Featured image courtesy of Bas Czerwinski/Getty Images
The Spring Classics are over for another year with the 108th Liège-Bastogne-Liège providing one last hope for some teams trying to rectify some wrongs.
With so much at stake for one of the ‘home’ Belgian teams, La Doyenne was a final opportunity and a last venture for some preparing to ride the Giro d’Italia.
Here are five talking points from Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Remco Evenepoel salvages Quick-Step’s Spring
The last couple of years have been hard for Remco Evenepoel. Falling down the GC placings at the Giro last year on grand tour debut, a nasty crash at Il Lombardia the year before, there have been shining moments at other races but not quite the five-star performance at some of the biggest races every year.
But that thought can now be ripped up and forgotten as Evenepoel truly came of age by winning the 108th Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
All the doubts can now be put to one side, a Monument victory achieved at a very young age, the way Evenepoel performed to take win sublime.
The way he attacked on La Redoute, it’s no wonder that Remco Evenepoel is likened to a legend not just in Belgium but also world cycling – Eddy Merckx. It was ‘Merckxian’ the way he rode undeterred and able to leave everyone else in his wake, only American rider for EF Education-Easy Post Neilson Powless looked capable of following him.
A solo ride up the famous Côté de la Redoute, 29km all the way to the finale, the ride was a brilliant showcase of everything that makes Remco Evenepoel tick – aero positioning on the downhill, extending his advantage, the chasers could not form a coherent get-together to bring him back.
Over flat and rolling hills into Liège, arms aloft with a climate protestor in the background, the 48 second margin of victory one of the largest at La Doyenne in 13 years.
First Belgian winner since Philippe Gilbert in 2011, one of the youngest Monument winners since the 1980s and it’s not a coincidence surely to point out that Remco Evenepoel becomes the first Flemish winner of La Doyenne since Dirk De Wolf in 1992, a rider who just like the young man came from Aalst in East Flanders.
It’s true that some of cycling’s greatest moments have come in Liège whether that is Merckx winning five times or Bernard Hinault taking victory in the snow. But not since 1999 when Frank Vandenbroucke won have we seen a spectacular edition won and on the 130th anniversary of La Doyenne too!
Remco Evenepoel has saved Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl’s Spring, a Classics campaign that did not go well in the slightest. Patrick Lefevere will be breathing a huge sigh of relief most especially after they lost Julian Alaphilippe to a crash.
Frustrations now released, Remco Evenepoel is now a Monument winner. Comparisons to Eddy Merckx are a long way off and to be fair why can’t this talented young kid be himself. There should be no pressure on his shoulders going into another appearance at the Giro.
More Monuments will come Wout Van Aert’s way
It remains to be seen whether Wout Van Aert will get a chance to ride Il Lombardia come October, by then he could be tired from another Tour de France and World Championships!
The fifth Monument is a long way to go but it is clear that for a second year in a row a Classics campaign has gone without a Monument. Milan-Sanremo has already been achieved from two years ago but no Flanders or a Roubaix means Van Aert will remain determined as ever.
It is testament to how brilliant the Belgian national champion is that he can ride Liège-Bastogne-Liège on debut and secure a podium place.
Wout Van Aert also continues to break records. Since his runner-up finish at Paris-Roubaix last weekend, he becomes the first rider in 36 years to claim a podium at Roubaix and La Doyenne in a single season, two races which are complete opposites to each other.
He also becomes the first rider since his fellow countryman Philippe Gilbert to take a podium place at four of the five Monuments.
It was certainly a case of digging deep this Spring for Van Aert and Jumbo-Visma on the whole. Wins at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and the E3 Saxo Bank Classic will go down as achievements but there is no doubt that the Belgian and the team overall would have liked more.
Quentin Hermans with a surprise second
It was somewhat a surprise to see Wout Van Aert not win the bunch sprint behind Remco Evenepoel’s eventual victory. Instead second place went to Quentin Hermans, a 26-year-old Belgian who has been a decent cyclo-cross rider for a while.
An unexpected podium for a rider who was not part of his team Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux’s cobbled Classics programme. It is fair to say that the Belgian team have experienced a decent Spring with Biniam Girmay taking Gent-Wevelgem, Alexander Kristoff winning Scheleprijs and Tom Devriendt claiming fourth at Paris-Roubaix – a Classics campaign where they may not be the biggest team with the largest budget but certainly have done themselves a world of good this past month.
A devastating crash for Julian Alaphilippe and others
Before Remco Evenepoel went on to win La Doyenne you would be forgiven for thinking that Quick-Step’s luck wasn’t with them at all. An awful sight happened with a huge crash in the peloton at 62km to go, riders probably reaching speeds of 70km an hour.
A terrible moment came when the helicopter camera picked up the world champion Julian Alaphilippe fallen into a ditch.
Such an important talking point was seeing his French compatriot Romain Bardet putting the safety of Alaphilippe first ahead of his own chances.
Other riders were held up including the likes of Aleksandr Vlasov, Sergio Higuita and Alejandro Valverde.
For some it was less than ideal if they are preparing for the Giro but for Alaphilippe it just does not seem as if 2022 is his year. The Tour de France is yet to come but for this year so far the Frenchman’s luck has been dreadful.
Bahrain-Victorious will wonder what could have been
A strong Bahrain-Victorious team was a given after Dylan Teuns won La Flèche Wallonne in midweek. During the main action of the day, the race saw Teuns attack to try and chase down Evenepoel, the Belgian eventually managing sixth.
But a word must go as to how they missed the main attack by Remco Evenepoel himself. Mikel Landa attacked numerous times and at one point former La Doyenne winner in 2016 Wout Poels found himself off the front.
It’s a question of what could have been for the team and others too. A fourth for INEOS Grenadiers climber Daniel Martínez can be seen as a good result considering his form recently.
Seventh for Alejandro Valverde means there was no record equaling fifth La Doyenne title for the Spaniard but when you turn 42 to still finish inside the top-ten commands credit.
The Spring Classics are over with four of the five Monuments complete. There is quite a long way to go until the fifth in Lombardy later in October.
May looms large which means the first grand tour is almost ready – the 105th Giro d’Italia sets off from Hungary in two weeks time.