Many champions at the starting line but the surprise winner of the Liegie-Bastogne-Liege, raced in a winter frost and under the snowflakes of the Ardennes, was the Dutchman Wout Poels of Sky, 29 years old, follower of Froome and Kwiatkowski , an honest career but to date without a weight victory. Fascinating as always, with its "cotes" that follow one after the other, short but with slopes that eventually drain energy, in the end the 102nd Doyenne was betrayed by the most awaited men. It saw the initial escape of the usual braves run out, it offered moments of protagonism to the various De Marchi, Vockler, Wellens and Betancur, who took turns protagonists of generous stretches in a mid-winter scenario - which recalled the 1980 edition, the one won by Bernard Hinault- fueling the suspense for a tussle that sooner or later would have ignited between the big names. But this did not happen.
The big favorites of the eve ended up disappointing, starting with Alejandro Valverde. The ruler of the Freccia Walloon, after forcing his Movistar men to lead the group for almost three quarters of the race, found himself running out of petrol on the last two "cotes", that of Saint Nicolas and Rue Naniot, and in the long uphill straight that leads to the finish line, when a trio made up of Poels, the Swiss Michele Albasini and the Portuguese Rui Costa took off, gaining a hundred-metre lead: now uncatchable, it was Poels who preceded the Swiss by a whisker dell'Orica GreenEdge and the former world champion of Florence of Lampre-Merida. A little further back, 4 seconds behind came Samuel Sanchez, then the Russian Zakharin and the French Barguil. Valverde finished 16th, also preceded by Kreuziger and Joaquim Rodriguez, albeit with the same gap of 12" from the winner.
Rather than winning in the end, the big names preferred to mark each other, giving the green light to the surprises of the day: Julian Alaphilippe and Daniel Martin, two other very popular riders on the eve, also ended up being sucked into this tactic. Worse went Nibali and Kwiatkwoski, who got lost in the final. The best of the Italians was once again Gasparotto, 13th at the finish line. Even 112th, over 10 minutes later, was Chris Froome, who kept the pace up to about thirty km from the finish and then disappeared in the usual anonymity that accompanies the "Martian" of the Tour when he tackles - very sparingly - the classics -monument.
