©ASO / Gautier Demouveaux
Liège-Bastogne-Liège: Evenepoel takes his first Monument
Eleven years after Philippe Gilbert, a Belgian won Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday. Remco Evenepoel has indeed realized a dream by winning his first Monument. It was a victory built by increasing his advantage after his vicious attack on the Côte de la Redoute. No one was able to follow the 22-year-old rider, who ended as the winner of the Doyenne with a little less than a minute’s lead: “It’s my favorite race, it’s a dream come true,” he explained. “I am coming out of a difficult year and with this victory, I show that I have returned to the level of the very best.”
World Champion Julian Alaphilippe’s race ended when he was involved in a mass pile up 62 kilometers from the finish and suffered from pains in his back and shoulder blade.
The results: 1. Remco Evenepoel (Quick Step Alpha Vinyl Team), 2. Quinten Hermans (Intermarché Wanty Gobert Matériaux), 3. Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma)…
*****
Tour of the Alps: Bardet and Pinot, back to the fore
He had not won a stage race since the Tour de l’Ain in 2013. By winning the 45th edition of the Tour des Alpes on Friday, Romain Bardet (Team DSM) put an end to nearly nine years of scarcity. “It’s a very good week. It’s true that it was my return to competition, it went very well,” commented the 31-year-old rider, second in the 2016 Tour de France. “My sensations are good and there is a victory at the end, it’s magnificent!”
Second on Thursday, Thibaut Pinot won the last stage by taking the stage into Lienz in Austria. He also signals his return to form.
The results: 1. Romain Bardet (Team DSM), 2. Michaël Storer (Groupama-FDJ), 3. Thymen Arensman (Team DSM)…
Stages won by: Geoffrey Bouchard (AG2R Citroën Team), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), Lennard Kamna (Bora-hansgrohe), Angel Miguel Lopez (Astana Qazaqstan Team), Thibaut Pinot (Groupama FDJ).
*****
La Flèche Wallonne féminine : Cavalli wanted more
Winner of the Amstel Gold Race ten days earlier, the Italian Marta Cavalli won the 25th edition of the Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday. A member of the FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope team, she beat Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) to the top of the mur de Huy. The 24-year-old Italian savored this new success: “It was not easy because it is very steep. The first part, I stayed in the wheel of Annemiek. I waited for the last few meters, because that’s where you can make a difference.”
The results: 1. Marta Cavalli (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope), Annemiek Van Vleuten (Movistar Team), 3. Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx)…
*****
La Flèche Wallonne: Teuns deprives Valverde of a sixth success
Alejandro Valverde thought that he may well, at almost 42 years old, have a sixth success at Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday. But Dylan Teuns deprived him of this happiness by winning for the first time in a major one-day race. The 30-year-old Belgian overtook the Spaniard some 200 meters from the top of the mur de Huy. “It’s incredible. I have always dreamed of a victory in a classic and it finally happens. I have always believed in my abilities,” commented the 30-year-old Belgian. “I was in the perfect position at the foot of the Mur. I knew more or less where Valverde planned to accelerate, he always does it in the same place. It was also a perfect place for me and I attacked there.”
Winner in 2021, World Champion Julian Alaphilippe took fourth.
The results: 1. Dylan Teuns (Bahrain Victorious), 2. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team), 3. Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-hansgrohe)…
*****
Rutlan Melton Cicle Classic : Crockett opens his tally this season
English rider Finn Crockett (Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling) won the 16th edition of the Rutland-Melton Cicle Classic on Sunday. In Melton, at the end of a 180 kilometer race, the 22-year-old rider won the sprint ahead of the Czech Tomas Kopecky (ABLOC CT) and his compatriot Jacob Scott (WiV SunGod).
The results: 1. Finn Crockett (Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling), 2. Tomas Kopecky (ABLOC CT), 3. Jacob Scott (WiV SunGod)…
*****
Liège-Bastogne-Liège féminine: Van Vleuten does it again in Liège
Three years after her first victory, Annemiek van Vleuten (Team Movistar) won her second Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday. Her attack on the côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons proved decisive. It is the fifth Dutch victory in six editions of the Belgian race. The Italian Marta Cavalli (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope), in search of a hat-trick, finished in sixth place.
The results: 1. Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team), 2. Grace Brown (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope), 3. Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx)…
*****
Races to come:
Tour de Bretagne 25/04-1/05
Tour de Romandie 26/04-1/05 www.tourderomandie.ch
Vuelta Asturias Julio Alvarez Mendo 29/04-1/05 www.lavueltaasturias.com
Carpathian Couriers Race in Memory of Waclaw Felczak 29/04-3/05
Eschborn Frankfurt 1/05 www.eschborn-frankfurt.de/en/home/