The organizer’s favourites are a mix of the best puncheurs and the best hybrid riders. Regarding this only Yates’ high position seems somewhat surprising.
The riders are on the road.
Stancu attacks right away and is followed by Budyak, Van Gestel and Wright. Some counter attacks later only Boutopoulos is allowed to chase those four and is now about to make contact to the break.
The five got a maximum gap of about 6’30, but with 175 km to go the peloton reduced it to 5’37.
There’s not much action going on for the next 2 hours of racing while the riders tackle the flatter sections of the race. But now the break starts the up-and-down part of the race with an advantage of 2’41 over the peloton. It’s no big assumption that the winner won’t be in the break, but it will be interesting to see when the attacks of the favourites begin. They have about 95 km to go.
Again there’s not much happening for the next 30 km, but then Wright loses contact to the rest of the break and doesn’t seem to be strong enough to recover.
Further back there is a first split in the peloton. None of the big favourites is on the wrong side of the split, though some outsiders and important domestiques are at the second big group. It probably won’t last, but apparently the pace of the pack is already high.
With about 50 km to go Wright is back in the pack, while the remaining break is already within sight of the peloton with a gap of exactly 1 minute. The initial split was indeed only temporal, but the peloton is stretched out and it seems only a matter of time until another split is decisive.
And shortly afterwards the big attacks begin! Yates is the one to start the action and though Gidich tries to follow him, he’s not able to follow the Brit who quickly gets to the original break.
And his attack is so strong the escapees just lose his wheel on the flat! Yates has already more than a minute to the peloton with 44 km to go.
With 35 km to go the gap is still 45’’. Further back the peloton is split into two parts of about 85 riders each with Van Niekerk, Ardila, Sosa and Mas among the bigger names on the wrong side of the split.
On top of the hill the peloton is even further reduced to 35 riders. Padun and Storer are among those who lost contact this time.
The immense pace has brought back Yates, but Kwiatkowski is still working hard to keep the pace up and don’t let anyone come back to the first group. There’s still 25 km and 4 hills to go.
And Lopez himself is the next one to attack. He hasn’t got a gap, but that’s surely the starting signal for the final.
And the Colombian attacks again over the top of the hill and now it seems like he’s able to put some distance between himself and the others!
He’s brought back in the next climb and now it’s Lutsenko’s turn to attack over the top. Behind him it’s a group of about 45 riders – at least until the next splits as this group is pretty stretched out.
Lutsenko never gets a real gap, but his attack results in a group of 20 at the front with a gap of 36’’ to the first chasers, who include Koretzky, Waeytens, Gaudu and the former attacker Yates. Kwiatkowski is even further back after his earlier workload.
The leading group is already nearly on top of the second to last climb. The last 5 km only consist of a descent to the foot of the final climb to the finish line. We’ll shortly see where the group splits and who’ll be in contention for the win.
The next attackers are Gidich and Skujins – once again over the top of a hill. Those riders who were distanced earlier are those who once again lead contact to the bigger group.
And this attack could indeed be decisive. The gap may only be 15’’, but the favourites behind let Madouas do the chasing. Meanwhile Amezawa, Gerts and Beltran are struggling at the back of the chasing group.
With 2 km to go the two leaders and their chasers are in the final climb. The lead is still 25’’ so it’s pretty likely a sprint of two for the win.
Skujins attacks Gidich with 1.7 km to go!
And it seems like the attack of the Latvian stings as Gidich sits down with 1.2 km to the line while still behind.
It’s not over yet! Sagan, Borges, Formolo and De Bie are closing in fast (and are quite on par). Lutsenko and Valter are a bit further back.
With 200 m to go the riders are on top of the climb and Skujins is still in the lead with De Bie coming close – but some other big names are back in the game with a late acceleration. The situation is like this:
De Bie
Skujins
Lutsenko
Gidich
Formolo
Kinoshita
Borges
Sagan
Lopez
Valter
They’re nearly there and the big picture hasn’t changed much apart from Skujins and De Bie getting even closer together with the Latvian still in front.
But it’s the Belgian who crosses the line first! And it’s really close as De Bie overtakes Skujins literally on the line. Behind them the fight for the final podium spot is close as well. In the end Lutsenko edges out Formolo for third place.
Behind them Gidich finishes in 5th place with Kinoshita and the big favourite Lopez getting 6th and 7th place. Borges, Sagan and Valter complete the Top 10.
Even further back Vakoc and Mohoric finish 11th and 12th. Madouas wins the sprint for 13th against Kudus after a strong performance. McCarthy finishes 15th pretty much on his own.
Congratulations to De Bie for finally winning La Doyenne!
[PTM] Liège - Bastogne - Liège 
