La Doyenne. It’s here. 249 km of racing between Liege and Ans to see the best puncheurs in the world battling to see who wins the 104th edition of Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Last year, the big surprise came when an unknown Luxemborgian rider, Sven Fritsch, won the race from the breakaway. This year, the teams with favourites will be even more attentive to any breakaway attempt.
All 186 riders that are starting the race are ready to begin it
It took a few attempts, but finally there is a breakaway with only 3 riders.
Wöhrer Camilo Pushpakumara
Four riders are involved in an early crash, with Moser being the most damaged team, as Boros and Stybar were involved in the crash, same as Vangstad and Craddock. All could rejoin the race, and after a few kms, their place in the bunch
Still over 150 km left in the race, and the breakaway has reached a maximum gap of 9 minutes. Riders from Strava, Jayco, Grieg, Hugo Boss and Festina have been relaying in the front all the time, but neither of them with any kind of intensity
Less than 90 km to the finish, and the three riders in the front are starting the zone with hills, as until now there were bumpy roads, without too much flat roads, but no proper hills. They still have a 4-minute gap to the bunch, where mainly Grieg is setting a high rhythm
60 km left, and although the gap to the leading trio has been reduced to under 3 minutes, maybe some riders of the top teams should be reminded of what last season, when race situation at this moment was pretty much the same. At least Festina’s remember about it and are going full gas in this zone to neutralise as soon as possible the breakaway
Big crash! And it was in the first part of the group, as a 30-rider group have gone clear on the remaining riders in the bunch. Let’s see what was involved in the crash
The biggest name seemed to be Koretzky and Vakoc, Spilak’s and Sagan’s luxury domestiques, but as the camera allows us to see more riders in the ground, we realise that two of the race favourites are in the ground. Ginanni and Gastauer
We’ll come to the fallen later, as Festina is still pulling really hard from that 30-rider group that has been left in the front, with most of the leaders, but there are some of the day favourites that have been affected by the crash, despite not crashing
Of the riders with 79+ in hills, these are the ones that are in the first group
Ponzi, Bakelants, Trofimov, Spilak, Sagan, Bobridge, Kelderman, Pichon and Skujins
At some point, Festina decided to stop working, most likely to allow Koretzky to come back, and all came back together. But after a couple of kms of impass, both Strava and Grieg didn’t want the race to stop, as the breakaway was again gaining a lot of time. With 40 km left they only have 2 minutes, a gap that gives the bunch a little margin, but they better not waste any time to catch them
As seven days ago in Amstel, Trofimov is the first rider from the group of favourites to attack. Still 33 km to go, but this move might allow other moves of other favourites
And while this is not an attack, this is a key moment in the race. Barbero was trying to close the gap to Trofimov, and his acceleration was so strong, that only other 8 riders could follow him,
Behind them, almost a minute back, there is another group with a few more favourites, like Lutsenko, McCarthy, Kelderman or De Bie, while 40 further seconds back it’s the main group with riders like Boswell, Bobridge, Ginanni and Gastauer
Oh no... That’s a crash in the second chasing group... Lutsenko, De Bie, Kelderman are all down, and any hopes they had of a great result here are over
Race Situation with 25 km to go
The first two merge with less than 20 kms left, thanks to Barbero’s work in the last km. Sagan and Hagen might have wasted too much energies in the chase, considering that Spilak, Ponzi and Bakelants still had a team-mate in the group
But Trofimov doesn’t want his move to end there, and using the breakaway riders in his favour as “blockers”, attacks again and open a 20-second gap to other favourites
Sagan struggled to follow the other favourites in the last hill, and has found himself alone and almost 40 second behind the group of Spilak, Ponzi, Bakelants, Hagen and Skujins. Pushpakumara is incredibly between Sagan and the favourites
Trofimov is finally caught, and it seems like he has wasted everything in that attacks, as he is now struggling to follow Spilak and Ponzi as both have increased the rhythm, to not allow anyone a rest, and also to avoid Sagan’s comeback. Hagen also can’t follow those riders, so a 4-rider group is formed in the front, with Ponzi, Spilak, Bakelants and Skujins
The next one to surrender is Skujins, the leaving the fight between only 3 riders, but what’s more incredible is Pushpakumara's performance, as he has dropped both Hagen and Trofimov, and is quickly catching Skujins!
Only 12 km left in this race, and this is how everyone is going at the moment. Really nice comeback from his crash by Gastauer, to be fighting for ninth now
Just 7 km to the end and the three riders in the front are about to start the penultimate climb of the day. Their advantage is around 40 seconds to the group of Skujins, Trofimov, Hagen and Pushpakumara, and one minute further to Sagan, so they are safe to fight for the win and the other podium places
No attacks between the three leaders, which is perfect for Ponzi’s hopes of a second win in the race.
In the fight for the fourth place, Pushpakumara still looks strong, while in the next group, Sagan has been caught by all those crash-affected riders, like De Bie, Lutsenko, Gastauer, Bobridge and McCarthy. They are only 35 seconds behind the previous group, and might end up fighting for that fourth place
Spilak is leading the trio ahead of the last two kms. Having Ponzi and Bakelants on his wheel is not the best strategy to win this, but is not like he has a lot of chances going into a sprint against this two
A final look into how are the other groups before going back to the sprint for the win
Ponzi goes into the lead under the Flamme Rouge, and starts to set a high pace to make the others unconformtable ahead of the sprint
Ponzi opens his sprint for the win with 600 metres left! Neither Spilak or Bakelants can come even close to the speed of the Italian, so he’s opening really quickly a very nice gap
Simone Ponzi wins Liege-Bastogne-Liege! It’s the second time that the Italian superstar wins this race, after completing his Ardennes Treble with his win in 2015
Bakelants couldn’t find his legs to sprint, so Spilak takes the second place with easy ahead of the rider from Strava, who finishes in the podium for the sixth consecutive year
Now we move to that fight for the fourth place in the race, as Sagan’s group is about to catch Hagen’s one
De Bie seems to have gained some advantage to the amazing Pushpakumara and Lutsenko coming out of the final corner, with 400 metres to go
De Bie ends up taking that fourth place pretty easily
The fight for fifth place is much closer, although Paris-Nice winner Lutsenko beats the big surprise of the race, Pushpakumara, and Trofimov from it
Bobridge finishes eighth, ahead of wildcard rider Hagen, who will go another year without winning LBL, the race that is missing in his palmares
Skujins narrowly beats Gastauer and Sagan for the tenth place.
Very nice result for Prevar in 13th, ahead of McCarthy
Ginanni can only finish 15th, although he can excused due his earlier crash
Simone Ponzi goes into the podium to receive the trophy of LBL winner by the second time in the last three years
