On the famous Côte de la Redoute, Remco Evenepoel’s start was so violent that his rear wheel slipped.
PHOTO OLIVIER MATTHYS, ASSOCIATED PRESS
On the strength of his first professional victory in his career, the Belgian Remco Evenepoel crossed the finish line of the classic Liège-Bastogne-Ligne after an effort of 257.2 km, hands on his face, in tears.
The American Neilson Powless tried to hang on in vain, trapped like all the favorites of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, minus Julian Alaphilippe, Evenepoel’s teammate who was already in the ambulance after a terrible fall near a tree.
Evenepoel, therefore, the 22-year-old Belgian child prodigy, announced successor to Eddy Merckx, already in his fourth professional season after sweeping the junior ranks with distant solo attacks. His career was well underway until he fell off a bridge at the Tour of Lombardy in August, raising fears for his life and his sporting future.
A year and a half later, the Quick-Step rider took off near the top of La Redoute, 30 kilometers from the finish line in Ans, on his way to the most important victory of his career on the ” Dean” of the classics, born 130 years earlier, on Sunday.
“I was about 20and wheel at that time and I took it for granted that no one would try to leave because we were almost at the top”, will testify to The Press Canadian Michael Woods, 10and at the arrival.
When Remco ran away, I knew instantly that we wouldn’t see him again. With his power and the runner that he is, as soon as you give him a gap, it’s over.
Michael Woods
After recapturing the last fugitive Bruno Armirail (Groupama), Evenepoel built up a priority of around forty seconds at the foot of the final ascent, the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons, which he climbed seated end to end.
Despite attempts by Woods, Aleksander Vlasov (Bora) and Dylan Teuns (Bahrain), Evenepoel never looked back and crossed the finish line after 257.2 km, hands on his face, in tears.
“It was fantastic, he commented on television a few minutes later. With a headwind it was very difficult to keep pushing, but I knew everyone was already suffering. It was a long and difficult day. It was possibly my best day on a bike. It was the perfect day to experience the best day on your bike. »
another dimension
Victim of a fractured pelvis in 2020, Evenepoel spent many months in rehabilitation before resuming competition in the Tour of Italy in May 2021. He signed a few victories, won bronze in the time trial at the Worlds last fall, but his success on Sunday, at home, on one of the five monuments of cycling, takes him to another dimension.
PHOTO OLIVIER MATTHYS, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Remco Evenepoel, when crossing the finish line
It’s incredible. In the past year and a half, I have suffered tremendously mentally and physically. Finally, this year, I feel that everything is going well, that everything is stabilizing, and that I am once again becoming the best Remco. Today I demonstrated the best Remco since I became a professional.
Remco Evenepoel
Evenepoel’s victory, already the 26thand of his career, saves the horrible spring of his Quick-Step formation, bleached and invisible until then in the classics. The fall of Alaphilippe, victim of a domino effect in a peloton which was going at 60 km/h in the descent of the Col du Rosier, seemed to condemn the hopes of the Belgian team, about sixty kilometers from the line.
Thrown into the ditch, the world champion landed at the foot of a tree. His compatriot Romain Bardet (DSM) came down to help him. “Julian couldn’t move or breathe,” Bardet told Velonews, evoking a “nightmare”. “He felt conscious, but he couldn’t really speak. »
Transported by ambulance, Alaphilippe broke two ribs and a shoulder blade in addition to suffering a hemopneumothorax, communicated his team in the evening. The Frenchman finished second last year behind Tadej Pogacar, absent on Sunday for personal reasons.
Forty-eight seconds after Evenepoel, the surprising Quinten Hermans (Intermarché) and Wout Van Aert (Jumbo) sprinted for second and third place, giving Belgium their first full podium since 1976.
Despite the sprint prepared by his teammate Jakob Fuglsang (Israel-Premier Tech), who dropped him at 150 meters, Woods could not do better than 10and. “Unfortunately, we left early, analyzed the resident of Gatineau. I probably wasn’t going to beat Wout Van Aert in a sprint. So we would have had to come from behind to win this sprint, but we simply started too early. »
After abandoning his first try in Liège in 2016, Woods never left the top 10 since, finishing second in 2018. The change of route the following year, with the withdrawal of the Côte de Saint-Nicolas and the addition of a downward sloping final, did not smile on him, he admitted for the first time on Sunday.
PHOTO FROM INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT @ISRAELPREMIERTECH
Michael Woods, 10and from Liège-Bastogne-Liège
It’s very frustrating, but at the same time, it’s very difficult for me to do well on this new course. Especially when there’s a headwind like that on the last climb, which makes it very difficult to escape.
Michael Woods
Sixth at the Flèche wallonne on Wednesday, Woods is “disappointed” with his performance in the two Ardennes classics. “I really wanted more, but I’m proud to have come to his races in competitive shape after the illnesses that have plagued me for the past two months. »
“A little more work than expected” for Houle
His teammate Hugo Houle finished at 54and rank (+ 7 min 35 s), just behind his friend Fuglsang and at the same time as Philippe Gilbert, hailed by the public. The local hero was bidding farewell to the race he won in 2011.
A brake from the native of Sainte-Perpétue allowed him to narrowly avoid the collective fall that took away Alaphilippe. He got off with a burn to his right ankle, courtesy of a rival’s wheel.
Back in the peloton a little further on, he responded to one of the multiple attacks from Mikel Landa (Bahrain) on the Dénier coast, 45 km from the line.
“It was just me with Jakob and Mike. Normally I had to wait for the finale [pour me découvrir], but I had a little more work than expected. There were several attacks from Bahrain and it was me who had to manage the race a bit at that time. I put the guys at the forefront at La Redoute, where I was second wheel. After that, I unfortunately lacked a bit of energy to pass [avec les favoris]. I think I did my job, which was the priority. »
Houle will now offer himself a few weeks away from competition before resuming at the Tour de Suisse in June.
Barrel didn’t have the legs
Today I really ran out of legs. It’s a shame because I was really looking forward to doing this race for the first time. It’s a very good course for me. But it just wasn’t a good day on the bike. Sometimes, when I don’t feel well, it can pass after an hour or two. But then, when the Côte de la Redoute was coming up and I was still in pain, I started to get a little worried! In fact, entering the coast, I was not able to follow, but not at all.
Quebecer Olivia Baril (Valcar), 36th at + 4 min 49 s on her first try at Liège-Bastogne, won for the second time by Dutchwoman Annemiek Van Vleuten (Movistar), author of two starts in La Redoute and La Roche- aux-Faucons.
Sherbrooke’s Magdeleine Vallières-Mill (EF), who slipped into the four-rider morning breakaway, took 63and rank. Gabrielle Pilote Fortin (Cofidis) did not finish.
