Liege-Bastogne-Liege 2014
The 2014 Ardennes Classics concluded today with the 100th edition of Liege-Bastogne-Liege. La Doyenne's latest edition was 262.9 kilometres long, and favourites for the race included defending champion Dan Martin, and this week's winners already Philippe Gilbert of BMC Racing and Alejandro Valverde of Movistar Team.
A breakaway went away early in the race, determined to put in a good showing even though it was unlikely they would contest the victory. Jaco Venther (MTN Qhubeka) was joined by Pirmin Lang (IAM Cycling), Matteo Bono (Lampre-Merida), Marco Minnaard (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Michel Koch (Cannondale) and Pieter Jacobs of Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise.
Their lead stretched to over ten minutes, but gradually fell as the race wore on. Back in the peloton, crashes started to have an effect. Roman Kreuziger and Jan Bakelants both went down in a crash onto a grass verge. Then a few kilometres later a nasty crash brought down Rui Costa, the reigning world champion, who abandoned the race due to his injuries, which were reported as abrasions and bruising.
David Lopez of Sky also came down in the crash, but was alright. Another nasty fall occurred in the convoy of cars when Sebastien Minard of AG2R La Mondiale fell into the gutter. The break's advantage continued to fall as they splintered, with BMC, Europcar and Omega Pharma-Quickstep being among the teams working to bring the gap down.
Both Andy Schleck and Joaquim Rodriguez abandoned the race, suffering with prior injuries, as the front of the peloton began to hot up with attacks from the likes of Jan Bakelants and Samuel Sanchez. In the closing kilometres, with the break back in the peloton, Domenico Pozzovivo and Julian Arredondo tried to give the peloton the slip.
The move failed, and Domenico Pozzovivo tried again when Katusha's Giampaolo Caruso tried his luck. The peloton didn't take the move very seriously, and they soon got over ten seconds with the finish line closing in. The big names soon realised the danger and the likes of Vincenzo Nibali were chasing at the front of the peloton.
On the final ramp up to the finish the race ended with a crescendo. Dan Martin attacked and passed Pozzovivo, and rounded the final corner just behind Giampaolo Caruso. However, he crashed right on the final corner when he looked like he could sprint for the win. The peloton came over the top of the duo led by Simon Gerrans.
Gerrans held on for the win to take the second monument of his career ahead of Alejandro Valverde, who finished second, and Michal Kwiatkowski of Omega Pharma-Quickstep who rounded out the podium. Today is Simon Gerrans' day however, the Aussie has now won a monument after winning his national championships and the Tour Down Under on two occasions.