Born in Geneva but Danish by nationality, Jacob Fuglsang was 34 years old on 22 March and decided to become a top player in world cycling this year in the service of Nibali and Aru when they wore the colors of Astana. . He was just missing a big victory to legitimize his entry into the club of the big names in pedalling. He tried on the Chianti dirt road to win the Strade Bianche, he finished third in the Easter Gold Race, he tried again on top of the Mur d'Huy finishing second in the Freccia Vallone: it was always Julien Alaphilippe who denied him the success he had been pursuing for some time , a sort of nightmare for him given that he beat him twice in Tuscany and on Wednesday in the Freccia and that in the classic Dutch beer event he made him lose when both on the run, by dint of treating themselves in view of the sprint, became reached by the group dragged by an amazing Mathieu Van der Poel.
Yesterday in the Liège-Bastogne-Liège, fourth classic-monument of spring, when he set off on the last asperity of the Cote de la Roche-aux-Faucons, it must not have seemed true to Fuglsang that finally Alaphilippe was no longer on his wheel, the big favorite in the race after winning it last year. The French gave in with a crash in the face of the peremptory action of the Dane who was blowing up the Doyenne bank. Only the Italian Davide Formolo and the Australian Michael Woods resisted him, but only for a short distance.
With a dozen kilometers to go, Fuglsang made a vacuum, flying towards a victory that is worth a career. Formolo managed to defend second place reaching 27" from the Dane while Woods was absorbed by a group of pursuers set at 57" by Maximilian Schacmann in the sprint. Also in this group was Vincenzo Nibali, who landed in the Ardennes 24 hours after finishing on the podium as third in the Tour of the Alpes won by the Russian Pavel Sivakov.
Lo Jaws, who came close to success in Liège in 2012 by finishing second behind the Kazakh Maksim Iglinskij, had to settle for eighth place. He will try again next year because the Doyenne, the "Doyenne of the classics having been born in 1892, is a race that appeals to the Italian champion with its 4 meters of difference in altitude to overcome, often adversely affected by the cold and rain as was the edition of yesterday.
Nibali, already brilliant at the Tour of the Alps, returns from the Ardennes with the conviction that he is on the right track to race in a great Giro di Italia which will start on May 11th. Fuglsang aside, Nibali was certainly the most convincing among the big names. Alaphilippe finished further behind reaching 16th at 1'29” from the winner. Worse also Greg Van Avermaet and Tom Dumoulin arrived after 6 minutes. Philippe Gilbert triumphant in Roubaix finished 58th at 9'20”.
Many withdrawals, as is the tradition of Liège: to underline the surrender of Daniel Martin and above all that of Alejandro Valverde, who with just over a hundred km to go from the finish, got his foot on the ground and got on the flagship of the Movistar missing the goal of a fifth success that would have led him to share the record of victories with Eddy Merck. +
