This weekend. It’s a monument. Anyone bothered?

Preview here…
http://inrng.com/2016/04/liege-bastogne-liege-2016-preview/

C’mon anyone other than Valverde 😐

If the weather is bad (forecast isn’t great), it won’t favor Valverde.

I’m very excited for this, and will be watching.

Any suggestions for live feeds?

Keep an eye here for feeds:

http://www.steephill.tv/classics/liege-bastogne-liege/#live

Looking forward to it. After his unfortunately/careless chute at the last corner 2 years ago, I’m hoping Dan Martin does it again. Will he need his furry friends help again?

Grim conditions at the moment – great!!

disc brakes would be useful 😉 not a day to be dropped out the back 🙂

Aye, Mr Kelly seems to think they’re concerned about braking in these conditions. You may be on to something Klunk 😉

A mate is out there at the moment, he’s been texting and tweeting pics. Properly bloody miserable.

Live on Eurosport 2 (or Eurosport Player) at the moment as well.

disc brakes would be useful

On that terrain, they’d be perfect – I’ve ridden round there a fair bit and those short steep descents in soaking cold conditions would suit discs perfectly.
There’s a couple of riders using those Ass-Savers mudguards!

No need for discs, just ride like its a training session in the South Downs in winter.

Good race so far.

Miserable conditions again at the finish. This could be pretty much anyone’s race to be honest.

Can’t be more than about 50 riders in that main bunch now.

Conditions have knackered my chances of my winning the Rapha “guess the timing” competition.

Well at least Nibali won’t win it…

Conditions have knackered my chances of my winning the Rapha “guess the timing” competition.

Actually I’m about 20 seconds off with my guess!
Great finish. Nice to see Sky finally get a Monument win.

Bit odd – can see results but not the winning time on the usual websites, can anyone tell me what it was please?

6.24.29

Major fail then on the Rapha comp – thanks

Hope he washes his face before going onto the podium after all that sitting on. Bet it’s filthy. That belonged to Albasini.

It belongs to the bloke who wins; Albasini did too much work and paid for it. Cycling is about tactics as well as riding quickly. You may as well say that Katusha bloke should have win with that epic attempt to bridge.

Na I just hate team sky.

And that Katusha gadgey is up to the eyeballs

Just caught up with the finish. They all looked completely spent. Heroic but crazy effort by Albasini, was it a tactical move with Gerrans in the bunch?

Good race, disappointing result

Nah, it was a great win for Not-Valverde.

Well done Poels. He made the critical break, and played it well. Why all the sky hatred???

Bet it’s filthy. That belonged to Albasini.

Bit naive from Albasini, if you go to the front too early the wiser riders are going to use you like they did. Perfect tactics from poels

I think sky are starting to race a bit smarter – spending less time on the front controlling everything.

Nah, it was a great win for Not-Valverde.

This. Every time he wins a kitten dies.

I think sky are starting to race a bit smarter – spending less time on the front controlling everything.

they didn’t have too, moviestar and etixx seemed only too keen to do all the work, though valverde did have a moan at one point.

Bit naive from Albasini, if you go to the front too early the wiser riders are going to use you like they did.

Yes he did too much on the final two climbs, but the advantage was minimal and no one was willing to come through. Had they all started looking at each other they’d have been caught. Albasini is not a rider who gets in these positions much – probable podium in a monument is better than somewhere in the bunch.

I think even he said that although last night he would be pretty upset at being so close to the win, today he’d be really happy with the result.

Also +1 for Valverde dislike. Like most of the Spanish dopers he’s unapologetic.

Fantastic win for Poels, strongest man on the day. Riding in appalling conditions makes his win even beter.
Sky has some hard nuts in their team. Happy for them to get a Monument at last. Great team that has given me lots to chear about the last couple of years.

That belonged to Albasini.

Albasini said he got in the wrong gear for the sprint.

You see at 2k to go that Poels takes off his big, thick, water-logged gloves and chucks ’em so he can manipulate the brakes and gears better in the finalé. Smart racecraft. Correct gear. Monument win.

And making the winning move in the last 3k of an epic race like that, when there are 20 of the world’s best riders behind who can’t follow the wheel, isn’t really sitting-on.