CS Expert Panel: Liège-Bastogne-Liège

published 21 April 2011

Everything you ever needed to know about Sunday's big Classic, courtesy of the brains behind Cycle Sport.

Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders have a dash of anarchy that is lacking from the other three. In contrast, watching Liège-Bastogne-Liège is like watching a pan of water start to boil. For ages it seems as if nothing is going to happen, despite the heat, then the surface starts to flicker, then the water is rolling before finally it's boiling fiercely. The process is seamless, you almost don't notice it happening. It's just a constant ramping up of pressure that eventually brings the very strongest to the fore. The race's reputation has suffered in the last decade or so. Whatever your views on doping, it's hard to enthuse about a race where so many of the winners have an asterisk. That's not to say the cobbled Classics are virtuous but the problem is more pronounced here.

It's a Classic. It's an extremely hard course. The climbs are very difficult. They are long, or steep, or long and steep. But it's not just the hills and the distance that make it a hard race. The way the riders race makes it a day of suffering. The pace in the final third of the race is relentless, which does make the tactics very subtle. Having ridden stretches of the route, some of it is beautiful, some of it is indescribably ugly but it's unmistakable.

I am warming to the idea of mixing things up a bit. The Tour of Flanders may well change its running order significantly next year. Paris-Roubaix is rarely identical two years running. A week of uphill finishes is getting a bit samey. Yes, it gives us a potentially brilliant story to focus on but really we're watching the same thing served three ways. Let's see some variety. Take Liège-Bastogne-Liège back into the city centre again. We may see some real tactical jiggery-pokery then.

Reading about Stephen Roche and Claude Criquielion getting caught in the finishing straight by Moreno Argentin in 1987 was probably my earliest memory. Then reading, retrospectively, about Bernard Hinault's win in the snow in 1980. It was a day that made cycling sound epic, brilliant, heroic and I was hooked. After seven hours in the freezing cold, Hinault beat second-placed Hennie Kuiper by more than nine minutes. Only 21 riders finished, with Jostein Wilmann in last place, 27 minutes behind Hinault. In modern times, seeing Frank Vandenbroucke go past me on one of the climbs in the big ring in 1999 made me question what I was seeing. Hearing the scoffs in the press room but reading none of their comments reflected in the reports was an eye-opener. In recent years, though, Liège has been spoiled by so many of the people who have won it – from Vandenbroucke to Camenzind, Hamilton, Rebellin, Vinokourov, Valverde and Di Luca. That's nine winners in the last 12 years to have served a doping ban at some time.

Teamwork is going to be important. The onus will be on Katusha and Omega Pharma. The Russian team has several potential winners, Omega Pharma have the hot favourite and have shown they can support him. Saxo Bank and Leopard did a lot of work at Flèche Wallonne and ended up with nothing so it might be worth their while sitting in the shadows a bit. The other riders, those who will likely be alone in the final 25 kilometres, will hide for as long as possible. If, as likely, it's a warm, windless day, there could be a big group arriving together at the finish.

Although Flanders is my favourite of the Monuments, for reasons explained here, there’s something about the reverence riders have for Roubaix that elevates it above all other races. I also think that Milan-San Remo has the edge over Liège because it’s the first really big race of the year - it’s got a unique character, and a whole culture about the event. Just as Flanders is totally site-specific, so is Milan-San Remo. There’s no Liège equivalent of a roadside Leffe Brune at Flanders or cappuccino in San Remo.

Remember how Cancellara’s challenge in the cobbled classics was snuffed out by less well-known riders from teams with strength in depth? I suspect that if Gilbert is to be defeated, it won’t be Rodriguez, Sanchez or Andy Schleck who does it. The stronger teams have to keep chucking people up the road in the hope that Omega Pharma are unable to control them (and even then, Gilbert’s proved himself quite capable of dealing with a chase, followed by a winning sprint). For that reason, if it’s not Gilbert who wins, I’d look at riders like Fuglsang – strong enough to climb at the front, but obscure enough to get a little leeway while Gilbert watches the Schlecks.

La Redoute. The climb seems to find the essence of Liège-Bastogne-Liège scenery: industry and countryside idyll. At the start, you seem to be climbing a motorway off-ramp, but by the nasty false flat at the top, you’re into quiet woodland. Only it won’t be quiet on Sunday. Phil Gilbert has told his fans “to be there on Redoute”, which should make for even more of a special cacophany than usual.

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Edward Pickering is a writer and journalist, editor of Pro Cycling and previous deputy editor of Cycle Sport. As well as contributing to Cycling Weekly, he has also written for the likes of the New York Times. His book, The Race Against Time, saw him shortlisted for Best New Writer at the British Sports Book Awards. A self-confessed 'fair weather cyclist', Pickering also enjoys running.

CS Expert Panel: Liège-Bastogne-Liège

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