Welcome to this years Liege Bastogne Liege and welcome to the final Ardennes Classic of this Ardennes Week! We're here in Liege to launch the Top PT punchers into the sky to their thing! It is a rare opportunity for everyone to set their mark on the PT Standings Update, so let's go!
As said we're here in Liege and ready for the race to begin with it's 249.5 km long course. The first half is flat with a few bumps before going into the Ardennes and back toward Liege with lots of hilly climbs before the big finale!
No surprise really as we get the break of the year ahead of the pack with fresh legs and we do have some interesting riders up here. It is a rather small break, but still they should not be underestimated. As they are victims of being isolated on the hard Belgian roads.
Sven Fritsch Michael Boroš Ulugbek Galiev
A quiet race so far with 80 km's raced and the weather is all shiny. The break just hit the 10 minute gap down to the pack and trust me, the pack don't want to enter the big Ardennes with that gap!
With 92 km left of the race we finally hit the Ardennes and from here resides 10 hard climb with the final being split into two summits! The gap did get down to 4½ minutes, so the pack got a good chance of catching them now. Question is if we will see bigger selections than has been the case in the other Ardennes races. The pack is led by 5 riders of Bouygues
Now finally Aker joins Bouygues out front to share the workload. It is an collected pack still, so obviously Bouygues didn't push hard enough. As is also reflected by the gap to the break haven't been reduced yet. Either that or the break is desperately trying to extend the gap
The race is interrupted with some action to behold off and it's a crash down in the middle of the pack. Involved are
Le Gac Lutsenko Edet Bratashcuk
Let's hope all riders escaped the crash unhurt, but the eyes will clearly go toward Lutsenko in the hopes of him challenging for the win later!
In it's wake it does make 41 riders break free of the rest! Clayes, Levarlet and Pichon are the biggest names not in the front group. However the gap is only at a minute now, so we should most likely see an collected front in the chase for the breakaway soon.
As the pack gets collected back together, the break is only 2 minutes away with 45 km left. We should also see some attacks very soon hopefully!
With 18 km left of the race, Galiev have been catched by the 167 man pack. In the break however S.Fritsch looks one last time on Boros and goes for the attack! Mind due there is only a minute between him and the pack!
The favorites starts to position themselves as they get closer to catching Boros. Still a 1'50 gap up to Fritsch, that is near the descent before the final climb! It does look like the Luxembourgian is going hard on the pedal to keep the dream alive. With an collected pack the fight for positioning will start to tear up leader schedules for sure
Hagen tries to encourage the others to help him catch Fritsch out front. He does so with a mini attack, but no one seems to have the urge to be of service
Fritsch will soon enter the final 10 km port with an 2 minute lead, it does look like an collective effort followed by a mass attack is needed in order to catch him!
Only a minimal difference here with 6 km as the gap is kept at 1'39, he clearly could win this, but the final climb is quite hard to maintain a break with about 230 km of racing in your legs. The pack is still 129 man strong and the passage up the climb will make positioning key also
Bakelants did get a lot of help from his team earlier in the race and he follows up that effort with an attack! Hagen does look interested in following too and so does Kwiatkowski, which could indicate a move by Ponzi too!
Skujins and Trofimov are aware of the danger ahead and attacks on the 13 % part of the climb. Spilak is trying to join aswell, while Hagen is still kept behind 2 Aker teammates. There are lots of potentials down here, but also a lot of question mark left. Like for instance how will they catch Fritsch?
Skujins and Bakelants are the first riders to enter the descent and they do so with a 30 second gap to Fritsch. The early breakaway rider will soon have to battle these strong PT punchers with only 1 climb left
Trofimov and Spilak force their way up to Skujins and Bakelants on the descend with Hagen attacking in the background!
We shortly go up to see that Fritsch is 1800 meters from victory here in Liege! The gap is still at 30 seconds, so the possibility of getting caught is quite high! Can he do the impossible and win an Ardennes Classic?
Later than ever though we have an attack down from the pack with some other PT punchers pushing their luck quite low with this late attack. Nonetheless they are attacking
Ginanni Van Garderen Gastauer Koretzky Gastauer Ponzi Kelderman Sagan
Spilak spilled his chance it seems, as he is seen struggling to join the 3 other favorites. Fritsch is going under the Flamme Rouge and win/no win, he will have done an fantastic performance! He is within reach still!
Fritsch eyes the final finish with 400 meters and all he gotta do, is to challenge it like a Valverde would do when coming this close to an finishing line. It is going to be very exciting this!
Bakelants and the rest are 300 meters behind Fristch and looks to fight for a 2nd place! Bakelants will aim to get first into the corner!
It is too late, because Sven Fritsch raises his arms up in the air to celebrate his first Ardennes win and probably also his last one! It is the story of a lifetime and what an achievement! Once more his team closes this fantastic month with a great Giro and now an L-B-L title to go for safety in the standings!
Bakelants comes in to take 2nd place ahead of Skujins for the podium spots of this years LBL! Trofimov takes 4th ahead of an tired Spilak, this is also a lot of riders with goals to win and they came this close!
Hagen finishes 6th and will return with a small bag of points for his team from this week. He did look very interested in attacking, but he didn't get over the top with the others and that's not good enough!
Van Garderen takes 7th ahead of last years 3x winner Ponzi, with 9th place going for Koretzky and 10th for Wilco Kelderman! What an race and what an winner. The selection wasn't on the mark today and after a week of Ardennes, the riders had to leave a modern day shocker for us all!
