Velominati Super Prestige: Liege-Bastogne-Liege 2016
We were descending for a while before I saw Roche’s name painted on the road. It was one of those little bridges over a river that you only seem to find in the Benelux; just a little too ancient and just a little too arched, and just a little too perfectly flawed to be anywhere else.
The trouble was that the sportive was run in the summer after the race had already taken place; Roche had retired the year before, so it seemed really strange that his name would be painted on the road. What we didn’t appreciate was that the previous year’s sportive had used blue arrows to mark the route, and this year’s sportive was using white arrows. After a year in Belgium, blue paint tends to start looking an awful lot like white paint; it was only a matter of time before we took a wrong turn.
Another concerning clue was the fact that we hadn’t seen another rider in much longer than one sees another rider during a sportive event as popular as this one. Neither my dad nor I are dumb people but you didn’t need to be smart to realize there was something horribly amuck with how abandoned the roads were.
We turned around and climbed back up the serpentine route we had gleefully descended into the valley. If memory serves, which I am fairly confident it doesn’t, we added something like 100km to the prescribed route.
The route from Liege to Bastogne is relatively easy, if you consider lots of climbing of short, steep côtes “easy”. On the way back, they pack the climbs in fast and furious, the steeper the better. The Prophet, Eddy Merckx, has his statue at the top of the Stockeu; this is a gratuitous climb if ever there was such a thing. The road wings off the main road to the right and flies up a 21% gradient for just over a kilometer before taking a hard left and swinging right back down to the same point in the road; a loop of suffering added purely for the sake of suffering. When we rode it with Johan Museeuw, he tried to convince us not to ride it, “You don’t need to ride it for me…” When I rode it with my dad, all I remember is woods and suffering.
Liege will be held on Sunday, and I’m done trying to predict the weather in a country where I don’t live except to say I predict there will be weather; either sunny or rainy or stormy, or snowy. As far as winners go, the smart money is on the Valve Cap, which is very disappointing to me and why I’m going with the “dumb” money. Hopefully something exciting will happen instead. So check the start list, and stock up on points for the Don Walker custom frame, Cafe Roubaix wheelset, or V-Kit.
Mercxkspeed.
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@Buck Rogers
You want stupid? I’ve put three Frenchmen in my top five…
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Food for thought as you ponder picks.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/new-cobbled-climb-set-to-increase-difficulty-of-liege-bastogne-liege/
@Fred
I would say that too. It’s called gamesmanship.
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@chuckp
Perhaps, but Valverde seems focused on staying healthy for the Giro….
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So many possibilities.
Bobke likes Kwiatkowski. Some blogger is impressed with Gasparotto’s form this Spring. You guys are sayin’ Malmerde’s not good in lousey weather. LBL is like a mtn stage so go with Nibali? Gerrans for the sprint? This will be an awesome race!
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Map this!
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ditching the green valley
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100 extra kms, Frank? Fuck.
Last weekend I was riding to a school to do some coaching. Had look at a map, but had never been there. Thought about stopping and asking someone in town, but pushed on. I went from city center to country in a second…and suddenly a very long, steep downhill. I was seized with fear the entire descent, hoping like hell I didn’t have to turn around and climb it 5 minutes later. Thankfully, I found the school ahead. Oh, and with time to spare I rolled around the lot to see the school…and found $10. Biggest find to date, have found $1s and $5s, but not a 10. Nice.
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Hoping the weather REALLY shakes things up. Likely I will end up with zeros
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Double delgado last time out so I need a good placing here to get back up to
the VSP leaders.
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@BacklashJack
Guillaume Martin (Wanty – Groupe Gobert) ??
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@Ron
I read your comment and was all, “What the hell is Ron talking about??? 100 km extra added to LBL??? Are we going back to 1910’s TDF’s or something???” and then I realized that Frahnk had actually written something under the photo of Le Blaireau. Great stuff!!! I CANNOT wait to do all of these cyclospotifs!!!
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I didn’t see The Badger on the start list so I did the best I could with the riders available.
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Provisional V
I’d love to put Dan the man in top spot, but I think Jules is in better form right now.
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After missing the mid-week race need some points here,dunno if I’ll get them though.
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@Lukas
Brave man!
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Since it’s going to rain and be
cold…
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Learned my lesson Wednesday: don’t bet against Alejandro. Also Canucks love bad whether, therefore Woods for fourth.
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