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Aerts and Luperini reign supreme at Fleche'
When the final selection of riders hit the base of the Mur de Huyfor the third time and final time in the 66th edition of the Fleche Wallonneon Wednesday, the Belgian fans, tipping back beers and basking in the hazyspring sunshine, saw decent odds. After 197km of racing, including twoprevious trips over the steep, snaking Mur climb, the trademark obstacleof this Belgian spring race, it had come down to an impressive group ofsurvivors. Two were Belgian.
First, there was Axel Merckx. Approaching the base of the climb, whichhas pitches surpassing 20 percent in places, Merckx attacked. A roar wentup for the tall Domo-Farm Frites rider who, five hour earlier, had beenchatting it up with his father Eddy, the greatest cyclist of all time asevery Belgian cycling fan will tell you, at the start in the rundown miningtown of Charleroi.
The odds for those Belgian fans were decent, but they weren’t great.
There were Italians to worry about, including two serious threats, menwho know how to win classics: Michele Bartoli (Fassa Bortolo) and his teammateCasagrande, both of whom had won Fleche Wallonne before (Casagrande in2000, Bartoli in 1999).
Not far behind were Mapei-Quick Step strongman Andrea Noe; Davide Rebellin,the Italian leader of the German Gerolsteiner team; and the life-after-the-Giro-bust version of Dario Frigo (Tacconi Sport).
Then there was Rabobank threat Michael Boogerd, badly in need of a bigwin and looking aggressive all afternoon, as well as Euskadel-Euskadi climbersDavid Etxebarria and Unai Etxebarria and ONCE’s Jose Azevedo.
No sooner had Merckx got the crowd all worked up when he was caught.The next man to the front, however, was another Belgian, Mario Aerts ofthe Lotto-Adecco team. When he made his move, he would admit later, hewas not confident.
“I was worried about Bartoli and Noe,” he said.
Just three days earlier, Johan Museeuw had delighted the home fans withhis win at Paris-Roubaix. Was it too much to ask for another Belgian winin the same week?
The sun was shining in Belgium. Anything could happen.
Aerts, his confidence boosted by the presence of the fans, as well asthe man speaking into his ear — Lotto assistant manager Claude Criquielion,himself a two-time winner at Fleche Wallonne — stayed with it. Unai Etxebarriatried to respond, but could only dangle 20 meters behind
The attacks started early in the 198km race, which took riders fromCharleroi to the town of Huy, where they then completed two more largeloops, the first one 33.5km, the second 94km. All of the early attemptsto escape were shut down, and as the field hit the Mur for the first time,Casagrande was at the front, setting the pace.
On the descent off the Mur, a three-man break formed containing AlexZulle (Coast), Jens Heppner (Telekom) and Walter Beneteau (Bonjour).
The group quickly gained time on the field, until, at the 96km mark,they had a gap of 3:10. With two potential winners in its deck, however,Fassa Bortolo went to the front and began the chase.
At the summit of the Mur the second time around, 104km into the race,the gap was down to 2:20. It appeared Zulle and company were done, butthe field slowed the pace again and the trio of escapees got a temporaryreprieve.
Before their gap climbed too high, however, American Levi Leipheimer,riding for Rabobank, began the move that would mark the end of the trio’sday at the front. Working for Boogerd, Leipheimer set off on a chase with80km to go.
“I attacked but unfortunately no one came with me,” Leipheimer said.“I didn’t force it too much but I had better legs than I thought. It wasjust too bad no one came with me.”
Leipheimer hung by himself for about 15 kilometers until another chasegroup caught him and then grew to include the eventual finalists on theMur. There were several other attempts, including one by Boogerd on theCôte de Bohissau, with 28km to go, but in the end it came down tothat final selection on the Mur.
As Aerts turned the Dura-Ace cranks on his Litespeed up the climb, thecrowd at the top began the song. Last year it was another Lotto man fromBelgium, Rik Verbrugghe, and three days earlier, at Roubaix, it had beenJohann Museeuw.
But today it was Mario, and that’s the song the Belgian fans sang.
LUPERINI TAKES WOMEN’S RACE
The fifth edition of the women’s Fleche Wallonne, round 4 of the 2002UCI Women’s World Cup, also came down to a battle on the Mur, but it wasa battle to catch Fabiana Luperini of the Edilsavino team. Luperini madeher winning move on the Côte de Ahin, the second to last climb inthe 93.5km women’s race.
A group of 12 tried to go after the Italian, but she hit the base ofthe Mur 10km later with enough of a gap to hold off her chasers. Saturn’sLyne Bessette finished second, Swiss national team rider Priska Doppmannwas third, and Nicole Cooke of Great Britain was fifth.
Finishing fourth, and taking over the World Cup lead, was Dutch riderMirjam Melchers of Farm Frites-Hartol. Petra Rossner (Saturn), winner ofthe first two World Cup races, fell to second overall and now trails Melchersby 8 points.
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