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Gilbert: King of the Road

Philippe Gilbert has been crowned World Road Race Champion in the Netherlands after a gruelling 267km that proved far too much for an exhausted Mark Cavendish (the defending champion) who dropped from the race on the third of ten laps that comprised final the 160km. Gilbert produced seemingly endless bursts of speeds that ultimately saw him complete proceedings in a time of 6:10:41; Norway’s Edvald Boasson Hagen held a close second place on +4” and Spain’s Alejandro Valverde third with +5″.

 

Cavendish’s failure to retain the famous rainbow jersey came as no great surprise; he has already conceded that the undulating (at times positively hilly) course was unlikely to favour his particular talents, telling the BBC ‘I can’t win. I haven’t got a chance, so I will be in a support role for the other guys in the team.’ As good as his word it was in support that he shone today, working hard along with his fellow Brits to push last week’s Tour of Britain winner Jonathan Tiernan-Locke into an impressive 19th place finish. Tour de France first and second placers Wiggins and Froome along with Alex Dowsett failed to go the full distance, with Ian Stannard taking 36th place, Ben Swift 60th, Stephen Cumming 70th and Luke Rowe down in 88th, 5minutes and 46 seconds behind Gilbert.

 

Yesterday’s 128.8km Women’s Road Race was won by the Netherlands’ Marianne Vos in 3:14:29 with Rachel Neylan in second and Elisa Longo Borghini third. With the GB team depleted after Lizzie Armistead’s withdrawal due to illness, Emma Pooley still impressed with a 15th place finish 4minutes, 37seconds off the winner, with Sharon Laws in 39th, Nicole Cooke in 60th, Nikki Harris 66th.Katie Colclough was a DNF.

 

Image © Wouter Roosenboom

 

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Grand Depart

Tour de FranceA few minutes earlier then scheduled – and catching the ITV coverage off-guard – the 2001 Tour de France got underway today (Saturday, July 2) with the grand depart Stage 1 covering 206km from Passage du Gois to Mont des Alouettes. There had been early rumours that defending champion Alberto Contador would be going all-out in serious contention but this proved nothing more than day-one rabble-rousing hype and the troubled Spaniard (who was booed by the French crowds in pre-race presentation) merely sat comfortably back in peloton – at least until he was caught up in the spectacular crash that decimated the field with just 8km to go. In fact Stage 1 proved to be something of an all-round crash-riddled affair, with a series of upsets beginning barely an hour into the race when a number of Movistar and Europcar riders tumbled.

 

Ultimately though, today was about Philippe Gilbert of Omega Pharma-Lotto who took the Stage 1 win; widely-tipped for victory and very much on form the Belgian, whose season thus far has been outstanding, finished today in a time of 4h 41′ 31″ with BMC Racing’s Cadel Evans in second on +03 and Thor Hushovd of Garmin-Cervelo in third on +06. Best of British was Geraint Thomas (Sky) in sixth place, also on +06.

 

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Unstoppable Gilbert

Having won the Amstel Gold Race last Sunday (April 17) and followed it up with an even more decisive victory at the Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday (April 20) the pressure was certainly on Omega Pharma-Lotto’s Philippe Gilbert at the start of today’s Liege-Bastogne-Liege. But clearly not one to buckle under such scrutiny the Belgian smashed his way to triumph over the 255.5km course to make it three for three Ardennes Classic victories; he finished in a time of 6:13:18, out-sprinting brothers Frank and Andy Schleck (both Team Leopard-Trek), who had to settle for second and third respectively.

 

The impressive win makes Gilbert the first Belgian to win the Liege-Bastogne-Liege since 1999, the first Walloon to win since 1978 and only the second man ever to win the Ardennes hat-trick.

 

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Gilbert Double and Vos Victory

Clearly it wasn’t enough for Omega Pharma-Lotto’s Philippe Gilbert to have won the Amstel Gold Classic last Sunday (April 17) as he yesterday stormed home to take another win at the Flèche Wallonne making it an impressive two Ardennes Classic victories in just three days. The Belgian’s late attack with less than 300m left to go on the summit finish saw him crack this 75th edition of the race in a time of 4:54:57, with Spain’s Joaquim Rodríguez Olivier in second place on +3 for Team Katusha and the 2008 Olympic Road Race champion Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) third on +5.

 

Gilbert later admitted to still feeling fatigued from last Sunday’s Amstel Gold (we certainly couldn’t tell) but remains cagily optimistic about his chances of winning three for three in this coming Sunday’s final chapter of the Ardennes Classics (Liège-Bastogne-Liège) commenting his chances: “It’s not impossible, I don’t rule out winning.”

 

Meanwhile in the 109.5k Flèche Wallonne Féminine – which covers the same ascents as the men’s course but with two, instead of three, climbs over Mur de Huy – Marianne Vos hit first in 2:58:27 making her the only woman ever to have won the event four times.

 

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Gilbert’s Gold Victory

Amstel Gold - Philippe GilbertOmega Pharma-Lotto’s Philippe Gilbert has won the 46th edition of the Amstel Gold for his second consecutive victory. The Belgian clocked a time of 6:30:44 over the 260.4km course to beat out Joaquin Rodriguez of Katusha (+0:02) into second and Sky’s Simon Gerrans (+0:04) into third. 190 riders made the start in near perfect conditions to head out and tackle the infamous 32 climbs of the course but Gilbert (a surprise winner for many last year) looked determined from the start to take advantage of what is, virtually, home turf. Interviewed recently about this challenging one-day classic Gilbert commented: “I consider the Amstel Gold Race as one of the most beautiful classics, but also as one of the most dangerous. You should therefore always be very careful when riding it.”

 

For full results and analysis visit: www.amstelgoldrace.nl

 

Image © AmstelGoldRace