pack lead by now RadioShack
Even though the last climb of the day was quite short some really important moves were made there. Ginanni wasn't able to keep it up with Uran and he was dropped off from the leading group, while behind them some other attacks were made from the pack
Tondo and Wiggins were the strongest from the new attackers and they managed to join Uran on the flat section with less than 5 kilometers before the finish line. Ginanni was now in the main chasing group, with 3 new attackers, Ten Dam, Deignan and Rohregger
When the final sprint for the stage win came, Tondo was a little bit left behind so it looked like a battle between Uran and Wiggins. The Brit spent a few moments behind the Colombian rider but made his move and took the lead with 2 kilometers before the finish
Wiggins had no problems keeping the lead for the last kilometers and took the second stage win in a row for Sky. Behind him Tondo somehow managed to take the second place in front of Uran and didn't lose any seconds to Wiggins. The chasing group came after 37 seconds, while the pack lost 1 minute and 2 seconds today
With today's victory and the performance from the prologue, Wiggins is the new leader of the race with an advantage of 17 seconds in front of Uran and 54 in front of Tondo. His team - mate, the previous leader, is now 1 minute and 2 seconds behind him. Wiggins made an important move today to take the yellow jersey with still 2 main stages left from the race
The fourth stage in Romandie is a team time - trial. The main favorites are last year's winners, Team Columbia, Garmin and Sky, who will look to keep Wiggins' yellow jersey
The winner's of last year TTT, Columbia finished now the stage after 17 minutes and 16 seconds but the more important news is that Cervelo lost quite a lot of time and Tondo, who was third in the GC after yesterday's stage might lose some important positions
Garmin, with the Canadian Champion, Tuft in their roster managed to finish the stage exactly in the same time as Columbia but took the provisional lead in the end
Caisse d'Epargne, who dominated the prologue had again a nice result. Lead by Ruben Plaza, they managed to beat Garmin and Columbia's time by 12 seconds
Wiggins, Froome, Hagen, Arvesen and Cioni did an amazing job for Sky to beat Caisse's time by only 3 seconds and took the stage win, Vigano being the first one to cross the finish line. But the more important news is that Wiggins enters the queen stage of the race with an advantage of 20 seconds in front of Uran
