Big favourite after his 3 previous victories in the Ardennes classics, Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) perfectly fulfilled his role by winning, almost easily, Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2011 ahead of Fränk and Andy Schleck (Team Leopard-Trek).

The summary of Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2011

199 riders started in the 97th edition of Liège-Bastogne-Liège this morning on the Place Saint-Lambert in Liège under a completely blue sky.

After 3 kilometers, the leading group of the day already started to get form, following an attack by Sébastien Delfosse (Landbouwkrediet) and Jesús Herrada Lopez (Movistar Team). Quickly, David Le Lay (AG2R La Mondiale) joined this leading duo, followed by 6 other riders. With Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana), Eduard Vorganov (Katusha Team), Thomas de Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team), Tony Gallopin (Cofidis), Mickaël Delage (FDJ) and Yannick Talabardon (Saur-Sojasun), they formed a leading group of 9 riders. When Mathias Frank (BMC Racing Team) also joins them later on, the leading group of the day is complete.

With an average speed of 43.2 km/h in the first hour of the race, these 10 riders rapidly see their gap going up to around 3'20".
In this leading group, Thomas de Gendt decides -just like last year- to go for the classification of the climbs, because he arrives first on top of the Côte de Saint-Roch, the Côte de Wanne, the Côte de Stockeu, the Côte de la Haute-Levée, the Col du Rosier

Mainly controlled by the Omega Pharma-Lotto team of the race's favourite, Philippe Gilbert, and from the Côte de la Haute-Levée also by Team Leopard-Trek, the gap of the leading group reaches its highest value at the foot of the Côte de Wanne with 4 minutes.

In the Côte de la Haute-Levée, Mickaël Delage and Yannick Talabardon get dropped by the leading group while at the head of the peloton a counter attack is formed after an initiative of Laurens ten Dam (Rabobank) and Greg van Avermaet (BMC Racing Team) who get company from Enrico Gasparotto (Astana), Juan Manuel Garate (Rabobank), Dario Cataldo and Jérôme Pineau (Quick Step), Damiano Caruso (Liquigas-Cannondale), Blel Kadri (AG2R La Mondiale), Kanstantsin Sivtsov (Team HTC-Highroad).

Finally some of these riders in the pursuit join the leading group to form a new leading group of 14 riders: Vorganov, Herrada Lopez, Frank, de Gendt and Gallopin from the initial leading group and Gasparotto, Sivtsov, Garate, ten Dam, van Avermaet, Frank, Cataldo, Pineau, Caruso and Kadri from the second group.
In the different climbs, Jesús Herrada Lopez gets dropped by the leading group, just like several other riders in the Côte de la Redoute.
In this redoubtable climb, Jakob Fuglsang (Team Leopard-Trek) leads the peloton which climbs faster than the leading group. On top of this climb, at 35 kilometers from the finish, the gap is down to 46 seconds for the 7 remaining leading riders.

Nicki Sörensen (Saxo Bank-Sungard) gets away from the peloton just after the top and easily gets back on the riders who got dropped from the leading group but doesn't continue his effort to get back on the leading group.

In the Côte de la Roche aux Faucons, the leading group exploses and behind them, Andy Schleck (Team Leopard-Trek) attacks, followed by his brother and team mate Fränk Schleck and Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto). The three riders, who were clearly among the favourites of this race, pick up the riders of the leading group one by one, while Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) gets delayed due to mechanical problems. Greg van Avermaet is the only rider who manages to follow the 3 riders.

The youngest of the Schleck brothers accelerates once more on the Côte de Saint-Nicolas but Philippe Gilbert takes over and accelerates even more, thus dropping Greg van Avermaet first, followed by Andy Schleck. The young rider from Luxembourg manages to come back after the top and the three favourite riders thus get back together leading the race.

At 100 meters from the finish, the Belgian rider accelerates and thus wins the sprint of La Doyenne ahead of Fränk and Andy Schleck.

The top 10 of the classification of Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2011

Here's the top 10 of the classification of Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2011 :
1/ Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) - 6h13'18"
2/ Fränk Schleck (Team Leopard-Trek)
3/ Andy Schleck (Team Leopard-Trek)
4/ Roman Kreuziger (Astana) - +0'24"
5/ Rigoberto Uran (Team Sky)
6/ Chris Sörensen (Saxo Bank-Sungard)
7/ Greg van Avermaet (BMC Racing Team) - +0'27"
8/ Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) - +0'29"
9/ Björn Leukemans (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) - +0'39"
10/ Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi)

door Thomas Vergouwen
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