Eight years later Alejandro Valverde wins the Freccia Vallone again. For the Spaniard it is the end of a nightmare after so many chances thrown away, with so many placings but without winning an important race for too long. On the Huy wall, located just over a kilometer from the finish line of the first Ardennes classic that precedes Liege on Sunday, Valverde, unlike Kwiatkowski, made no mistakes by choosing the right moment of the attack. With gradients reaching 26%, every little mistake pays off. And Valverde has made countless mistakes in the management of matches in a more than ten-year professional career which, although bright - except for the doping stain of Operacion Puerto - could have had a much richer palmarés with a more shrewd tactic than kept at bay the instinctive desire to always attack. To mention one race above all, the road world championship has seen Valverde never a world champion but five times on the podium, twice second in 2002 and 2005 and three times third in Salibusrgo in 2006, in Valkenburg, on the same track as the Freccia Vallone, in 2012 and in Florence last year. Today, at 34, Valverde remains, with Contador and Rodriguez, the leading man of Spanish cycling.
Yesterday's victory at the Freccia Vallona was therefore marked by his signature: a success that relaunches Valverde's odds for Sunday's Liège-Bastogne-Liege, which the Movistar leader has already won twice in 2006 and 2008. Disappointing in the Freccia This year's Walloon was above all Philippe Gilbert, who finished tenth, who was the big favorite after his exploit in the Amstel Gold Race on Sunday. But the Belgian found himself stuck in the rear as he attacked the last ascent of Muro d'Huy and the race was over for him, postponing his victory ambitions to Liège. Still unlucky – like our Cunego – Joaquim Rodriguez crashed again after the tumble in the beer classic. By now it seems that Purito is thinking of the Giro d'Italia more than in the Ardennes with a great desire to win it after he saw it slip away at the hands of Ryder Hesjedal in 2012 for a few seconds. He will cross Cadel Evans and Breadley Wiggins on his way are preparing on the climbs of the Giro del Trentino. A Giro d'Italia that won't see the 2013 pink jersey at the start, Vincenzo Nibali focused on the Tour and who yesterday appeared to be in late form again. But the Shark, interviewed after the finish line on the Huy wall, said he was sure of doing something good in the Liège-Bastogne-Liège which will close the spring season of the classics on Sunday.
