The Doyenne of the classics, the last one of the Ardennes season, Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2012 again kept interesting until the end! A long breakaway didn't go on until the finish but Vincenzo Nibali went for a solo attack in the last 20 kilometers ... At a bit over one kilometer from the finish, Maxim Iglinskiy catched up with him and the Kazakh rider didn't wait for him and continued alone to the finish line. Iglinskiy thus wins this monument of cycling 4 days after his birthday!

The summary of Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2012

This morning at the start, 200 riders were about to start for a back-and-forth over 257.5 kilometers between the city where the Tour de France 2012 will start and Bastogne. Before the real start however, Igor Anton (Euskaltel-Euskadi), one of the favorites, already had to quit the race after a crash which led to a broken left collarbone for him.

Several attempts to break away have animated the start of the race but all these attempts were abandoned before they really led to a gap with the peloton. At kilometer 38 however, 3 riders in an attempt which turns out to be the right one. These riders are Dario Cataldo (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), followed by Simon Geschke (Team Argos-Shimano) and Kevyn Ista (Accent Jobs-Veranda's Willems).
Rapidly, 3 other riders started chasing behind them, Reinier Honig (Landbouwkrediet-Euphony), Gregory Habeaux (Accent Jobs-Veranda's Willems) and Alessandro Bazzana (Team Type 1-Sanofi), and about fifteen kilometers further, these chasing riders caught up with the breakaway to thus form a new breakaway with 6 riders. Their gap was around 8 minutes at that time and continued to increase. The maximum gap was seen at kilometer 79 with 12'35", but there were still 178 kilometers to go. At that time, the peloton led by Katusha, riding for the winner of the Amstel Gold Race, Joaquin Rodriguez, started taking back some time on the 6 leading riders.

In the follow-up of climbs, Simon Geschke takes the first points on top of the Côte de la Roche-en-Ardenne, just like on the Côte de Saint-Roch and finally on the Côte de Wanne. On the top of this climb, the gap of the breakaway was down to 4'45".

In the approach of the Côte de Stockeu, the German rider of the Dutch team crashed in a descent and Geschke remained sitting on the side of the road. A bit later he continued the race but on the top of the climb the points were thus not for him but for Dario Cataldo. Geschke didn't manage to get back to his 5 colleagues in the breakaway and gets taken back by the peloton which is than led by the Radioshack-Nissan team.

At the head of this peloton, several riders attempt to escape and in the Côte de la Haute-Levée, a small group of 3 riders starts the chase. While approaching the Col du Rosier, Vasil Kiryienka (Movistar Team), David Le Lay (Saur-Sojasun) and Pierre Rolland (Team Europcar) catch up with the 5 leading riders to briefly form a new breakaway with 8 riders.
Very briefly actually because in the Côte du Maquisard, Reinier Honig rapidly drops back, just like Gregory Habeaux who briefly comes back in the breakaway before being dropped again. In the climb of Mont Theux his team mate Kevyn Ista doesn't manage to stay up with the speed in the breakaway either and this group is thus down to 5 riders.

In the Côte de la Redoute the skimming of the breakaway continues with the loss of Alessandro Bazzana and finally it's only Pierre Rolland and Vasil Kiryienka who stay ahead. On top of this climb, Rolland decides to attack and creates a small gap, but in the end Kiryienka and Cataldo get back on the French rider at 31 kilometers from the finish. Their gap however continues to go down rapidly and at the foot of the Côte de la Roche aux Faucons they only have 15 seconds left on the peloton.

Rolland than attacks again but before he even arrives on top of this climb, the rider of Team Europcar he's caught back by Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) who starts a solo race. Behind him other riders have caught Rolland since Jelle Vanendert (Lotto-Belisol) and Thomas Voeckler (Team Europcar) get on top second and third.

The situation of the race thus completely changes with Nibali alone ahead, followed by a group of chasing riders including mainly Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing Team), Enrico Gasparotto, Maxim Iglinskiy and Robert Kiserlovski for the Astana team, Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha Team), Bauke Mollema (Rabobank), Thomas Voeckler and Pierre Rolland (Team Europcar) and Jelle Vanendert (Lotto-Belisol). At 7 kilometers from the finish, the Italian rider born in Messina and who's nicknamed the shark, has a 27 seconds lead on two chasing riders, Maxim Iglinskiy and Joaquin Rodriguez and 42 seconds on the group of chasing riders.
A little bit further, Rodriguez starts to feel his efforts in the Amstel Gold Race and is no longer able to follow Iglinskiy. Dan Martin (Garmin-Barracuda) and Pierre Rolland catch Joaquin Rodriguez while Iglinskiy is no more than 11 seconds behind Nibali.

At 1.5 kilometers from the finish, Maxim Iglinskiy bridges the gap and attacks immediately to get rid of Vincenzo Nibali while approaching the finish line. Nibali ends second, ahead of the team mate of the winner, Enrico Gasparotto.

The classifications of Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2012

The classification of the race

Here's the top 10 of the classification of Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2012:

1/ Maxim Iglinskiy (Astana) - 6h 43'52"
2/ Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) - +0'21"
3/ Enrico Gasparotto (Astana) - +0'36"
4/ Thomas Voeckler (Team Europcar)
5/ Daniel Martin (Garmin-Barracuda)
6/ Bauke Mollema (Rabobank)
7/ Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi)
8/ Michele Scarponi (Lampre-ISD)
9/ Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Barracuda)
10/ Jelle Vanendert (Lotto-Belisol)

Classification of the climbs

In the 11 climbs on the race route, several points were awarded to the riders. Here's the classification which is the result of these points:

1/ Pierre Rolland (Team Europcar) - 10 points
2/ Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) - 8 points
3/ Vasil Kiryienka (Movistar Team) - 8 points
4/ Dario Cataldo (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - 7 points
5/ David Le Lay (Saur-Sojasun) - 5 points
6/ Kevyn Ista (Accent Jobs-Veranda's Willems) - 3 points
7/ Alessandro Bazzana (Team Type 1-Sanofi) - 3 points
8/ Maxim Iglinskiy (Astana) - 2 points
9/ Jelle Vanendert (Lotto-Belisol) - 2 points
10/ Daniel Martin (Garmin-Barracuda) - 1 point
11/ Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing Team) - 1 point

door Thomas Vergouwen
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