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Flèche Wallonne: Valverde tops Spanish assault
Cooke takes women's race
Spanish riders virtually overran the 70th edition of the Flèche Wallonne classic on Wednesday. Whenever there was a significant break, a Spaniard was in it; and when it came to the stiff finishing climb up the Mur de Huy, one Spaniard after another attacked before Alejandro Valverde surged in the final 200 meters to score his first victory in a ProTour classic.
With his win, the "Green Bullet" — as his fans call him — silenced critics who claimed the rider from Murcia, who’ll be 26 next week, was overrated. Indeed, Valverde has had trouble asserting himself in races outside of Spain. Of his 35 career victories before Wednesday only two were outside the Iberian peninsula: stage wins last year at Paris-Nice and the Tour de France.
Asked to compare this breakthrough classics victory with his 2005 Tour stage win at Courchevel in the French Alps, Valverde said, "Both successes are huge, but to win a stage in my first Tour de France and to beat Lance Armstrong in the process was very special."
Perhaps even more than the result at last Sunday’s Amstel Gold Race this Flèche Wallonne marked a clear switch from the old to the new; from the mid-30s generation of winners to a mid-20s bunch. On Sunday, Luxembourger Fränk Schleck, 26, was first, but second and third places went to Steffen Wesemann, 35, and Michael Boogerd, 34.
Wednesday, atop the formidable "Wall" of Huy — averaging almost 12 percent for the last 900 meters, with two 19-percent pitches in the middle — younger legs won through. Behind Valverde came Samuel Sanchez, 28; Karsten Kroon, 30; Schleck, 26; and Patrik Sinkewitz, 25.
The older generation was left shaking its collective head, particularly the Italians. Davide Rebellin, the 2004 Flèche winner, abandoned the race after climbing the Mur for only the first time after 65km. Olympic champion Paolo Bettini, who led the pack up the Mur on its second ascension 30km later, crossed the finish line in 12th place. And defending champion Danilo Di Luca, who made his Liquigas team ride tempo for much of the 202km race, could do no better than sixth.
The Spanish aggressors
But what about the Spanish? Besides finishing first and second, they figured in every significant break. This is a major shift in the Hispanic way of racing.
Traditionally, they have focused on stage races, and particularly winning mountain stages. That began to change when Oscar Freire astounded everyone by winning the world road championship five years ago in Verona. Then in 2003, at this same Flèche Wallonne, Igor Astarloa became the first Spanish pro to win a one-day classic since sprinter Miguel Poblet, a sprinter, twice won Milan-San Remo in the 1950s. But, some argued, Astarloa’s win was a fluke because he and countryman Aitor Osa were given a lot of freedom in an early breakaway, and they simply fought out a two-man race on the finishing climb.
But there was no fluke about the different moves made by the Spanish riders on Wednesday. The Flèche’s first major break came from José Luis Arrieta of AG2R, who went clear with Frenchman Frédéric Finot of Française des Jeux. They gained a maximum lead of 7:35 and did not get caught until 80km from the finish after being out front for more than 100km; as a bonus, Arrieta won the King of the Hills competition and pocketed $3000.
Twenty minutes later, the mighty Freire, Rabobank’s three-time world champion whose 51 career wins have all come in sprints, went on the attack with Swiss veteran Alexandre Moos of Phonak. For the next hour and 10 minutes, Freire and his companion led the madly chasing pack up and down the renowned hills of the Ardennes, and they were never more than 1:15 in front.
Their escapade ended on the early slopes of the penultimate climb, the Côte de Ahin, just 12km from the finish. And who was the first rider to counterattack? Yes, it was a Spaniard: Koldo Gil of Saunier Duval. And two of the four men who soon joined him in the break were Astarloa and Valverde. The other pair was Bettini and Germany’s Matthias Kessler of T-Mobile, another 26-year-old.
This quintet was caught by 12 others, including Sanchez and two other Spaniards, David Etxebarria of Liberty Seguros and Joaquim Rodriguez of Caisse d’Épargne. This group split on the descent and then grew to about 25 strong on reaching the valley road that leads into Huy.
One who caught the front group here was Chris Horner. "I was planning to help my [Davitamon-Lotto] teammate [Bjorn] Leukemans," said the lanky American, "but when I got up there he was away in a solo."
It was a suicidal attack by the local man and he was caught just as the Mur de Hoy kicks in with its 12-percent grade inside the final kilometer. Leukemans was quickly passed by — you guessed it — a couple of Spaniards, Etxebarria and Astarloa.
For the first half of the forbidding climb, Barloworld’s Astarloa looked strong enough to repeat his win of three years ago, but then he hit the first 19-percent switchback. At least he tried.
Once that Spaniard faded, another took over: Etxebarria, who has been the most consistent Spanish rider in the hilly classics for years. He has yet to pick up a win, but he did try. Very hard. Valverde went with Etxebarria and they appeared to be heading for a 1-2 finish.
Then, three men who did so well at Amstel on Sunday, CSC’s Kroon and Schleck and T-Mobile’s Sinkewitz, began to challenge. Etxebarria slowly faded to seventh, but another Spaniard, Euskaltel-Euskadi’s Sanchez, came powering through when the grade eased a little in the last 100 meters and snapped up second place behind the still-accelerating Valverde.
Asked whether he was expecting to win the race, Valverde replied in his quiet, unpretentious way, "I wasn’t the only one who wanted to win. It was a very, very fast race today, right from the get-go, and it turned out just as I hoped.
"I rode this race for the first time last year and didn’t do great [he was 40th]. But I rode the course yesterday and so I got a really good look at the hill. It paid off."
Next up for Valverde and the new generation is Sunday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The oldest classic is longer by 60km, the hills are harder, and experience usually pays off. But now that the mid-20s crowd (and the Spanish) are on a roll. Don’t rule out Valverde winning again — although the defeated Di Luca, Bettini and Rebellin might have the last word in this season of spring classics.
Cooke’s hat-trick
The women’s Flèche Wallonne, the fourth round of the 2006 UCI World Cup, went for the third time in four years to British phenom Nicole Cooke. Cooke’s new Swiss-based team, Univega, chased down a brave 34km-long solo attack by Russian Olga Zabelinskaya of Fenix-Colnago before a group of 28 hit the Mur de Huy for the grind to the line.
"I paced myself all the way up," said Cooke, who was always behind 2005 World Cup winner Oenone Wood of Australia on the Mur. "I said to myself on the hairpins that if she could hold that pace to the finish then she deserves to win."
Instead, Cooke kept following and then shifted up a gear in the final 150 meters to charge away to a superb victory. Former world champion Judith Arndt of T-Mobile came through for second, with another German, Trixi Worrack of Team Nürnberger, in third. Wood held on for fourth, while American Amber Neben took an excellent fifth place.
Cooke’s win moved her into second place in the World Cup standings, just three points behind T-Mobile’s Ina Teutenberg, who placed 41st Wednesday, 2:25 back after a crash on one of the descents. But the German sprinter will probably be strong in the next World Cup race, this coming Sunday in Berne, Switzerland.
Top 20
1. Alejandro Valverde (Sp), Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears, 202km in 4:42:45 (42.865 km/h)
2. Samuel Sanchez (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, same time
3. Karsten Kroon (Nl), CSC, s.t.
4. Frank Schleck (Lux), CSC, s.t.
5. Patrik Sinkewitz (G), T-Mobile, at 0:03
6. Danilo Di Luca (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, at 0:05
7. David Etxebarria (Sp), Liberty Seguros, at 0:07
8. Koldo Gil Perez (Sp), Saunier Duval, at 0:10
9. Serguei Ivanov (Rus), T-Mobile, at 0:12
10. Matthias Kessler (G), T-Mobile, at 0:14
11. Fabian Wegmann (G), Gerolsteiner, at 0:16
12. Paolo Bettini (I), Quick Step-Innergetic, s.t.
13. Benoit Salmon (F), Agritubel, at 0:23
14. Eddy Mazzoleni (I), T-Mobile, at 0:24
15. Cobo Acebo Juan Jose (Sp), Saunier Duval, at 0:26
16. Igor Astarloa (Sp), Barloworld, s.t.
17. Maxim Iglinskiy (Kaz), Milram, at 0:29
18. Iban Mayo (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, s.t.
19. Christopher Horner (USA), Davitamon-Lotto, s.t.
20. Jurgen Van Den Broeck (B), Discovery Channel Pro Cycling, at 0:31
2006 UCI ProTour (after nine races)
1. Tom Boonen (B), Quick Step-Innergetic, 129 pts
2. Alessandro Ballan (I), Lampre-Fondital, 105
3. Samuel Sanchez (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 89
4. Alejandro Valverde (Sp), Caisse d’Épargne-Illes Balears, 86
5. Frank Schleck (Lux), CSC, 85
6. Fabian Cancellara (Swi), CSC, 84
7. Alessandro Petacchi (I), Milram, 72
8. Antonio Colom (Sp), Caisse d’Épargne-Illes Balears, 71
9. Filippo Pozzato (I), Quick Step-Innergetic, 70
10. Patrik Sinkewitz (G), T-Mobile, 60
Teams
1. CSC (Dk), 132 pts
2. T-Mobile (G), 7
3. Rabobank (Nl), 116
4. Gerolsteiner (G), 113
5. Lampre-Fondital (I), 109
