Flurries of snow in the Ardennes saw Liège-Bastogne-Liège directed onto an alternative route after 45 kilometres, and though the bunch soon re-joined the original course, the miserable weather conditions meant that the race never quite returned to its expected coordinates.
Certainly, the anticipated battle between the Etixx-QuickStep pairing of Dan Martin and Julian Alaphilippe, and pre-race favourite Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) never materialised, with all three finishing outside the top 15 in a most curious edition of La Doyenne.
Alaphilippe and Martin had been Valverde’s most dogged challengers at Flèche Wallonne in midweek, placing second and third, respectively. A rider steadily accumulates a debt when he spends more than six hours pedalling in frigid temperatures and squinting through sleet showers, however, and the day extracted its toll from Martin and Alaphilippe in the closing kilometres.
ADVERTISEMENT
Martin was the first to betray signs of struggling, dropping towards the back of the sizeable leading group near the top of the Côte de Saint-Nicolas and never returning to the front. He eventually placed 47th, 1:57 down on surprise winner Wout Poels (Sky).
“Honestly, I wouldn’t change anything that I did today. I changed clothes at the right moment and I dressed perfectly: I just didn’t have the legs in the finish,” Martin told Cyclingnews afterwards. “That was probably to do with the cold. It was a long, hard race.”
Alaphilippe lasted longer than Martin at the head of the race, and even accelerated at the base of the next climb, the Côte de la Rue Naniot, but the Frenchman’s effort felt as much an act of defiance as a show of intent. He was swamped shortly afterwards, and eventually placed 23rd, at the very rear of the large group that came home 12 seconds behind Poels.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/1NJUbgL
No comments:
Post a Comment