King Philippe gets his 4th consecutive victory:

Amazing, wonderful, great, epic, destined to enter cycling history.
These are just some of the words/sentences that people could use to define Philippe Gilbert's victory in today Liége - Bastogne - Liége. The Belgian was the strongest rider of the field once again and on the podium he was sandwiched between the Schleck brothers. In fact, for the first time since 2009, this afternoon a Schleck (actually two) came back on the podium of a Classic. But still, the brothers seemed unable to do anything to beat Gilbert, who brought his little son Alan on the top spot of the podium once again. And so, after less than one year of life, Gilbert jr. can already say that he's been on the top spot of both AGR and LBL's podiums. I'm sure there would be lots of older people who'd pay very big sums in order to have those experiences too.

Today race was really exciting, at least if seen from the (impartial) point of view of a Schleck supporter. For the first time I could see Leopard Trek working as a team at the front of a Classic, although the pulling style of one of the riders made me ask some questions about the team preparation. That rider (who I didn't recognise) was pulling with about 30 kms to go and looked simply desperate: open mouth, grimacing face, up on his pedals... Unfortunately, in spite of his efforts, the breakaway guys weren't losing any second of advantage. Actually, their gap on the peloton was increasing. Ops...
Talking about the breakaway, it was formed by very good riders and that's why it lasted a lot. Said riders were Vorganov, De Gendt, Gallopin, Frank, Sivtsov, Garate, Ten Dam, Van Avermaet, Kadri, Cataldo, Pineau, Caruso and Gasparotto. After the Redoute, some of these guys were still at the front of the race, whereas Van Avermaet got dropped by the 3 strongest riders with just 6 kms to go, on the Cote de Saint Nicolas (which is located in the 'Little Italy' of Liége and is also called 'the cote of the Italians').
With about 20 kms to go, on the Roche aux Fauçons, the race seriously started getting exciting. In fact on that climb there was an attack by Andy Schleck, who could be followed just by his brother Frank and by Gilbert.
In the meanwhile, poor Vinokourov had a mechanical problem and also had a misunderstanding with Iglinskiy ('Give me your front wheel, Maxim!! Now! Be fast!' 'Ok Vino, give me a second and I'll give you my wheel' 'Oh no, it's taking you too much to take that damn wheel off your bike, give me your bike!' 'What? My bike? But the wheel has almost come off! And you had said you wanted just my front wheel!' 'Ok, I'v changed my mind, now just give me the BIKE!!!'). By the time Iglinskiy and Vino ended the mute, imaginary discussion that you've just read here, poor Alexandre had already lost all his victory chances. What a bad way to end his love-story with LBL... :(
While Vino was facing this little drama, los Schlecks were riding up the Roche aux Fauçons with Gilbert and Van Avermaet, whereas Gasparotto had already got dropped.
As you may know, Roche aux Fauçons is a climb formed by two parts. I expected an attack by one of the brothers in the second part of the climb and instead I got nothing. 'Well, perhaps they'll attack on the flat terrain between this climb and the next one', I thought. I expected an attack there, and I got nothing. Before the Cote de Saint Nicolas, I thought: 'Well, it looks like Frank is going to attack here!' and instead I got nothing. On the Cote de Saint Nicolas, I thought: 'Well, one of the brothers should really do something now, apart from turning his head backwards'. This time, I eventually got something. In fact the brothers (Andy in particular) tried to increase the pace, but then they and the supporters were surprised by an attack. A strong attack. Too bad that the rider who did it was Gilbert, and not one of my beloved brothers.
Frankie had to struggle to follow Phil, while Andy had some problems and Van Avermaet was dropped for good. Luckily Andy soon reached Frank and Phil again and he started pulling hard. In fact, behind the first three riders there was now a group of chasers formed by strong guys like Kreuziger, Sorensen (YAY!), Anton and Uran.
With 4 kms to go, I still thought that a victory was possible for the Schleck brothers. I thought Andy could have attacked, leaving Gilbert with the hard task of chasing him at the end of a 250 kms long race. 'If Phil reached Andy, then Frank could attack and try to win the race!', I thought optimistically. But apparently the brothers were too tired / too impressed by Gilbert's strength to try doing something. In the last km I still hoped that one of them would have done something, but eventually Frank tried to attack Gilbert just in the final 200 meters. And so Phil Gil could cross the finish-line in a calm way, after an easy sprint, with two Schlecks as side dishes.
4th was Roman Kreuziger (this made me ask what results Scarponi could have got if he had raced this afternoon), while 5th was Uran and 6th was a great Sorensen (YAY!). 7th was an exceptional Van Avermaet, while 8th was Nibali, 9th Leukemans and 10th Samu Sanchez.

The podium was the best looking one of the year so far, no doubts about that. Ok, Phil Gil isn't the most good-looking guy of the peloton (although he isn't bad-looking either), but Alan, Frank and Andy contributed to making the podium look great. I was hoping to get a glimpse of little Leea on the podium, but Frank and Martine decided to avoid that. Good choice, if I can say it.
Both Frank and Andy were really nice towards Gilbert. Frank bowed in front of him, while Andy shook hands with the Belgian right after the finish-line. This fact (and the brothers' declarations after the race) made me think about one thing. After last year Chaingate, in fact, some people complained about the fact that Andy hadn't got angry at Contador in the last Tour stages. At the time, some people said: 'It's Riis who made Andy behave in this way, he had no choice'. Well, I actually think that this afternoon we could finally understand that that behaviour wasn't imposed by Riis. Simply, Andy is a nice, classy guy who plays it fair. And the same goes for Frankie.

Talking about the teams, from my race report you might have understood that I wasn't completely satisfied with the eventual outcome of the race. In fact, I had the feeling that the brothers, especially after the Cote du Saint Nicolas, were racing for the second and for the third place, rather than for the victory. According to Andy, he did try to increase the pace on the penultimate climb, but I thought that then Frankie could have tried something too. Or perhaps, the brothers could have tried attacking already in the second part of the Roche aux Fauçons, so that they would have forced Gilbert to get a bit tired while chasing at least one of them.
However, I understand that talking from a couch is always simple and that there's a reason why I'm not a ds. Liége is a 250 kms long race and Gilbert's attack on Cote du Saint Nicolas was terrific, but I still have a bittersweet taste in my mouth. In some ways, I think the brothers could have raced better. At least, they could have been a bit more brave.
Talking about the rest of Leopard Trek, Jakob Fuglsang was simply amazing. Also Stefan Denifl worked very well, just like Monfort, Wegmann and Voigt.
Omega - Pharma Lotto, on the other hand, didn't look that great today, especially because for the first time Phil Gil found himself alone with 20 kms to go. However I'd like you to notice that a great Jelle Vanendert was 17th also today. The boy has talent, believe me.
A team who raced very well, although it didn't have good luck, was Astana. Gasparotto was simply amazing and I really liked his post - race comments ('I wanted to ride on the top of the Redoute first at least once in my life'). He joined the breakaway, was first on the Redoute and he even helped his teammates in the final kms. Simply great.
Kreuziger was really good too, while Vinokourov and Iglinskiy were both victims of the bad luck. I'm sorry for Vino, especially because this was his last Liége and he managed to come in 33rd anyway.
Another team who raced well this afternoon was BMC. I had scolded this team off in my last post, saying that they had been invisible in Fleche. Today instead they rode much better, since Frank joined a breakaway and Van Avermaet was a super 7th.

As far as the other teams are concerned, Rabobank sometimes pulled at the head of the race, but eventually the best rider was Martens, 13th (hey, Paul has been riding very fast lately!). Freire instead was 15th (Oscarito, are you sure you want to retire this year?!?).
Also Katiusha and Euskaltel pulled at the front of the race for some kms. The team from the Paìs Vasco got a good 10th with S. Sanchez and a good 14th with Igor Anton, whereas Katiusha had Kolobnev as its best rider (11th). A good result, although Joaquim Rodriguez was a bit disappointing.

Other riders instead managed to do well although they didn't have a good team. Sky was very good, since Uran got 5th and Gerrans 12th. Still, the team riders never pulled in the last kms.
Saxo Bank instead had the two Sorensens as its best riders. Nicki tried to break away, while Chris was a super 6th. This boy will entertain us in July, that's for sure.
Liquigas best rider was Nibali, 8th, who is in a very good shape ahead of Giro. Basso instead was disappointing, but he's not going to take part in the Corsa Rosa.
Leukemans (9th) was excellent once again, while Van Garderen (18th) was a good surprise.

So, this was 2011 Liége and this was 2011 Campaign of the Classics. Now the hills and the cobblestones of Belgium, France and Holland are ready to leave the stage to the Italian roads, that will soon be the theatre of the Giro d'Italia.
But still, we have to wait some weeks before of that ;) In the meanwhile, let's enjoy the last days of Easter holidays and let's talk LBL all together ;)
(Pic by Bettini)