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Flèche Wallonne: Another win for Rebellin
Only three of the one-day European classics have summit finishes: the Amstel Gold Race, the Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. After winning the first two of these races in the past four days, Italy’s Davide Rebellin is uncannily confident that he can win the third of these hilly events this coming Sunday.
Asked whether this means that he is having a second coming at age 32, Rebellin said Wednesday, “No. I’m just a good rider who has his best condition at the right time.” And should he win at Liège on Sunday, would that make him an Eddy Merckx? “No, no,” he added, “I’m not a Merckx, nor even an Argentin.”
The reference to Moreno Argentin is perhaps prophetic. The great Italian rider of the 1980s and early-’90s won the Flèche Wallonne three times and Liège four times — and even once took both races in the same year (1991). But times and challenges have changed a lot in the past decade, and back-to-back-to-back victories are virtually impossible.
Take Wednesday’s race. It was aggressive from the start, and anyone who wasn’t warmed up had a rude awakening on this overcast day in Belgium’s Ardennes hills. Attack followed attack in the strong crosswinds, and none of them would stick. The racing was too fast, even when the pack left the flatter roads of the opening stretch to tackle the hilly loops that each culminated in another climb of the impossibly steep Mur de Huy.
So fast was the race that Lance Armstrong’s event record of 42.964 kph set in 1996 was shattered with an average speed of 44.080 kph. That’s the sort of average you might expect for a flat 200km, not for a race that contains 10 solid climbs, including those three times up the Mur.
To put himself in position to win the Flèche, Rebellin confidently sent his Gerolsteiner teammates to the front whenever there was a move he didn’t like the look of. The last of these attacks came over the top of the next-to-last hill, the Côte de Ahin, and it came from three danger men: Alex Vinokurov of T-Mobile, Samuel Sanchez of Euskaltel and Kim Kirchen of Fassa Bortolo.
This trio was joined 6km from the finish by Saeco’s Mirko Celestino, who was preparing for a move by his team leader Danilo Di Luca — who’d been in an earlier attack and was still kicking himself from not being in the final winning break at last Sunday’s Amstel Gold Race.
The chasing efforts this Wednesday from Rebellin’s Gerolsteiner men led to a lead group of 36 riders coming together just as they turned off the valley road to head up the Mur de Huy for the final time. As usually happens, the key accelerations came on the double switchback that rears toward the finish at an awesome 19 percent, with less than 500 meters to go.
The three men who emerged were three of the six who formed the initial Amstel break on Sunday: Di Luca, Rebellin and Matthias Kessler of T-Mobile. Not there were Amstel runner-up Michael Boogerd, who decided not to compete Wednesday to reserve his energy for Liège; Paolo Bettini, who pulled out of the Flèche with “wooden legs” some 90km from the end; and Peter Van Petegem, who also did not start.
Coming out of the second switchback, Di Luca accelerated dramatically; but Rebellin, as he did with Boogerd last Sunday, calmly followed. “I waited until the last 100 meters before making my effort,” said Rebellin. “I was so confident of winning.”
Two Americans were in the front group that reached the Mur together. The best was U.S. Postal’s Floyd Landis, who survived a crash on the final loop, but still managed to come home in 25th place, 43 seconds down.
The other was Phonak’s Tyler Hamilton, who was six places and 15 seconds behind Landis.
Hamilton is not yet on the form that won him Liège-Bastogne-Liège last year. The New Englander’s big goal this year comes in July of course, as it does for Jan Ullrich.
The former Tour de France winner started the race Wednesday, but he was one of the early abandons.
This Flèche was not the sort of race you could use for training, especially when you are overweight.
