The pre-race mind games have begun with the Liège-Bastogne-Liège favourites trying to deflect the pressure onto one of their rivals. Despite having won Amstel Gold, seen as a mini-Liège, Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx-QuickStep) believes that Movistar’s Alejandro Valverde goes into this Sunday’s race with the competitive edge.
“He’s the most experienced rider, he knows how to prepare for such a hard week,” Kwiatkowski told reporters. “I would have loved to be in shape on Wednesday but I couldn’t make it and that’s experience I needed for the future. Valverde already has that and I think that he will be in the same big shape on Sunday.”
Kwiatkowski had a disappointing Flèche Wallonne earlier in the week, slipping off the bunch on the steepest part of the Mur de Huy and finally finishing 38 seconds behind the winner Valverde. Fortunately for Etixx-QuickStep, his teammate Julian Alaphilippe was able to step up to the plate and deliver the team a second place. With time to regroup since then, Kwiatkowski is happy that he’s where he needs to be for Sunday’s race.
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“I feel more relaxed than compared to the day after the Amstel Gold Race, so I should be better,” he explained. “I feel more and more freshness on the bike, so that’s better. I hope that it’s enough for such a long race because you need to be in condition. I think I’ve had enough recovery before Liège.”
Kwiatkowski finished third at last year’s race, losing out in the sprint to Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) and Valverde. The new route is expected to be more selective this year but the Polish rider doesn’t think that it will change too much in the grand scheme of things. “The pace was pretty high last year and we had a pretty big group for the final,” he said.
“It depends what the plan of the biggest favourite, Valverde, is... and if they want to control it so that they have a sprint then it’s going to be a bigger group. For sure, guys like Nibali want to play before because they cannot really count on their sprint. I am one of the riders who can count on their sprint so I’ll be waiting for the final.”
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