Eurosport is available to my neighbour , so that is how I saw the last 60km of the “ Luttich-Bastogne-Luttich “ today . Rarely go to the one day races since all those involved are so busy , you are interrupting them if you strike up a conversation . Certainly riding the route in it’s entirety would be out of the question since the distances are about my limit and usually point to point allowing little chance of a short cut when kicked off the course .
20km to the finish the race is compact and then Nibali makes a run for it ! There is a largish group with one thing , mostly , in common , they all have numbers ending with 1 ! My impression was that these were the team leaders , people like Cunego and Voekler , etc . As time passed and the kilos were eaten up by Nibali , these guys started pfaffing around , wasting time , looking at each other . So the distance disappeared and the deficit grew , finally Inglinsky decided to make a run .
As the kilos dropped below 8km to go , Eurosport was still showing 43sec deficit , then the deficit disappeared and the race continued . All of a sudden we see a shot over the shoulder of Inglinsky of Nibali in the distance . He is not 43 sec behind , in fact in very little time he is up with Nibali , who sits up for a moment to see what is about to happen . Well that short pause obviously upset Vincenzo’s rhythm because as soon as Maxim stepped on the gas Vincenzo was unable to find the energy to contest the last kilometre !
Looking at Twitter I see a few tweets which caused me to wonder what was really going on at the “ meeting ” those other Racers were holding whilst first Nibali then Inglinsky were securing their Podium positions ?
Jon Vaughters said :
Congrats to Maxim Iglinsky. Can't say I saw that coming. He's been a good one day rider for a few years now tho.
Garmin-Barracuda said :
Congrats to the argyle -- @DanMartin86 5th @ryder_hesjedal 9th & @alex_howes covering attacks! #LBL
Ryder Hesjedal said :
Great work by the whole team today. We had a plan and everyone delivered perfectly! Great way to close out the Classics!
Cervelo said :
Great riding by @Ride_Argyle at #Liege! @DanMartin86 5th @ryder_hesjedal 9th & revelation @alex_howes once again animating the race!
To have finished in these positions Dan and Ryder must have been involved in the “ parlay ” ? What are they and Jonathon discussing now ? Perfection for me would have been a group sprint and then ALL would have seen a far different result !
Tweet from Steep hill :
14 Big Photos of the attack, finish and podium of Liège-Bastogne-Liège; http://bit.ly/IJqSKl (Nibali not happy on the podium)
Guess Vincenzo is asking himself what more he could have done ? He reminds me of Leisel , the Aussie Swimmer , who displayed sour grapes on the Athens 2004 Olympic Medal Podium !
Vincenzo you did good , better perhaps than you planned ! Remember Eric Zabel sitting up on the San Remo finish line , allowing Oscar Freire to take the win by a nose ?