Liege-Bastogne-Liege 2017 **Contains Spoilers**

cunavalos

The Springs Classics season for 2017 comes to an end on Sunday with "La Doyenne"
In what will be a sombre start after Michele Scarponi's untimely death, Astana have confirmed they will be on the start line.



Valverde will clearly start as deserved favourite but will hopefully face sterner opposition than midweek and the course and finish may improve the chances of more powerful rouleurs likes of Kwiatkowski, Dumoulin, Rui Costa and given his form GvA.


Irish hopes lie with Dan and we will be hoping for a repeat of 2013(Top) rather than 2014(Bottom)


Personally i am going to go with with Kwiatkowski and my dark horse will be someone from Astana ( Fuglsang??) . I think several teams have the strength to attack with multiple options e.g. Orica (Yates x2 , and Albasini) UAE Emirates (Costa, Ulissi) and Cannondale (Woods, Slagter and Uran).

Despite getting a man in the breakaway during the week , i think Aqua Blue will be looking for an improved performance here.

TheBlaaMan

cunavalos wrote: »

The Springs Classics season for 2017 comes to an end on Sunday with "La Doyenne"
In what will be a sombre start after Michele Scarponi's untimely death, Astana have confirmed they will be on the start line.



Personally i am going to go with with Kwiatkowski and my dark horse will be someone from Astana ( Fuglsang??) . I think several teams have the strength to attack with multiple options e.g. Orica (Yates x2 , and Albasini) UAE Emirates (Costa, Ulissi) and Cannondale (Woods, Slagter and Uran).

Despite getting a man in the breakaway during the week , i think Aqua Blue will be looking for an improved performance here.

I'll watch some of it, but it will be with a very heavy heart, I don't really care who wins..........

I'm finding if hard to have the stomach for anything cycling-related after todays tragic news.

pelevin

The race will certainly have a strange sad vibe and the victory put into perspective certainly.

On the racing side of things, Dan I'd say has every chance and the bookies odds of 2/1 Valverde, 6/1 Dan & Kwiatkowski - I think Dan is closer to Valverde than those odds reflect. Valverde is flying but to go to FlecheWallone, he is basically perfect at putting himself in the right position. Dan year after year seems to show that regardless of how good your legs are, if you don't position yourself right in that race, then you're right up against it. That's largely or comparatively irrelevant in Liege though. Anyway, we'll see. And fair play to GVA for still going for it in the spring classics.

cunavalos

And they're off.
The breakaway has formed and has 10 minutes on the peloton. Listed in the breakaway are Tiago Machado (Katusha), Anthony Perez and Stéphane Rossetto (Cofidis), Mekseb Debesay (Dimension Data), Bart De Clercq (Lotto Soudal), Nick Van Der Lijke (Roompot), Fabien Grellier (Direct Energie) Aaron Gate (Aqua Blue) and Olivier Pardini (WB Veranclassic)

pelevin

TV coverage I think on ES from 1pm.

pelevin

Oh & to add, the women also race the first edition of their Liege-Bastogne-Liege today.

Somedude9

Oh right, shame we won't see any of it though.

cunavalos

Last update before tv coverage

Tiago Machado (Katusha), Anthony Perez and St?phane Rossetto (Cofidis), Mekseb Debesay (Dimension Data), Bart De Clercq (Lotto Soudal), Nick Van Der Lijke (Roompot), Fabien Grellier (Direct Energie) and Aaron Gate (Aqua Blue)'s lead is down to 11'10 at km 127 and Daryl Impey (Orica) has abandoned after a crash

Live updates can be found here
http://racecenter.liegebastogneliege.fr/#/stageprofile

cunavalos

Somedude9 wrote: »

Oh right, shame we won't see any of it though.

Womens race about to finish

Rubbish periscope footage albeit live can be found here
https://www.pscp.tv/LiegeBastogneL/1DXxyygYOoLxM

cunavalos

Womens Result Spoiler

1. Anna Van der Breggen
2. Lizzie Deignan
3. Kasia Niewiadoma

The exact same podium as in Fleche Wallone midweek

Somedude9

Up the road Michele

bazermc

In case anybody is wondering, yes, Bora is available in Ireland.

joujoujou

cunavalos wrote: »

Womens Result Spoiler

1. Anna Van der Breggen
2. Lizzie Deignan
3. Kasia Niewiadoma

The exact same podium as in Fleche Wallone midweek

And last sunday's Amstel as well.

MPFGLB

Very heavy hearted watching LBL ...

One part of me says it will be between Valverde and Dan Martin

Valverde has offered to give the prize money to Scarponi's family


Another part of me would like to see Cannondale get a win

Uran, Woods or Slagher are possibe;

cunavalos

joujoujou wrote: »

And last sunday's Amstel as well.

Seeing as Eurosport have confirmed there is no highlights package available for the womens race there is no need for spoilers but there is indeed a common trend in the podium photos from the womens pro peloton this week

joujoujou

1.Valverde
2.Martin
3.Kwiatkowski

Valverde is taking the piss now. Well done to Dan Martin, great effort!

dastardly00

Well done Dan. He did his best and attacked but got caught by you know who.

velo.2010

Valverde, Rider of the season so far??? Probably... just ahead of GVA and Gilbert.

pelevin

Can't fault Dan. Great effort & didn't hang about but went for it. I thought Kwiatkowski should have ridden Flanders same as Gilbert, & though 3rd, he wasn't at the level of teh front 2.

joujoujou

velo.2010 wrote: »

Valverde, Rider of the season so far??? Probably Undisputed... just ahead of GVA and Gilbert.

Fixed your post.

cunavalos

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but Dan may have gone a little too early but chapeau for having the balls to go for it and clearly the best of the rest.

Kaisr Sose

Deleted User wrote: »

Valverde is taking the piss now. Well done to Dan Martin, great effort!

Why? It's only here that I am reading or seeing Q's as to Valverde's form, which is blatant speculation from what I see

Inquitus

Kaisr Sose wrote: »

Why? It's only here that I am reading or seeing Q's as to Valverde's form, which is blatant speculation from what I see

From cyclingnews forums, don't think it's just here:

CyclingEnthusiast wrote:
Can't wait for Dan Martin to retroactively be awarded these results

JK.BMC

So- after 260km, 4000m+ climbing, 6 and a half hours of hard racing, and aggressive riding in the finale, Valverde just casually closes a gap to Dan Martin, saunters around him and starts celebrating about 100m from the end, while everybody else collapses over the line exhausted. As a cyclist myself who is feeling the pinch age-wise, I'm wondering how to get better as I get older, just like Alejandro. He is some operator.
For one of the 'monuments' there was about 5 minutes of interesting stuff there- the rest, including the result, is of not much interest to me. Disappointing race to be honest.

dastardly00

cunavalos wrote: »

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but Dan may have gone a little too early but chapeau for having the balls to go for it and clearly the best of the rest.

If he had waited maybe another 100 metres or so that would have been ideal. He needed to get a gap on Valverde and the rest and not allow them the time to react and close the gap. BUT somebody else would have attacked if Dan didn't and that would have scuppered his plans.

JK.BMC

dastardly00 wrote: »

If he had waited maybe another 100 metres or so that would have been ideal. He needed to get a gap on Valverde and the rest and not allow them the time to react and close the gap. BUT somebody else would have attacked if Dan didn't and that would have scuppered his plans.

Lads, it's irrelevant. Valverde was good to go another 50k and 1000m more climbing by the look of him. Well ahead at the end

Kaisr Sose

Inquitus wrote: »

From cyclingnews forums, don't think it's just here:

That's hardly proof. Donald Trump could tweet that at 4am and it would still be uncorroborated / Fake News

pelevin

I stopped watching cycling cos of the dirty stuff for years & came back to it willing to give the benefit of the doubt. Otherwise for me what'd be the point. I recognise & feel it myself how should one see Valverde but wishing to stay true to my own position, I've been saying it for a couple of years, in terms of all-round one-day cycling & stage racing he's the greatest cyclist in the world. No question. None of the other big GC riders were even in this race! And his appetite for success is enormous. Obviously though I've no idea what the reality is.

So hoping it's all deserved, & I suppose fair play to him, & obviously nice to see the genuineness of his words on Scarponi there.

On Dan's side of things I don't think there's any reasonable criticism of him here. I don't think he could have beaten Valverde once he was there with him at the death, he looked so strong. Dan comfortbaly distanced everyone else there & like say Sagan in MilanSanRemo, it's the manner of the ride too rather than just the results.

Inquitus

Kaisr Sose wrote: »

That's hardly proof. Donald Trump could tweet that at 4am and it would still be uncorroborated / Fake News

There's no proof until he gets caught again, if indeed he does or is indeed cheating, you just said you only read negative stuff about it here, it's everywhere online, not a boards.ie thing, obviously that doesn't mean it's true, you have to draw your own conclusions. The fact he's already had a 2 year doping ban is noteworthy though.

joujoujou

Actual World Tour Top 10, if anyone's interested:

1. GVA - 2528
2. Valverde - 1995
3. Kwiatkowski - 1701
4. Gilbert - 1670
5. Sagan - 1245
6. D. Martin - 1215
7. Henao - 1152
8. Contador - 1143
9. Izagirre - 841
10. Porte - 812