Liège-Bastogne-Liège: April 28th, 2019

[Salvarani]

Great win

 

[Red Rick]

So

The time between first significant action and knowing the winner was about 5 minutes.

 

[Gigs_98]

Good race and deserving winner. While I was hoping the route change would have a bigger impact it is still better than the old one and will hopefully stay

 

[fuiers]

Well done Jakob. On the other note I did prefer the previous final with climbs.

 

[Brullnux]

Awful race, a whole 3k of suspense. Fuglsang was quite a bit better than everyone else, who clearly were extremely tired which was probably the reason why nobody attacked.

 

[Laplaz]

Chapeau Jakob! Formolo impressed me too today.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

Awful race, a whole 3k of suspense. Fuglsang was quite a bit better than everyone else, who clearly were extremely tired which was probably the reason why nobody attacked.

Obviously this route is here to stay.

Ideally they'd make the middle of the race much harder, ditch the first few hills, ditch Redoute, and ditch RaF too.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Re:

Awful race, a whole 3k of suspense. Fuglsang was quite a bit better than everyone else, who clearly were extremely tired which was probably the reason why nobody attacked.

You did not think he was gonna crash when you saw his wheel slid out?

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

Well done Jakob. On the other note I did prefer the previous final with climbs.

Why though? The last esitions of this race were so much worse than todays race.

 

[Brullnux]

Re: Re:

Awful race, a whole 3k of suspense. Fuglsang was quite a bit better than everyone else, who clearly were extremely tired which was probably the reason why nobody attacked.

Obviously this route is here to stay.

Ideally they'd make the middle of the race much harder, ditch the first few hills, ditch Redoute, and ditch RaF too.

? are you suggesting replacing those last climbs or just have a chunk of climbs in the middle and then 40k flat at the end? It would become a gent-wevelgem without the cobbles and with some harder climbs

 

[TourOfSardinia]

 

[Brullnux]

Re: Re:

Awful race, a whole 3k of suspense. Fuglsang was quite a bit better than everyone else, who clearly were extremely tired which was probably the reason why nobody attacked.

You did not think he was gonna crash when you saw his wheel slid out?

Does that single second somehow make it more interesting?

 

[Arked]

Re: Re:

Awful race, a whole 3k of suspense. Fuglsang was quite a bit better than everyone else, who clearly were extremely tired which was probably the reason why nobody attacked.

You did not think he was gonna crash when you saw his wheel slid out?

Both of his wheels slid out. It was terrifying.

 

[Leinster]

Re:

Well done Jakob. On the other note I did prefer the previous final with climbs.

In the old version Fuglsang would have waited until Saint Nicolas or even Rue Naniot to make his attack. This way he had to make his attack >15km out (as did Wellens, Formolo, other non-sprinters).

 

[hfer07]

Congrats to Fuglsang - At last a big win

 

[Brullnux]

Re: Re:

Well done Jakob. On the other note I did prefer the previous final with climbs.

Why though? The last esitions of this race were so much worse than todays race.

Disagree. At least in past years there was usually action from saint-nicholas to the end, this was literally the second half of roche aux faucons to the little rise after the false flat. Not saying it's tthe route's fault, the shite weather played its part, but it was definitely on par, if not worse, to previous years

 

[Wvv]

Well deserved. For sure after such a season and such a run in the hilly classics. Second in the Strade, third in the Amstel, second in the Flèche, and now victory in Liège. Congratulations Jakob, with the 2016 Olympics in mind you were granted a big one.

 

[Leinster]

Re:

Awful race, a whole 3k of suspense. Fuglsang was quite a bit better than everyone else, who clearly were extremely tired which was probably the reason why nobody attacked.

What's wrong with the best rider winning? The way today panned out, I think it's clear that Fuglsang (and Astana) would have found a way to win wherever the finish was, or the climbs were. So if the final climb was 5km out, or 25km, or they included this hill or that hill in the middle section.

It would have been nice if there had been someone better equipped to compete with Fuglsang, who was so clearly above all the rest. But there wasn't.

 

[movingtarget]

How strange that the race that used to be a borefest regularly has become one of the best one day races over the past few years re Amstel. The race today was nothing special but I was glad that Fuglsang won and he did exactly what he had to do. How he stayed upright towards the end was amazing, he seemed to slide on one of the white lines on the bend. He has looked strong all season and I was happy to see him win a prestigious race.Bora will be disappointed but Fuglsang was just too strong.

 

[yaco]

Loved how Fuglsang dropped Woods and Formolo on the false flat which showed his strength - Though it was a pedestrian type of race.

 

[Kwibus]

Re: Re:

Awful race, a whole 3k of suspense. Fuglsang was quite a bit better than everyone else, who clearly were extremely tired which was probably the reason why nobody attacked.

Obviously this route is here to stay.

Ideally they'd make the middle of the race much harder, ditch the first few hills, ditch Redoute, and ditch RaF too.

? are you suggesting replacing those last climbs or just have a chunk of climbs in the middle and then 40k flat at the end? It would become a gent-wevelgem without the cobbles and with some harder climbs

Aslong as there is a hard final climb then everyone waits for the hard final climb.

If you make a final 20-50km with a lot of climbs in succession, but nothing (maybe an easy climb like AGR) in the final 20km it forces riders to make an earlier selection, unless they want a sprint.

I dont mind the climbs before the final 50km.

 

[gunara]

Slight improvement on my least favorite big race, but if not for someone in monster form and confidence (and his underwhelming main rival), would they be able to keep this from 30-man sprint won by MM? Or the action would even have come sooner?

 

[More Strides than Rides]

Re:

How strange that the race that used to be a borefest regularly has become one of the best one day races over the past few years re Amstel. The race today was nothing special but I was glad that Fuglsang won and he did exactly what he had to do. How he stayed upright towards the end was amazing, he seemed to slide on one of the white lines on the bend. He has looked strong all season and I was happy to see him win a prestigious race.Bora will be disappointed but Fuglsang was just too strong.

Amstel is open to a wider variety of riders. The timing between cobbled and hilly classics brings those different varieties together at different spots on their peak. That unpredictability makes it more exciting. Maybe if in some parallel universe LBL were a week or two closer to the cobbled classics, there would be more strong, ambitious riders willing to take their shot somewhere on the course.

 

[DenisMenchov]

Congrats Jakob, he fully deserved this win. But based on today and the whole season so far.

 

[Valv.Piti]

But, but, but... I thought it was meant to be a sprinters race now?