The fourth of five monuments in the cycling calendar, Liege – Bastogne – Liege, took place today. BORA – hansgrohe prepared the finale with an attack of Cesare Benedetti very well for their leaders Majka and Konrad. In the end Rafal Majka finished 10th after demanding 258 kilometers through the Ardennes, with Patrick Konrad taking a top 20 spot.
After a minute of silence for Michele Scarponi, who died during a training ride the day before, the 258 kilometers long race started in the centre of Liege. The weather conditions were similar to the other Ardennes Classics so far with dry but cold conditions. The 103rd edition covered in total 10 climbs, one of the most famous one’s, “La Redoute”, normally marks the beginning of the decisive phase of the race.
From drop of the flag an early breakaway with eight riders went away from the peloton, and after some kilometers their advantage was already more than to 6 minutes. In the peloton, Team Movistar took control, but after 100 kilometers of racing, the breakaway group had more than a 10 minutes’ gap. The BORA – hansgrohe euqipe protected their leaders Rafal Majka and Patrick Konrad from the beginning.
At the ascent to the Cote de Maquisard, with 47 kilometers remaining, a chasing group went up the road. In this group was BORA – hansgrohe rider Cesare Benedetti among 4 other riders. The group of five closed on the front group and with 25k to go they were around 2:30 behind the race leaders.
On the last climb all escapees were caught and the race went on fire. Patrick Konrad countered the first attacks from the peloton, while Rafal Majka was able to stay close to A. Valverde.
On the final kilometer, Alejandro Valverde and Dan Martin attacked between the cheering croweds. Nobody was able to follow them and the rest of the front group did split into pieces.
It was Valverde who took his 4th win in Liege-Bastogne-Lieg, while BORA – hansgrohe climber Rafal Majka finsiehd 10th in an exhausting sprint. The young Austrian rider Patrick Konrad crossed the line in 20th place.
“After the last climb Rafal was around 15th position in the race and then moved up in the bunch step by step. Also Patrick did a big effort to be up there on the last kilometer. Rafal finally crossed the finish line in 10th place. The boys did a great job the whole day and showed great teamwork. With two riders in the top 20 we can be satisfied, unless we hoped for a top five, the performance was good today.” – Steffen Radochla, sports director
“We do a great race and we stayed all the time together and had a good position during the race. We had the riders there when we need it. I tried to sprint but anyway i am very happy with my result here at Liege. Also i want to say thank you to the whole team, they did a really great work.” – Rafal Majka
