The snow fell heavily in the Ardennes at Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday, invoking memories of Bernaud Hinault’s iconic 1980 victory and even causing the race to be re-routed, but Wout Poels rode through the blizzard to put an end to Team Sky’s long wait for a Monument victory.
The Dutchman followed Michael Albasini’s (Orica-GreenEdge) move up the Côte de la Rue Naniot, the new steep cobbled climb introduced to shake up the race’s finale, and held him off in the sprint. Former world champion Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) finished a close third having been part of the move, while Samuel Sanchez (BMC), the fourth member of the group, was unable to produce a sprint and finished a distant fourth.
"I still can't believe it," said Poels, who became only the fifth Dutchman to win La Doyenne, and the first since Adri Van Der Poel 28 years ago. "The conditions were really difficult today and at the end we were all really tired."
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For all the talk of Alejandro Valverde’s overwhelming favourite status, and for all the work his Movistar teammates subjected themselves to on the front of the bunch, the defending champion couldn’t manage to make the top 10. It was a similar story for Etixx-QuickStep; they had strength in numbers and drove a fierce pace going into the final 25km, but last year’s runner up and Julian Alaphilippe finished in the main group with Valverde, while 2013 winner Dan Martin struggled on the final climb and ended up nearly two minutes down.
It was a trying day for the riders, who repeatedly encountered mini snow storms all along the route as the weather forecasts proved true to their word. The situation was at its worst halfway along the trip out from Liège to Bastogne, with many teams posting photos of the roads covered in a blanket of snow as their car made their way out to the feed zone. An hour into the race, the organisers made the decision to alter the route and took riders off the planned course after 45 kilometres, eventually linking back up with it at kilometre 75. Given that they were back on course ahead of the first of the day’s 10 climbs, the change did little to shape the complexion of the race, and only 5km were lost from the total distance, which became 248km.
A break of eight enjoyed a few hours out front, while a fairly contained race was ridden back in the bunch. There were eight climbs in the last 80km but it wasn’t until after the fourth one, the famous Côte de La Redoute, had been crested that the race was really ignited.
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