The Classics from my point of view - a long post full of random observations:

I know, I know. I haven't written anything on this blog for the last 3 weeks, but now inspiration has finally visited me again (Liège - Bastogne - Liége, thank you very much for that).

The classic season is over and I've got thousands of things to talk about. Therefore, let's start immediately.

TOUR OF FLANDERS:

Tour of Flanders was won by an amazing Tom Boonen, who broke clear from the peloton together with Pozzato and Ballan. During the North Classics this latter rider showed that he's finally back at a top level again and I was very happy for this. As for Pozzato, Pippo is a very strong rider, but unfortunately I have the feeling he doesn't always manage to connect his brain and his legs in a very successful way. As a consequence, although I must admit I was very impressed by his quick recovery (I mean, he broke his collarbone just two months ago, but he managed to get excellent results in the Classics anyway), I have the feeling that, perhaps, Pippo could have achieved even better results both in Flanders and in Roubaix, if only had he used his brain more carefully.

Talking about Flanders, the decisive move was made by Ballan with about 20 kms to go. This year the parcours of the race didn't include the Kapelmuur (personally, I didn't like this choice at all) and so the Italian decided to attack on Oude Kwaremont. Ballan was immediately followed by his countryfellow Pozzato and by Tom 'Tornando' Boonen.
On the last climb du jour, the Paterberg (will I ever learn to spell it correctly without looking it up somewhere?), for a moment it looked as if the two Italians were going to drop Tornado Tom. This caused Eurosport's Italian chronist to start rejoicing like mad. More precisely, that man started screaming 'And we make it! And we make it! We've dropped Boonen, we've dropped Boonen! with a very hateful voice, which caused my father and I to get very annoyed, especially because the chronist's words didn't actually correspond to what our eyes were seeing. In fact Boonen never looked worried by presence of the two Italians, which in the last kms of the race never managed to create him problems.

In the last 2 kms of race, Ballan tried to attack and drop the Belgian champion. Pozzato, instead, thought he could beat Tommeke in a sprint and didn't even bother trying a little attack. Of course this was a great advantage for Tom, which won the final sprint without problems. Second in the race was Pozzato, third was Ballan. 4th was Van Avermaet, 5th an amazing Sagan. A surprising Voeckler instead was 8th.

Still talking about Flanders, there are a few important things I'd like to point out. Firstly, I'd like to mention Taylor Phinney's presence in the morning breakaway. The BMC rider is considered one of the strongest young guns of the peloton (if you speak Italian, check out http://thecyclingoflife.wordpress.com/ to read some interesting facts about him) and I really appreciated seeing him on the move. Secondly, I was very impressed by Peter Sagan's strength in the finale of the race. After losing contact because of Vanmarcke's crash, in fact, the Slovakian rider needed just a very little time to close the gap between himself and the riders ahead him. Seriously, that boy has a wonderful engine. Moreover, he is very intelligent. And classy. And... Well, alright, I'll admit it: I've crushed on him. Is there any other Sagan' supporter out there? :P

Last but not least, I'd like to talk a bit about Fabian Cancellara's crash. Imo, in fact, the image of Fabian lying on the asphalt in the feed zone will be stuck in the supporters' minds for a very long time. I'm not a big Cancellara lover (he's a great rider, but I simply don't like him as much as I like Sagan or Rolland or Voeckler or Menchov or many other riders), but watching the Swiss champion in that condition really hurt me. After all,over the last few years we supporters have got used to considering Cancellara like a true superhero: he won Roubaix with a suicide attack with 50 kms to go, he never had problems with doping or things like that, he won stages at the Tour, he was third in a World Championship, he won Eroica although he was mourning the loss of his uncle. That crash reminded us of Fabian's vulnerability and was a very sad sight. Especially because Cancellara, one of the best bike riders of the peloton, crashed because of another rider's lack of attention, and not because of a mistake of his.

Watching one of the favourites being taken out of the race because of a crash was really sad for us supporters, but many riders were probably sorry for Cancellara's crash too. In fact not only Fabian has many friends inside the peloton, but right after Boonen's victory, many journalists started wondering whether the Belgian would have won if Cancellara had raced. In my opinion, Tommeke answered that question seven days later, on the prestigious Roubaix stage.

PARIS-ROUBAIX:

Paris-Roubaix is a race for heroes. 260 kms between dust, cobblestones and supporters, 260 kms of pain, fatigue and cycling history. Some take part in this race because they want a victory, but most of the riders just hope they can survive the evilness of the French cobblestones. Some riders adore this race, some hate it. Still, everyone is fascinated by this competition which requires braveness, strength and good luck from tose who'd like to win it.

At the start line of the this year Paris-Roubaix there was also Frederic Guesdon, at the last race of his career. The Frenchman, who broke his femur in January and won Roubaix in 1997, ended the race in 88th and said adieu to professional cycling as soon as he reached the Paris velodrome.

Unfortunately for me, at the start line there wasn't Peter Sagan, one of the cyclists that I like the most.

The key moment of this year Roubaix starred the exceptional Nicki Terpstra, Tom Boonen, Alessandro Ballan and Filippo Pozzato. With about 58 kms to go, Boonen attacked and was followed by Ballan and Pozzato. Soon Tommeke was joined by his teammate Terpstra, which started pulling at the front of the little group of riders. Then, all of a sudden, something absurd, comical and shocking happened: Pozzato and Ballan started arguing, and they just let the QuickStep couple ride away. Perhaps the Italians thought that Tommeke couldn't win with an attack at that point of the race ('After all, Boonen isn't Cancellara', they probably thought), but unfortunately this didn't save them from the waterfall of critics that supporters directed towards them after the race. On the following cobblestone sector, in fact, Tom Boonen showed that he was attacking for good and, with 53 kms to go, he said 'see you after the finish-line' to Terpstra and started a lonely ride towards Roubaix velodrome. Soon Boonen's gap on the poursuivants started growing and, by the end of the day, Tommeke had created a 1'39" minute wide ocean between him and his followers. Tom entered the velodrome alone, in triumph, and by doing so he also entered cycling history: immediately after the finish-line in fact Boonen received the 'monsieur Roubaix' title, which so far had been given just to Roger de Vlaeminck, winner of 4 Roubaix. Now Tom has won the same number of Roubaix as 'Roger 'The Gipsy' De Vlaeminck and he still has plenty of time to improve his list of triumphs.

Second in the race was Turgot, third was Ballan. Pozzato crashed with a few kms to go and then retired. As Pippo reached the Farnese Vini bus, Boonen was rejoicing in the velodrome, surrounded by journalists and supporters ready to celebrate the rebirth of a great cyclist who had faced his personal hell just one year earlier.
In a few words, Tom Boonen's 4th Roubaix was a true masterpiece, since the Belgian decided to attack on his own with 53 kms to go, although he was one of the few riders who could afford themselves to wait for the final sprint in the velodrome. Still, Tommeke decided to risk it all and go for the heroical deed. He was brave, ambitious and also a bit crazy, and this paid off in the end. Tornado Tom won his 4th Roubaix 'a la Cancellara', showing that he's a true champion and that he can win Classics even by attacking with 53 kms to go. Chapeau Tom, you were simply amazing.

AMSTEL GOLD RACE:

After the cobblestones and the walls of the North Classics, time arrived to move to the Ardennes for the following races: Amstel Gold Race, Fleche Wallonne, Liége - Bastogne - Liége. Many of the faces in the peloton changed, a few remained. And here I must mention Sylvain Chavanel, who took part both in the North and in the Ardennes Classics. Chapeau!

A few days before Amstel, the riders faced Brabantsje Pil, which was won by an amazing Voeckler. This race didn't give supporters many information about the riders' form, so that at the start of Amstel Gold Race none of the riders looked stronger than the others.
Amstel was as nervous as usual. The riders had to pay attention to the narrow streets and during the race many of them also thought about this year World Championships, which is ending atop of Cauberg.
With about 16 kms to go, the situation at the front of the race was still very chaotic. There were still many riders all together and no one seemed stronger than the other ones. With 7 kms to go, a huge surprise: Oscarito Freire, the rider one usually sees when it's too late to take the victory away from him, attacked.
The Spaniard's kamikaze move caused some problems to the other riders and Oscarito led the race until he reached the '500 meters to go' sign. At that point, the generous Katusha rider had to abandon his dreams of victory, whereas the climbers who had remained in the peloton until that moment attacked. Gilbert, probably moved by his pride, launched an attack. The Ardennes are his favourite races, but this year Philippe wasn't as strong as last year. Still, he tried to honour these Classics as well as he could by attacking whenever he had the chance. Unfortunately, after his attack Phil immediately lost speed and was passed by three riders. Those 3 riders there were the young Peter Sagan, last Tour's revelation Jelle Vanendert, together with the Italian Enrico Gasparotto.
Every single Italian supporter in those last 20 meters of race started screaming like mad, hoping for an Italian victory in a Classic - a victory which would have put an end to Italy's long fast in the Classics, which started back in October 2009, when Cunego won the Tour of Lombardy for the third time. Every single Italian supporter screamed, some jumped on their sofa, others simply supported Enrico in silence. And finally, that long-awaited victory arrived.
After the finish-line Gasparotto couldn't believe what he had done, whereas Vanendert outsprinted poor Sagan in the very last few meters of the race. Fourth was Freire, fifth Voeckler, sixth was Gilbert.
On the podium, Gasparotto was simply euphoric, whereas Sagan had the usual, sad expression: the boy is young, he still has plenty of years to prove his strength to everyone. In the meanwhile, in this past few weeks he's added to his young palmares a 4th place in Sanremo, a 2nd place in Gand - Wevelgem, a 5th place in Flanders and a 3rd place in Amstel. Many older riders would be ready to pay a large sum of money in order to get those placements!

FLECHE WALLONE:
Three days later, cycling supporters could enjoy another ride on the Classics merry-go-round. This time the main attraction at the cycling luna-park was the mur de Huy, a short climbs that every year in April leads many riders to hell and just one of them to heaven. 1,3 kms, 9,9 % of average steepness and a curve that make you dizzy just by looking at it from behind a tv screen. That's Huy, baby.
The race slowly went away without many emotions. Then, in the final kilometre, the usual breathtaking battle started. Hesjedal and Nordhaug, the last attackers du jour, soon disappeared in the back rows of the peloton as the grimpeurs started looking for the perfect attack that could lead them to glory. As a few riders was battling for victory, most of the athletes just focused on getting to the finish-line. The mur is a strict judge and you need explosive legs to win on it.
With a few hundreds of meters to go Joaquim Rodriguez, the main favourite of the race, second both in 2010 and 2011, managed to shoot the above-mentioned 'perfect attack'. He challenged the wall and, as the other riders tried to follow him in vain, he grabbed the most prestigious victory of his career. Meanwhile, a super Albasini got the second place, whereas Gilbert was 3rd on the climb that gave him one of his greatest victories last year. 4th was Vanendert, 5th Kiserlovski. Another Classic, another exciting race. And, once in a while, a winner that many expected.
Now, everything was ready for Liége - Bastogne - Liége.

LA DOYENNE:

April. Sun and rain take turns in Liége, cyclists and supporters gather in the Belgian city. Another Liége – Bastogne – Liége, the 98^th in the history of cycling, is about to take off.
La Doyenne is an exciting race, which can give you thrills at any time of the day. And so on Sunday, although midday hadn't arrived yet and although the race still hadn't begun, some important news already reached the supporters: 'Igor Anton, Euskaltel rider, fractures his collarbone in a pre-race crash, therefore he won't take part in the Doyenne' . Crazy, crazy news for everyone; Bad, bad luck for poor Igor.

On Sunday the atmosphere in Liége was different from the one of last year, when everyone was ready to celebrate Philippe Gilbert's 'triplete' in the Ardennes. This year in fact the first two Ardennes Classics didn't crown an absolute king and, as a consequence of this, on Sunday morning the journalists and the supporters gathered in Liége or parked in front of their tv screens did their best to try and understand who could have won the 98th edition of la Doyenne.
Philippe Gilbert, third in Fleche, looked good on mur de Huy, but this year his form never looked as good as it was last April. The Schleck brothers, in spite of all their talks, this year haven't had great results yet. Valverde, after getting wonderful results at Tour Down Under, seems to be suffering the consequences of his two-year ban. Joaquim Rodriguez, winner of la Fleche, needs hard, steep climbs that lead directly to the finish-line to win. And, unfortunately for him, in Liége's finale there are no steep climbs that lead directly to the finish-line. Nibali is strong and is in form, but he has to reach the final km on his own if he wants to win a race like la Doyenne. Gasparotto, winner of AGR, is in a wonderful form, but Liége's finale is very different from Amstel's one. Kiserlovski and Iglinskiy are in good form too, just like Hesjedal and Daniel Martin. Still, are they good enough to win a Liége? Voeckler is an old cunning pirate and is ready to give battle. Still, heart and braveness often aren't enough to win in cycling. Rolland, Voeckler's lieutenant, is strong and young - perhaps even too young to win. So, who amongst them will win this race? This was the question that every cycling lover often asked themselves on Sunday.

As soon as the race started and the peloton left Liége, some brave riders attacked. Amongst them there were the above mentioned Rolland and the Italian Dario Cataldo, which will later be joined by the strong Kiryenka. The trio will remain at the head of the race until the key climb of the race, la Roche aux Fauçons, where in the last three years Andy Schleck, Alexander Vinokourov and Philippe Gilbert built part of their triumphs in the Doyenne.

On the Roche aux Fauçons, the first important events take place: Valverde has a mechanical, just like Voeckler (the unlucky Samuel Sanchez had already punctured on la Redoute); Frank Schleck instead is dropped, whereas his brother never showed up at the front of the race.
 Radioshack blamed their riders' lack of results on the cold weather, many supporters (me included) blamed it on their lack of form. Still, in the last months I've learned to watch races without caring about the results of two certain Luxembourgian brothers, and this lesson really paid off during Sunday's race.

On the second part of the Roche aux Fauçons, the trickiest one, Vincenzo Nibali, the Shark from Messina, attacked. Gilbert, supported by his supporters, followed him, but on the top of the climb Nibali attacked again and started a lonesome ride towards Liége. Just like in last year Lombardy, Vincenzo tried to surprise anyone with a move that raised the enthusiasm of the supporters and the critics of some journalists.
The gap between the Liquigas rider and his poursuivants soon started to increase, increase and increase: at a certain point, Vincenzo even had almost 40" of advantage on the followers. Just like during Amstel, all the Italian tifosi were supporting their countryman on his quest towards success. Nibali was supported by his country, by the Italian who live on Cote Saint Nicolas (also known as 'the climb of the Italians' because many Italian migrants live there), by his ds, by his friends, by his parents and by his girlfriend, who was waiting for him in Liége. Behind him, Mollema and Iglinskiy tried to chase him, then the Dutch gave up and Iglinskiy was joined by Rodriguez in his attempt of catching Nibali. Then, on cote de Saint Nicolas, Maxime dropped the Katusha rider and decided to give it all to reach the Italian.

Nibali was pulling hard, everyone was dreaming about a victory of his. Finally it looked as if, after many good placements in the Classics, the 2010 Vuelta winner was really going to win a important one-day race. Unfortunately, just like in last year Lombardy, things weren't meant to go that way.

Liége - Bastogne - Liége doesn't actually end in the Belgian city, it actually ends in Ans, a little village which is 1800 meters far from the town that gives its name to la Doyenne. And, on his way to Ans, Vincenzo Nibali started feeling the fatigue of the race. Iglinskiy looked closer and closer to the Italian and, with 1300 meters to go, Maxim reached Vincenzo and rode past him, before disappearing on the horizon. A nightmare for Vincenzo, a dream for Maxim. A bad luck spell for the Italian, a desire that comes true for the Astana rider.

Iglinskiy crossed the finish-line in first, and in triumph. He was happy, he kept smiling at everyone, his friends couldn't stop congratulating him. 'Tonight we're going to have a Kazakh party!!', he said shortly after the race, when he still hadn't realised the importance of his victory.

Nibali, instead, after the end of the race was the portait of disappointment. He crossed the finish-line and he looked sad and disappointed, as sad and disappointed as an athlete can be. After the race the Liquigas rider sincerely admitted, that perhaps, 'it would have been better if I had been defeated by someone like Gilbert'.
Not many expected Iglinskiy to win, and this was clearly said by Voeckler in the post-race interview with RAI. During it the Frenchman, who took the 4th place in the race behind an amazing Gasparotto, asked an Italian journalist to congratulate Nibali for his victory. When the surprised journalist told Thomas that Vincenzo hadn't won, the Europcar rider looked pretty shocked and said that yesterday 'the strongest one was Vincenzo'. Honesty is the best policy, isn't it?
After the race Iglinskiy was probably too happy to pay attention to Voeckler's words, but he probably soon realised that many journalists thought that Nibali deserved the victory in la Doyenne more than him. Still, in my opinion Maxim fully deserved this victory, also because in the last few years he's regularly showed some very good things in the Classics. Alright, Nibali rides in a much more spectacular way, but unfortunately you need also legs and luck to win races. And, on Sunday, Nibali probably had less strength than Maxim (who, we must remember it, was also helped by Rodriguez and Mollema on his attempt of chasing the Liquigas rider) and he surely had less luck than the Kazakh.

Talking about Nibali, one thing must be said: whereas nowadays many cyclists tend to focus just on a few races pro year and peak just once or twice pro season, Vincenzo is a true rider, one that always races to win, no matter the importance of the race, the weather or the time of the year. In addition he's generous, he's brave and he attacks whenever he can. And, although this doesn't always pay off, I think most of the supporters really appreciate his riding style. Now I only hope Nibali won't spend too much time thinking about this year Liége and about last year Lombardy. You need luck to win races, and I'm sure that one day Nibali will be lucky enough to triumph in at least one important Classic. Also Evans was considered an eternal second until a few years ago, but now he's won the Worlds, a Fleche and a Tour de France. And, in my opinion, Nibali has everything it takes to step on the highest spot of the podium in each of these races I've mentioned.

As far as the other riders are concerned, I think a special mention should go to the Europcar guys, Voeckler and Rolland. Although Thomas now probably has one friend less in the peloton (I'm talking about Iglinskiy), on Sunday he showed that he can be dangerous even in the hardest races of the year. As for Rolland, he was probably one of the strongest riders (if not THE strongest) on Sunday, but his team sacrificed him for the old captain Voeckler. Still, the boy has a brilliant future ahead.

Gilbert, the local hero, ended the race about 1'30" after Iglinskiy. At the finish-line he almost smiled, as if he wanted to thank his supporters anyway. At least, it must be said that Philippe showed himself at the head of the race on a few occasions, whereas other riders (los Schlecks, Horner, Valverde) were never at the center of the action.
However, criticising people is useless, because that surely won't change the final outcome of the race.
So: another Classics season is over, another Liége winner has been crowned. And, once again, cycling has offered us a unique show. Now, it's time to move on the Giro. Yeah!

ps: in case you're wondering, my offline life is going very well. I'll have 3 exams and a half in the next month, but I'll try my best to find some time to blog about the Giro. Hoping you're all doing fine, I wish you a nice evening. See you soon!

ps2: if you speak Italian, I suggest you taking a look at Claudia's new blog, http://thecyclingoflife.wordpress.com/ . It's definitely worth reading!!!