Julian was our man for this race, and he opened it beautifully, with a solo stage win. There was a gap of 15 seconds to the 2nd place rider, but the race organisers decided against time gaps for some reason, a curios decision to say the least. Stages 2-4 were a little disappointing as Alaphilippe did lose small amounts of time on some stages, but remained in a great GC spot, only falling as low as 3rd, and only being behind by at most 30 seconds. On the fifth stage, Alaphilippe broke clear with Quintana and once again, despite finishing 2nd this time, a gap to 3rd place of 18 seconds, but again the race organisers decided against awarding the time gap in the results, so everyone finishes with the same time. In the ITT, Alaphilippe did end up losing a lot of time to Dumoulin, but Alaphilippe very well could have finished in 2nd overall if not for the puzzling time gap decisions.
(PREVIEW)
Paris Roubaix is often considered the hardest single day of cycling on the entire calendar. With many cobble sectors, only the best cobble riders will prevail. Looking at the startlist, Greg Van Avermaet is once again the favourite, after winning Milan San Remo and also being the favourite for Ronde van Vlaanderen. Deceuninck have finished no worse than 2nd in the seasons first two monuments, and the entire team looked in great form just a week ago, with 3 riders in the Top 10 at RvV and Gilbert taking a terrific win.
Sagan is the most recent winner and will look to win two in a row, something a Slovakian has never done before. Vanmarcke has never won Paris Roubaix but has often been considered a favourite. Maybe it will finally be his year!
Then we've got 3 youngsters who could be the new faces of this race in the years to come. Wout Van Aert, Mads Pedersen and Tiesj Benoot. All 3 will be looking for strong results and could be strong enough to win as well!
The "purists" will probably hope for rain, and miserable conditions, the rain and mud always adds to the spectacle of the race. If it comes to a group finish on the velodrome, if Sagan is present he would have to be seen as the favourite, but anything can happen in this race, and it usually does.
The first major crash of the race at the Troube de Arenberg sector
Just over 100km to go, as the race is just starting to pick up, and we have a huge pile up on the cobbles. Deceuninck are hit the hardest, as Stybar, Gilbert and Senechal all go down, as well as Van Avermaet.
You probably thought this was a duplicate of the first screen at first glance
Now on Orchies, another big crash for the peloton! Gilbert, Stybar and Lampaert all involved, as is Trentin, Drucker and Van Avermaet again. Just a miserable day for 3 of the favourites, in Gilbert, Stybar and Van Avermaet as they've gone down hard twice.
The race sets off at the front
No time for the big 3 who have just gone down to catch up though. With 50km left, the favourites are going at the front. Sagan, Vanmarcke, Politt, Naesen and Langeveld go clear. The Gilbert and Van Avermaet group are 2 minutes down.
Are things about to get back together?
After many kms of chasing, Deceuninck and Gilbert almost make it back to the front group, with only 10km to go. Lampaert did his best to chase them down, but emptied his own tank in the process. They eventually do rejoin the group, but only the original 5 leaders look like they have energy.
The 3 who will fight for the win, Naesen, Vanmarcke and Sagan
As they reach the velodrome, all the others have been dropped. Sagan is the favourite, so the other two make him take up the riding on the front.
Sagan takes the Hell of the North
Sagan wins the sprint. The rest of the race was completely decimated. Deceuninck were expected to dominate but crashes at key moments weakened them significantly and they had to chase down the leaders, which they more or less did, but as a result couldn't stay with the leaders when they attacked just before the velodrome. It was a great effort to salvage a Top 5 though, it easily could have been race over for Gilbert.
Ouch. Disappointing race for Quickstep. The Hell of the North can be really cruel with crashes. Great ride by Gilbert at least to chase back to a top 5 after crashing twice.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
@ baseball - Yeah, after we crashed I didn't really expect to ever see the leaders again.
@ champ - Yeah, maybe it has to do with the crash ratio, but 18 seems a lot better at cobble races than 17 was, so I haven't seen a 20 rider final at PR yet.
With the course change, the hilly riders will need to make a move further out from the finish. A rider like Michael Matthews could win if he can stay with the front group into the finish.
With 20km to go, some of the favourites put on the pressure. A gap of 30 seconds emerges, but there are a lot of good riders behind too!
But the leaders are caught, and it looks like a large group will fight for the win!
And in the sprint, Colbrelli takes the win! The sprinters hung on and beat out the pure puncheurs.
1
Sonny Colbrelli
Team Bahrain Merida
+00:00
2
Michael Matthews
Team Sunweb
+00:00
3
Greg Van Avermaet
CCC Team
+00:00
4
Alejandro Valverde
Movistar Team
+00:00
5
Michal Kwiatkowski
Team Sky
+00:00
6
Julian Alaphilippe
Deceuninck - Quick Step
+00:00
7
Tim Wellens
Lotto - Soudal
+00:00
8
Roman Kreuziger
Team Dimension Data
+00:00
9
Alessandro De Marchi
CCC Team
+00:00
10
Tiesj Benoot
Lotto - Soudal
+00:00
11
Davide Formolo
BORA - hansgrohe
+00:00
12
Luis León Sánchez
Astana Pro Team
+00:47
13
Michael Woods
EF Education First Pro Cycling Team
+01:27
14
Philippe Gilbert
Deceuninck - Quick Step
+01:50
15
Jan Polanc
UAE - Team Emirates
+01:50
16
Kristijan Durasek
UAE - Team Emirates
+01:50
17
Jonathan Castroviejo
Team Sky
+01:50
18
Daniel Martin
UAE - Team Emirates
+01:50
19
Enrico Gasparotto
Team Dimension Data
+01:50
20
Daryl Impey
Mitchelton - Scott
+01:50
La Fleche Wallonne (1.UWT) 2019
This one should be for the pure puncheurs! Alaphilippe or Valverde are the favourites, but there are several riders that could take it.
It was a long and hard day, but a bunch sprint was on for the finale, and Alaphilippe made an amazing move early in the final climb which was enough to hold off the charging Dan Martin!
1
Julian Alaphilippe
Deceuninck - Quick Step
+00:00
2
Daniel Martin
UAE - Team Emirates
+00:00
3
Michal Kwiatkowski
Team Sky
+00:00
4
Michael Woods
EF Education First Pro Cycling Team
+00:00
5
Alejandro Valverde
Movistar Team
+00:14
6
Davide Formolo
BORA - hansgrohe
+00:14
7
Enric Mas
Deceuninck - Quick Step
+00:14
8
Tim Wellens
Lotto - Soudal
+00:14
9
Anthony Roux
Groupama - FDJ
+00:14
10
Serge Pauwels
CCC Team
+00:25
11
Michael Matthews
Team Sunweb
+00:25
12
Jakob Fuglsang
Astana Pro Team
+00:34
13
Tom Dumoulin
Team Sunweb
+00:34
14
Dylan Teuns
Team Bahrain Merida
+00:46
15
Michael Albasini
Mitchelton - Scott
+00:46
16
Enrico Gasparotto
Team Dimension Data
+01:15
17
Alessandro De Marchi
CCC Team
+02:13
18
Rui Costa
UAE - Team Emirates
+02:13
19
Daniel Martinez
EF Education First Pro Cycling Team
+02:29
20
Bauke Mollema
Trek - Segafredo
+02:36
Liege - Bastogne - Liege (1.UWT) 2019
At this point, we've seen who is in form and Alaphilippe is the top favourite to win LBL. Winning two of the Ardennes classics would solidify his season as a great one already, but Valverde and the rest of the challengers will want to get one of the biggest classics of the season as well.
The first major action comes from Jungels who attacks! The winner of last years edition, he is hoping to win it in solo fashion. He gets a gap of almost 1 minute, with under 30km to go, but it will be tough to hold off the peloton.
Kwiatkowski, Valverde and Martin all attack. The peloton must chase this move down. Gilbert and Alaphilippe are not in this move, so they try their best to chase the move down!
Jungels is still up the road, but he decides to wait up, for the lead group, and now a group of 20 riders gets together, including: Martin, Valverde, Kwiatkowski, Mas, Jungels, Gilbert, Alaphilippe, and Kreuziger.
This group gets all the way to the finishing climb, and Mas tries an attack at the foot of the climb. His gap reaches 30 seconds and it will be close whether or not the rest of the leaders can catch him. Have they waited too long to go for the sprint?
NO! Mas is caught just metres from the line, and Valverde, sometimes know as the Green Bullet, flies past to narrowly take the win, ahead of Julian Alaphilippe who loses by less than a wheels length! It was truly a great finish, and the most exciting of the 3 Ardennes classics for sure! Valverde wins LBL for his 5th time, moving into a tie for the Record alongside only the great Eddy Merkcx.
Basque Country: Stage win, Points win, KoM win, U25 win – not all bad Paris – Roubaix: One of those day, a crash - then recover just to crash again – under the circumstance fine result from Glibert. Amstel Gold: Very fine and realistic result, not the best profile for Quick Step’s riders. La Fleche Wallonne: And here we go - perfect profile for Julian and he deliver to perfection.
@ Tamijo - Indeed, Basque Country was pretty dominant other than the GC really. Thanks
@ tsmoha - Yeah, its one of my favourites, I do like the one of Jungels too, since the crowd actually looks realistic compared to a lot of races which barely have any spectators for some reason. Thanks, overall the Ardennes campaign was decent to above average altough the sponsor was hoping for a win at LBL.
Why have I not noticed this story before? You spend a week away and you lose some gems, really liking the reports, I may not comment in this section as much as before but I’ll be following as it will entertain me in busy, hectic days.
Itzulia Basque Country (2.UWT) 2019
Paris - Roubaix (1.UWT) 2019
Amstel Gold Race (1.UWT) 2019
La Fleche Wallonne (1.UWT) 2019
