Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes 2025, one day monument, April 27 (women's)

[Didinho]

Le Court playing it perfectly so far.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

They have enough time to play some games. Would be different if reusser would ride for Lippert behind or Niedermaier for Kasia. But SD-Worx very isolates.

I think they'll likely need to leave it to the last 2km to do real games. Soft-pedalling or short-turns to play possum, yes, but full on non-cooperation or sneak attacks that will completely break collaboration, need to wait a bit longer for that.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Le Court should continue to suck wheels like Demi in the 2022 Omloop and then hope it will work out better for her.

 

[Didinho]

If you wanna win. Stick to the wheels now. Enough time.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Now that Demi has hit the front at 1100m to go, they should probably not give her any turns from here on in and make her lead out.

 

[postmanhat]

Vollering has been soft-pedalling a little for the last few K I think. FW still in her mind.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Vollering has been soft-pedalling a little for the last few K I think. FW still in her mind.

Agreed, the one turn she did that nearly dropped Kerbaol told her what she needed to know I think. They are correctly making her lead it out though.

 

[Didinho]

Kimberley Pienaar!! Amazing win for her.

 

[KZD]

Le Court wins, history written.

 

[Filippo_3467]

She was already distanced and death but came back on RaF one of the most incredible classic wins.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Well, the Belgian crowd got what they wanted... a rainbow jersey with her arms in the air beating Demi Vollering to the line.

Not sure Le Court was what they had had in mind, though!!!!!!!!!

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Yes! But also a bit of swerving there. Edit: it looked worse from the front than it actually was. Pieterse was not coming past.

 

[yaco]

That is a great bike race.

Le Cort is the Almeida of one day women racing.

Struggled on the first ascent of Mur De Huy FW, yet recovers to finish 6th. Then is dropped on Redoubte and De Falcaux and is somehow at the front of the race.

 

[RedheadDane]

And that's a monument for Mauritius!

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Good race, although in the final kilometers there were too few tactics again.

 

[JR1012]

Yes. Le Court takes it. Sweet win.

FDJ doing basically all the work and Vollering only third. Must feel like a loss.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Struggled on the first ascent of Mur De Huy FW, yet recovers to finish 6th. Then is dropped on Redoubte and De Falcaux and is somehow at the front of the race.

She seems to get stronger as races get longer this season, so perhaps endurance work? Her only stage top 10 this season is Jebel Hafeet (152km), but then it's Binda (152km), Sanremo (160km), RVV (168km), Flèche (141km) and now the win at LBL (153km).

Flèche is a bit of a shorter one, but relies so heavily on the final ascent, but I think it's noticeable that otherwise all of those stronger results are in races of a length that until recent years the women only got to do once or twice a season.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Good race, although in the final kilometers there were too few tactics again.

The only one who couldn't trust in her sprint was Kerbaol and she had already burned her matches. The other three could all have won the sprint on a different day.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

The only one who couldn't trust in her sprint was Kerbaol and she had already burned her matches. The other three could all have won the sprint on a different day.

Well, Vollering could have won and I guess wanted to start the sprint at a higher speed, but I still wouldn‘t have favored her in a sprint.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Good race, although in the final kilometers there were too few tactics again.

Le Court was playing it very smart, she was the one trying to force Kerbaol to take turns, she was shirking or short-pulling her turns, but doing enough - and as she'd been dropped earlier, she could probably convincingly bluff that she was doing all she could, while Vollering and Pieterse took the lion's share of the load. I think it's only the same kind of thing as Luís León Sánchez used to do in baroudeur mode, so I think it was a pretty good tactical play by her at least.

At the end, the only thing that surprised me was that Pieterse and Kerbaol took another turn after Vollering took the lead at 1400m from home, after that they forced her to lead out. Vollering has every reason to trust her sprint from that group, but they had to keep cooperating until quite late on because the group behind wasn't so distant that they couldn't be used as an additional factor in negotiation.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Well, Vollering could have won and I guess wanted to start the sprint at a higher speed, but I still wouldn‘t have favored her in a sprint.

Last year she started the sprint too far behind, so maybe she'll get it exactly right if it finishes in a group sprint again next year.

 

[dobrien]

Satisfying finale, satisfying winner imho.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

 

[RedheadDane]

7. Miamh Fisher-Black. (I know, it stands for Mary. Some people just have too many names.)

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Vollering suddenly realising she's about to miss her cue for the podium because she was too busy chatting with Le Court. Guess she's not used to being the first one called.