101st Liège–Bastogne–Liège - 2015 Fourth Monument - 253k

[SeriousSam]

Andy attacked at 20km to go and won by over a minute. That's not only earlyish, that's early.

 

[hrotha]

20 km to go is not "early" by any stretch of the imagination, but that you think so explains many things.

 

[SeriousSam]

You must be really frustrated riders aren't attacking all over the place from a really long way out anymore. The tactically astute Purito thinks it's because:

The differences between leaders and domestiques is much smaller than it used to be. Everybody’s in better shape, the peloton is at a higher level across the board. So the difference between me and Moreno, say, is much less.

 

[hrotha]

What does that have to do with anything? Even if no one ever attacked "from a really long way out" ever again, that still wouldn't make attacks on the final part of the course "early attacks".

 

[Escarabajo]

Re: Re:

By the way, Quintana did nothing for Valverde in Fleche nor Liege.

He did protect Valverde in FW and he felt today so he couldnt do anything.
Get your facts straight before you spit a BS

Protect from what? And Where? Did you see that? Cause I didn't! Oh and the only one who is spiting a BS is you!

Did he have to? why????
Such small climber. protect him from who?
Why don't you send a letter to Movistar and fix their schedules or tell him what to do about their strategy would you?
Thanks.

 

[Escarabajo]

Great result by Valverde. He sitting on great form and capitalizing on it.

 

[Fernandez]

Re: Re:

By the way, Quintana did nothing for Valverde in Fleche nor Liege.

He did protect Valverde in FW and he felt today so he couldnt do anything.
Get your facts straight before you spit a BS

Because you said that. I didnt see Quintana helping in any way to Valverde in Fleche nor Liege. In fact, I didnt see Quintana except the moment everybody saw him recovering from his crash today. He was the one supossed to be with Valverde at the very end of the races.

Not cuz I said that, but because you could see that in last 8k of fléche.Today he was supposed to help in last moments,not freakin 50k's to the line, but he crashed.I see you can not figure this, so you probably should watch cycling more oftern and then write stuff (with true point)

Dont be mad, take tour pill. Whatever you think that happened, Quintana did nothing in Ardennes. Assume that and dont tell more fairy tales. I know its hard that colombians did nothing this week, take it easy, your time will come. Meanwhile, enjoy of the very best cyclist in the world, míster Alejandro valverde belmonte.

 

[Mr.White]

Re: Re:

By the way, Quintana did nothing for Valverde in Fleche nor Liege.

He did protect Valverde in FW and he felt today so he couldnt do anything.
Get your facts straight before you spit a BS

Protect from what? And Where? Did you see that? Cause I didn't! Oh and the only one who is spiting a BS is you!

Did he have to? why????
Such small climber. protect him from who?
Why don't you send a letter to Movistar and fix their schedules or tell him what to do about their strategy would you?
Thanks.

No he didn't have to, as you could see for yourself, Valverde did just fine. I was answering to ILovecycling, who said he was protecting him in Fleche Wallonne, well I didn't saw that, did you? I didn't said either that he should protect him, I agree with you, he is small, it's not his job to do, why are you angry? I wasn't saying anything bad about Quintana, or good for that matter, just responding to obvious lie from ILovecycling.
Thanks to you.

 

[antmills]

What a pity that we are still having to put up with an unrepentant doper getting wins. .... lots have disappeared over the past couple of years (pretty much since LA was finally dealt with and Phat McQ was booted out. But, it'll be a good day for cycling when this "hanger-on" has gone, as it does nothing for the image of cycling to have his sort around.

Roll on a couple more years & we shall have a fair & open race.

 

[hfer07]

couldn't watch it this morning- I just saw the last 50k --- very disappointing for the lack of attacks - it was basically a race of elimination by fast pacing -so whoever got the legs to hang on to, it was going to be the winner. gotta give credit to Valverde, to respond in kind for his favoritism - raced very smart & held his ground when needed.

 

[chiocciolis_calves]

Re:

What a pity that we are still having to put up with an unrepentant doper getting wins. .... lots have disappeared over the past couple of years (pretty much since LA was finally dealt with and Phat McQ was booted out. But, it'll be a good day for cycling when this "hanger-on" has gone, as it does nothing for the image of cycling to have his sort around.

Roll on a couple more years & we shall have a fair & open race.

Yep, the only thing missing from your post is some sort of reference to Dan Martin.

 

[Escarabajo]

Re: Re:

By the way, Quintana did nothing for Valverde in Fleche nor Liege.

He did protect Valverde in FW and he felt today so he couldnt do anything.
Get your facts straight before you spit a BS

Protect from what? And Where? Did you see that? Cause I didn't! Oh and the only one who is spiting a BS is you!

Did he have to? why????
Such small climber. protect him from who?
Why don't you send a letter to Movistar and fix their schedules or tell him what to do about their strategy would you?
Thanks.

No he didn't have to, as you could see for yourself, Valverde did just fine. I was answering to ILovecycling, who said he was protecting him in Fleche Wallonne, well I didn't saw that, did you? I didn't said either that he should protect him, I agree with you, he is small, it's not his job to do, why are you angry? I wasn't saying anything bad about Quintana, or good for that matter, just responding to obvious lie from ILovecycling.
Thanks to you.

Fair enough. Now I understand your answer better.

I don't think he was taken to the Ardennes to support Valverde. Maybe he would have if the ocassion presented but I think he was just doing the miles on his legs for the preparation for the Tour and the regognition of some of the roads.

 

[IndianCyclist]

Re:

couldn't watch it this morning- I just saw the last 50k --- very disappointing for the lack of attacks - it was basically a race of elimination by fast pacing -so whoever got the legs to hang on to, it was going to be the winner. gotta give credit to Valverde, to respond in kind for his favoritism - raced very smart & held his ground when needed.

Typically all the one day races have become races of attrition. Problem is that if there are teammates in the peloton, they can easily chase the attacker down and then sit on him or chase from the peloton. This scuppers all the chances that the attackers have. You need the level of a Contador/ Boonen/ Cancellera to really succeed and not sure if that will succeed as well. This can be seen from the Catalonia race where Kiriyenka helped chase down Contador and setup Richie Porte to go past him

 

[Escarabajo]

Re: Re:

couldn't watch it this morning- I just saw the last 50k --- very disappointing for the lack of attacks - it was basically a race of elimination by fast pacing -so whoever got the legs to hang on to, it was going to be the winner. gotta give credit to Valverde, to respond in kind for his favoritism - raced very smart & held his ground when needed.

Typically all the one day races have become races of attrition. Problem is that if there are teammates in the peloton, they can easily chase the attacker down and then sit on him or chase from the peloton. This scuppers all the chances that the attackers have. You need the level of a Contador/ Boonen/ Cancellera to really succeed and not sure if that will succeed as well. This can be seen from the Catalonia race where Kiriyenka helped chase down Contador and setup Richie Porte to go past him

+1.
With the new team strategies and the power of the teams they can chase down any attacks. So let's be prepare for more of this. Sadly for the fans that don't like attrition.

I don't mind attrition if there are no more than 5 riders at the end.

 

[Asero831]

Only 20 guys finished within a minute of Valverde

 

[Kokoso]

LBL has been missing riders who will go for broke early and always. Until 2011 you always had the Schlecks going for it earlyish and in 2012 Nibali caused great action. What's really missing is a top contender without a sprint not satisfied with anything but a win. Race would've been better with Contador there for example, because he would likely go for broke completely on the Roche and the field would be decimated after that

Not really. Kreuziger tried last year and this year too and he is top contender.

 

[Angliru]

Re:

What a pity that we are still having to put up with an unrepentant doper getting wins. .... lots have disappeared over the past couple of years (pretty much since LA was finally dealt with and Phat McQ was booted out. But, it'll be a good day for cycling when this "hanger-on" has gone, as it does nothing for the image of cycling to have his sort around.

Roll on a couple more years & we shall have a fair & open race.

There is a special thread that is stickied in the Professional Road Racing forum regarding what is and isn't allowed to be discussed. You should read it.

 

[LPP68!]

Re: Re:

Typically all the one day races have become races of attrition. Problem is that if there are teammates in the peloton, they can easily chase the attacker down and then sit on him or chase from the peloton. This scuppers all the chances that the attackers have. You need the level of a Contador/ Boonen/ Cancellera to really succeed and not sure if that will succeed as well. This can be seen from the Catalonia race where Kiriyenka helped chase down Contador and setup Richie Porte to go past him

Astana did try to get a few riders in front of the peloton. If they succeeded to stay out, get Nibali over with an attack on for instance Haute Levee, they could burn them of 1 by one, and have a decent chance against a peloton lead by one or 2 teams.

 

[greenedge]

Congrats to Valverde! It seemed to be an ok edition, though I question the tactics of some.

I thought Moreno had it, and was happy until I contemplated that JROD would miss out on Liege, to his own teammate. In the end, it didn't matter anyways.

 

[ILovecycling]

Re: Re:

By the way, Quintana did nothing for Valverde in Fleche nor Liege.

He did protect Valverde in FW and he felt today so he couldnt do anything.
Get your facts straight before you spit a BS

Because you said that. I didnt see Quintana helping in any way to Valverde in Fleche nor Liege. In fact, I didnt see Quintana except the moment everybody saw him recovering from his crash today. He was the one supossed to be with Valverde at the very end of the races.

Not cuz I said that, but because you could see that in last 8k of fléche.Today he was supposed to help in last moments,not freakin 50k's to the line, but he crashed.I see you can not figure this, so you probably should watch cycling more oftern and then write stuff (with true point)

Dont be mad, take tour pill. Whatever you think that happened, Quintana did nothing in Ardennes. Assume that and dont tell more fairy tales. I know its hard that colombians did nothing this week, take it easy, your time will come. Meanwhile, enjoy of the very best cyclist in the world, míster Alejandro valverde belmonte.

He did,its not fairy tail, I just use my eyes and bain when watching a race.
He protected Valverde in last 10k of fleche, he stayed closed to him and thats what matters, his job is not protect him from the wind,but stay close to him and eliminate attacks from serious contedners (pull for valverde when he needs it), but Valverde didnt need this cuz nobody attacked , nothing else was expected from him in fleche.In LBL he was held up by the crash, so how could he possibly help valverde lol ...
btw I already expressed my admiration for Valverde in his thread, but I won't enjoy it cuz I dont like his style.

 

[ILovecycling]

Re: Re:

By the way, Quintana did nothing for Valverde in Fleche nor Liege.

He did protect Valverde in FW and he felt today so he couldnt do anything.
Get your facts straight before you spit a BS

Protect from what? And Where? Did you see that? Cause I didn't! Oh and the only one who is spiting a BS is you!

Did he have to? why????
Such small climber. protect him from who?
Why don't you send a letter to Movistar and fix their schedules or tell him what to do about their strategy would you?
Thanks.

No he didn't have to, as you could see for yourself, Valverde did just fine. I was answering to ILovecycling, who said he was protecting him in Fleche Wallonne, well I didn't saw that, did you? I didn't said either that he should protect him, I agree with you, he is small, it's not his job to do, why are you angry? I wasn't saying anything bad about Quintana, or good for that matter, just responding to obvious lie from ILovecycling.
Thanks to you.

Answer is in my previous post. (to Fernandez)

 

[bala v]

To reply ILovecycling. No he didnt help Valverde in last 10km of Fleche Wallonne, he was nowhere to be seen, the only Movistar guy who was there was Visconti and he chased when Wellens attacked. Quintana himself is a great young rider, but he certainly doesnt need you to make things up! He was nowhere to be seen in this Ardennes campaigne. I am not saying this as a bad thing, he maybe rode this races as a some sort of preparation, I dont know.., but I m only stating the facts

 

[SeriousSam]

Yes. Quintana was nowhere. Perhaps it was a good training exercise for him or something, being much worse than even Nibali, but in terms of benefitting the team or doing anything of any note other than being poor, he was a non factor.

 

[nayr497]

Malmerde, yeck.

 

[Mr.White]

Re:

What a pity that we are still having to put up with an unrepentant doper getting wins. .... lots have disappeared over the past couple of years (pretty much since LA was finally dealt with and Phat McQ was booted out. But, it'll be a good day for cycling when this "hanger-on" has gone, as it does nothing for the image of cycling to have his sort around.

Roll on a couple more years & we shall have a fair & open race.

Why don't you shut the f..k up! That'll be a good day for cycling