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Flèche Wallonne win gives Di Luca ProTour lead
After he won the Amstel Gold Race last Sunday, a rejuvenated and revitalized Danilo Di Luca said that his next goal was this coming weekend’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
“That’s a race I’ve always dreamed about winning,” he said.
So how come he won the Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday?
“Good question,” Di Luca replied. “This morning, we decided that we would see what happens in the race. Well, [Jens] Voigt was riding very, very strong in the break. It was the decision of my director [Roberto] Amadio, and me too, to make my teammates ride.”
As a result, Di Luca’s Liquigas-Bianchi teammates pegged the lead of Voigt’s original seven-man break to two minutes starting the final hilly loop of 106km. And that gap was down to one minute with 80km to go, when Team CSC’s Voigt decided to get rid of his companions, one by one.
The last rider to stay with the tall German was a third-year Belgian pro, Jef Peeters of Chocolade Jacques-T Interim. These two pushed their lead to 1:45 with 45km to go when Voigt decided it was time to go solo. He made a sharp attack on a flat stretch of road approaching the day’s sixth climb, the Côte de Bellaire, and Peeters was gone.
So, with Voigt’s advantage up to 1:50, what was going through Di Luca’s mind? “Well, we were thinking that Voigt had a good chance of winning if our team didn’t start chasing harder,” he said.
Over the next climb, the Bohissau — where 2001 Flèche winner Rik Verbrugghe of Quick Step caught Peeters and made a brief bid for glory – Voigt held strong; and he still had a 1:16 gap as he reached the 15km to go board. So Voigt was looking good as he hit the second-to-last hill, the Côte de Ahin, with 13.5km to go.
On this 2.4km climb averaging 6.4 percent, the chase was taken up by Crédit Agricole’s 25-year-old Russian rocket Andrey Kashechkin. He got within 10 seconds of Voigt, while the 60-strong peloton pulled within 20 seconds of the lone leader.
Voigt was now charging down toward Huy (and the third and final climb of the Belgian city’s famous Mur) on roads made wet by late-afternoon showers. Kashechkin was caught here by Phonak’s Spaniard Oscar Pereiro and the ambitious Frenchmen Jérôme Pineau (Bouygues Télécom) and Sylvain Chavanel (Cofidis), and they charged after Voigt. They caught him with just 4km to go (Voigt was away for 150km, the last 40km on his own), but the now five-strong break was still only 150 meters ahead of the long, snaking line of chasers.
The Liquigas riders Franco Pellizotti and Patrick Calcagni did most of the work behind, with occasional support from the Gerolsteiner team of defending champion Davide Rebellin and the Lampre-Caffita squad of 2004 Giro winner Damiano Cunego. Their efforts were rewarded when the breakaway group was caught just as they turned right from the valley road into the uphill street that leads to the 12-percent Mur de Huy.
“It was only when we reached the foot of the last climb that I thought of winning,” Di Luca finally said. “The strongest riders were all at the front and I knew what I had to do. I made a mistake last year on the steep [19 –percent] turns and I finished second to Rebellin.”
This time, Di Luca watched the others in the front line of four: Rebellin, Rabobank’s world champion Oscar Freire and T-Mobile’s Alex Vinokourov. In the second row on the narrow road were Fassa Bortolo’s Luxembourg champion Kim Kirchen, Davitamon-Lotto’s Aussie Cadel Evans (who said before the race, “I wouldn’t mind doing something today, that’s for sure.”), and Liberty Seguros Spaniard David Etxebarria.
“I was waiting for someone to start the attack,” Di Luca said, “But no one did, so I started it. I showed I was the strongest.” Indeed he did. Only Kirchen and Rebellin managed to catch Di Luca’s wheel, while Freire and Etxebarria held strong, Evans faded a little, and Vinokourov faded a lot.
At the line, Di Luca was a couple of lengths ahead of Kirchen with Rebellin in third. Four seconds back, Etxebarria crossed in fourth, just ahead of Freire, while Evans came home in eighth, Vinokourov 12th and Cunego a disappointing 14th.
The best of the decimated Discovery Channel team was Canadian Ryder Hesjedal, 2:23 back, in 65th. He was the only North American among the 113 finishers out of a field of 194 starters (Full Results Are Posted).
So Di Luca repeated Rebellin’s 2004 Amstel-Flèche double. Can the 29-year-old Italian — who now leads the UCI ProTour by 19 points from Tom Boonen — go on, like Rebellin, to do the triple this Sunday at Liège?
“It will be much more difficult on Sunday to arrive with the best riders at the last climb, the St. Nicolas,” said Di Luca Wednesday evening. But given his great form, new confidence and the backing of a powerful team, he will be the man to beat.
Results - Flèche Wallonne, 2005
1. Danilo Di Luca (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, 4:44:55 (42.432kph)
2. Kim Kirchen (Lux), Fassa Bortolo, 00:00
3. Davide Rebellin (I), Gerolsteiner, 00:00
4. David Etxebarria Alkorta (Sp), LST, 00:04
5. Oscar Freire (Sp), Rabobank, 00:04
6. Angel Vicioso (Sp), LST, 00:04
7. Patrik Sinkewitz (G), Quickstep, 00:04
8. Aitor Osa (Sp), Illes Balears, 00:04
9. Cadel Evans (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto, 00:08
10. Fabian Wegmann (G), Gerolsteiner, 00:08
Current Pro Tour Standings
1. Danilo Di Luca (I), 131 points
2. Tom Boonen (B), 112
3. Oscar Freire (Sp), 94
4. Alessandro Petacchi (I), 93
5. Davide Rebellin (I), 86
6. Bobby Julich (USA), 75
. George Hincapie (USA), 75
8. Danilo Hondo (G), 70
9. Juan Antonio Flecha (Sp), 65
10. Thor Hushovd (N), 55
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