Alejandro Valverde says goodbye to Liège with a bittersweet taste

Alejandro Valverde, at the wheel of Wout Van Aert, during the Liège-Bastogne-Liège this Sunday. / movistar team

Cycling

The Belgian Evenepoel takes the ‘Dean’ in a race in which the Murcian (seventh) lacked legs to fight for the podium

The Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the ‘Dean’ of the cycling classics, is a race for tough guys. An endless profile with up to eleven ascents through the winding paths of the industrial zone of Wallonia that stiffen the legs and throb the head. In theory, fertile ground for veterans as evidenced by the four wounds owned by Alejandro Valverde from Murcia, who turns 42 today. That’s how it was, until this Sunday.

Because the 22-year-old Belgian Remco Evenepoel rejuvenated her a little more. He won it thanks to an uncompromising attack in the last 30 kilometres. His partner in the Quick-Step, world champion Julian Alaphilippe, had to leave early due to a crash.

A year after the victory of the winner of the Tour de France, the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar (absent this Sunday due to the death of his mother-in-law), Evenepoel added the name of a young winner to the list of winners of the legendary race.

Evenepoel, who is predicted a bright future, signed the first Belgian victory in the ‘Dean’ since Philippe Gilbert won in 2011. Eleven years later, Gilbert participated for the last time, like the Spanish veteran Alejandro Valverde, four times victorious and who said goodbye yesterday with a meritorious seventh place. The Murcian lacked legs to fight for at least a place on the podium and beat Eddy Merckx’s mark in Liège. The previous work of Movistar, with Mas and Verona carrying Valverde very well protected, did not help much in the end.

On this festive day for Belgian cycling, two other riders from the country took the podium; Quinten Hermans, a cyclo-cross specialist, won the sprint for second place, 48 seconds behind Remco, ahead of Belgian champion Wout van Aert, who made his debut in the ‘Dean’.

Also making his debut on some roads he knows well, Evenepoel headed for victory with a violent attack at the top of La Redoute. Evenepoel wasted no time in catching up with the last of the day’s escapees, the Frenchman Bruno Armirail, whom he distanced in the last difficulty, La Roche-aux-Faucons, with 14.5 kilometers to go.

Behind the young Belgian, teams like Bahrain, Movistar and Ineos were struggling to close the gap, but Evenepoel held on until the end without major complications. Colombians Daniel Felipe Martínez (4th) and Sergio Heredia (5th) and Spaniards Valverde (7th) and Enric Mas (12th) also entered the first chasing group.

“It’s the race of my dreams,” Evenepoel, who broke into the elite in 2019, had announced, and made a name for himself by winning the Clásica de San Sebastián that year. The Belgian saw his progression stopped short due to a serious crash in mid-August 2020 at the Giro de Lombardia. After several months in the dry dock he managed to return to the highest level.

ex-soccer player

The former soccer player turned cyclist is seen in Belgium hoping – and sometimes under excessive pressure – that he will become the first Tour de France winner since Lucien Van Impe in 1976.