Alejandro Valverde took his fourth win in Liège-Bastogne-Liège today and afterwards paid tribute to Michele Scarponi who died tragically yesterday. The Spaniard said that he would be donating his prize money to Michele’s family.
In winning today, Valverde becomes the first rider in history to win both Flèche-Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège three times in the same year. He now equals Moreno Argentin’s number of victories in La Doyenne and sits just one behind Eddy Merckx’s record of five wins.
The winning move came on the final climb at Ans, where Valverde jumped away from the group of favourites with less than 500 metres to go. He caught Dan Martin (Quick Step Floors), who had launched his own acceleration seconds before. Valverde outsprinted the Irishman to take the win, with Martin second, and Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) taking third.
Alejandro Valverde: “This victory is a tribute to Michele Scarponi. I was close friends with him and it made me really, really sad to see him go pass away so young, in such tragic circumstances. I just couldn’t believe it when I saw the news. It wasn’t just me, but the whole team, the whole cycling world. All prizes I get here today will go to his family.
“It’s a historical win – to be honest, it was a perfect week for us, even though it was so hard to get the victory today. Just like we did Wednesday at Flèche Wallonne, we took command of the race from the very beginning, yet there was a moment we left the front for other teams to take their turns, because the break was a big one and it would have been much more difficult to bring it back without help. Everyone was on the limit today.”
“At the final slope in Ans, Martin really went hard to win solo, but I was looking for my distance to sprint, and with 300 metres to go, I just went on full steam to chase him down. Even though I saw Albasini sitting on my wheel, I had no doubts about carrying on. I was able to catch Martin, breathe for a few seconds and sprint to the line. Because of everything that happened yesterday, it’s undoubtedly my most special victory here. I want to thank my whole team, because they were incredible once again, and fulfilled their tasks perfectly so I could focus on pulling this off.”
Hmmmmmm
Good PR?
Fantastic gesture ! F******g hard luck on Dan Martin for a close 2nd
Such a tragic death and yet he died doing the very thing he loved. Bless his soul. Ride on for eternity!