2014 Liege-Bastogne-Liege, 1.UWT (262 Km's)

[Hugo87]

Didn't saw the race, but I'm kinda disappointed since Purito, Betancur and Costa couldn't do anything.

At least 5th place from Pozzovivo was impressive, didn't see that coming, plus Machado 17th place in his first LBL

 

[BigMac]

Didn't saw the race, but I'm kinda disappointed since Purito, Betancur and Costa couldn't do anything.

At least 5th place from Pozzovivo was impressive, didn't see that coming, plus Machado 17th place in his first LBL

Purito didn't fully recover from those crashes and DNF'd. Betandur was a DNS. Costa crashed hard and was forced to abandon.

Machado was really good.

 

[trevim]

Wow, just read the results and reports. Awesome effort by Gerrans. Made best use of his talents against superior on paper competition. A great example of what makes road racing so unpredictable. If we wanted the strongest to always win we'd ban bunch riding and conduct TTs only. Now we'd all quickly lose interest if that was the case.

Everyone should just think what would you do if in Gerrans and OGE's situation? Lose just to please some fans? He and Greenedge have done great, just as they did at MSR. Gerrans is a great opportunist and tactician. Perhaps other riders such as Valverde should not have underestimated Gerrans and been ready to counter his tactics?

Last night it crossed my mind fleetingly - what about Gerrans, nobody is picking him and he's been strong since TDU ? Should have gone with my fleeting instincts!

Now I am sure Simon might be thinking about Valverde - you can have Willunga Hill because I'm taking LBL!

Most of the hate in this thread is not towards Gerrans himself but for the conservative approach of the other riders that allowed him to take a deserving win in a very bad edition of LBL

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

There were a lot of team leaders in that big group who cannot reasonably have anticipated punching away in the last km nor winning a sprint. You have to wonder what their actual plan to win. A Martin (or a Purito etc) can legitimately think that they are going to burn everyone in the last km. A Gerrans or Valverde can legitimately back themselves in a sprint. What about the rest of you lads? How were you planning to win?

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

just watched the eurosport 10km in english... damn those commentators need to work on recognizing riders.

They thought Slagter was Martin on the Saint Nicolas

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

There were a lot of team leaders in that big group who cannot reasonably have anticipated punching away in the last km nor winning a sprint. You have to wonder what their actual plan to win. A Martin (or a Purito etc) can legitimately think that they are going to burn everyone in the last km. A Gerrans or Valverde can legitimately back themselves in a sprint. What about the rest of you lads? How were you planning to win?

Well Gilbert said the teams have become stronger and it's very very hard to even get a gap, let stand stay away. Most of the others you are referring to are able to follow but cannot attack, or can only attack, gain 5 meters, and then drop like a stone.

Unfortunately the peloton has become too strong.

 

[Der Effe]

Even shuffleboarding is more interesting than this classics campaign. Gerrans winning LBL says it all, really.

Edit: Not that I have anything against Gerrans - who is class - but I more or less meant his type of rider

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Well Gilbert said the teams have become stronger and it's very very hard to even get a gap, let stand stay away. Most of the others you are referring to are able to follow but cannot attack, or can only attack, gain 5 meters, and then drop like a stone.

Unfortunately the peloton has become too strong.

There may be an element if truth to that, but it didn't stop Pozzovivo or Caruso from actually trying something aimed at victory. They maximised their chances. Very few others did.

And it's not just a failure to attack, it's a failure to use teammates - many of whom made the giant final group - to make the race harder and get rid of the Gerrans types or the young guys who might be a bit dodgy over a long distance if it's raced hard.

Its fine to hang around and wait if you have the tools to win a sprint or punch away in the last km. But really very few of the riders in that selection have either. Instead the policy seems to be don't burn your own matches, don't waste your teammates, just hang on conservatively until the end... And then what geniuses? Once you are at the flame rouge you have already lost unless you are one of perhaps half a dozen guys with the capacity to take one of the two routes to win.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

well a guy like Weening could have gone in the attack with Pozzo and co, instead he works for Gerrans.
A guy like Sanchez is capable of riding top 10 here. Instead he closes gaps for Gilbert.

See my point?

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

I just find myself wondering what is going through the heads of riders and directors. Ok, so we make sure that we arrive at the flamme rouge with both our leader and best helper with the favourites... And then the team leader is going to out punch the guys who just set the fastest and second fastest times ever up the Mur four days ago. Or beat a Milan San Remo winner in the sprint. What could go wrong with this brilliant plan?

 

[Jspear]

Just watched the last 10 K. Wasn't too great until about 5k to go. Man I feel bad for Martin! How disappointing. Big bummer for him. Congrats to Gerrans. Guess this is one of his biggest wins in his career. Now Kwiatkowski has to get one of these Ardennes's next year.

 

[markene2]

Liege is one of the most exciting races for me personaly, so i avoided all contact with the internet troughout the day to watch the replay of the last 60k, and good god, what a dull 100th edition, might go down as the most boring race this year for me personaly. Even Scheldeprijs was more exciting!

 

[pigoonse]

Woke up early to watch but soon fell back to sleep. Disappointing race. My favorite did not have the energy, I guess
Woke up in time to watch Dan Martin fall

Congratulations to Simon Gerrans and fans! Well done.

 

[Panda Claws]

I'm disliking Valverde because he can do way more. He is capable to drop Gerrans on Saint Nicolas, but he doesn't dare. That annoys me.

Gerrans however, was on his max the entire race. So the only way to win LBL is to wait for the sprint. He did it just perfect. So i can appreciate that more.

Valverde and Gilbert were marking eachother way too hard.

 

[red_flanders]

I have never seen so many riders in the finale of LBL.

Worst edition I've ever seen. Contrats to Gerrans though, great race to have in his palmares and surely the biggest win of his career!

 

[42x16ss]

And look at how happy people were about Valverde winning Flèche. Also bear in mind Flèche IS a sprint. Always. So people aren't that upset about conservative racing that means we end up with a bunch ready to sprint up the Mur de Huy together.

Gerrans is a negative racer who has never really displayed any kind of personality for people to get behind. Should he change? Hell no. As long as the opposition are playing into his hands of course he shouldn't be wasting his energy doing entertaining things. After all he has two monument wins and quite a few others despite not having done a single memorable thing since San Luca five years ago. But because of that it's not surprising that him winning is extremely unpopular, and races he wins tend to go down as forgettable affairs.

Not entirely true, go back and look at his career pre-2010. Gerrans was actually a very decent stage hunter and attacker. His early Ardennes showings were quite strong with a fair amount of attacking, such as his 06 Liege cameo and his first three GT stages all came from intelligent breakaway riding.

Gerrans' negative racing has really only come about as his profile as a team leader has risen and results are more expected, encouraging him to race negatively thanks to (very relatively) limited natural talents.

Edit: still a $hithouse race though, totally embarrassing

 

[greenedge]

Gerrans!!!
But seriously i think he has a chance.

To quote myself- voted for him as other

Although not the best of races (other than Gilbert, Valverde, Pozzovivo- not that many big names did anything), I thought the ending was great, congrats to Gerrans! Poor Martin though, although i think he would have been overtaken in the sprint.

It seemed as if Gerrans was struggling earlier- but OGE rode very well and he was perfectly positioned to handle the final drag, where it looked as if Caruso/ Pozzovivo could have won.

 

[greenedge]

well a guy like Weening could have gone in the attack with Pozzo and co, instead he works for Gerrans.
A guy like Sanchez is capable of riding top 10 here. Instead he closes gaps for Gilbert.

See my point?

Yeah but they both went into short-lived attacks. Besides you can't begrudge them for working for a team leader who's stronger- if they were on another team they might have been able to pursue their own options- but you can't begrudge the teams wanting to sign the strongest riders to help their leaders.

 

[greenedge]

With all the Gerrans annoyance earlier, sure he didn't race exciting but he won (everyone knows he has a fast sprint) based on his talent- if it was raced harder he would have got his usual top 10 (3-4 times now) probably, though his form seems very good so maybe not.

 

[42x16ss]

With all the Gerrans annoyance earlier, sure he didn't race exciting but he won (everyone knows he has a fast sprint) based on his talent- if it was raced harder he would have got his usual top 10 (3-4 times now) probably, though his form seems very good so maybe not.

Nobody's blaming Gerrans, just that the race was so boring and disappointing that it lead to circumstances where Gerrans winning was almost guaranteed.

Things pointed out earlier, like Weening or Sanchez joining the Pozzovivo break may have been enough to avoid the procession we ended up with. Last time I checked, just because a rider has a team lead still in the race, doesn't mean they can't get on the attack to shift responsibility. Sanchez attacking for example, may have created enough havoc to split up the likes of Garmin, OGE and Movistar, who would have been forced to work and tow Gilbert because only an idiot would let someone like Samu get up the road.

 

[karlboss]

I just find myself wondering what is going through the heads of riders and directors. Ok, so we make sure that we arrive at the flamme rouge with both our leader and best helper with the favourites... And then the team leader is going to out punch the guys who just set the fastest and second fastest times ever up the Mur four days ago. Or beat a Milan San Remo winner in the sprint. What could go wrong with this brilliant plan?

More or less.
But Gilbert, Valverde, Kwiatkowski, Gerrans, Martin, Moreno...should all be more or less working for a sprint. Turn that around and you are looking at some very powerful teams working for a sprint. So we see Giant, AG2R and TFR attacked, and even Katusha once Rodriguez was out, but their riders just weren't strong enough against an armada working for a sprint.
I think those not working for a sprint Astana and Saxo primarily, should have drilled it from about 90km to go to 40km to go, aiming for a group of definitely less than 20 to top la redoute in contention. Then at worst you end up losing a sprint of fewer riders.

More than anything else this race reminded me of the 2011 Worlds. You could only be happy with it if you supported the winner as a spectacle it offered very little.

 

[Kokoso]

More or less.
But Gilbert, Valverde, Kwiatkowski, Gerrans, Martin, Moreno...should all be more or less working for a sprint. Turn that around and you are looking at some very powerful teams working for a sprint. So we see Giant, AG2R and TFR attacked, and even Katusha once Rodriguez was out, but their riders just weren't strong enough against an armada working for a sprint.
I think those not working for a sprint Astana and Saxo primarily, should have drilled it from about 90km to go to 40km to go, aiming for a group of definitely less than 20 to top la redoute in contention. Then at worst you end up losing a sprint of fewer riders.

More than anything else this race reminded me of the 2011 Worlds. You could only be happy with it if you supported the winner as a spectacle it offered very little.

Astana was working for sprint - Gasparotto.

 

[observer]

I was disappointed Rogers didn't win on his first day back.

 

[Bennyl]

Being a Gerrans fan I enjoyed last nights race. I didn't mind that it came down to the finish and it was certainly more entertaining than Gilbert v the Schlecks a few years back.

 

[markjohnconley]

I might have dozed through some of the race but a few posters are ranting on re. Gerrans wheel-sucking. I assume the same posters would be upset if Kwiatkowski had won; didn't see him 'attack', and was wheel-sucking Gerrans!