Van Aert is a giant. And while everyone looks at him with deference and that step back that one maintains with respect to giants, There's a blond child who demands her attention. He demands it. He gets angry. He screams like an eagle.. "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" Finally, Wout hears him from the top of the stage, waves, and the child quiets down. Wout says from the stage that he finally feels good and hopes to have the legs he used to do in Roubaix, that Liège is tougher and there are more suitable riders. But all in all from the end of the last climb to the finish line there is time to think and chase…
Quai des Ardennes
From lunchtime to five in the afternoon, Liège cycling has gathered at Quai des Ardennes, a bad neighbourhood on the outskirts of the city where the men's Doyenne will start tomorrow morning at 10,15am.The usual presentation on Place Saint Lambert was not held for the construction of a tram that will connect all the suburbs of the Walloon city. So the teams arrive along the Ourthe embankment, get off the buses, parade on the stage and leave.Ten minutes per team, a few interviews, and the formality is over. But the crowd gathers, applauds, and that's enough. Meanwhile, the Café des Ardennes, along the road that enters the city from the famous hills, is doing a roaring trade and will do so tomorrow morning.
The two Treks on the same stage. In the background, Elisa Longo Borghini. Marta Cavalli, queen of Amstel and Freccia, with team manager Delecourt The DSM team is very well integrated, everyone uses the same materials Francesca Barale, a first-year student, is also in Liège: "The goal is to finish it!"
The two Treks on the same stage. In the background, Elisa Longo Borghini. Marta Cavalli, queen of Amstel and Freccia, with team manager Delecourt The DSM team is very well integrated, everyone uses the same materials Francesca Barale, a first-year student, is also in Liège: "The goal is to finish it!"
Blue ladies
The WorldTours where men and women take the stage together. The women will leave Bastogne at 8,30 tomorrow morning and will be in Liège when the men have not even got their teeth into the first Cote de Saint Roch. And the double formation is in EF, in which Bettiol with the beard and long hair says he is better. The Israel in which De Marchi says that things aren't going so well. Alpecin. Cofidis. Trek-Segafredo. Soudal Lot. UAE Emirates. DSM. Bike Exchange. One X. FDJ. And Movistar.
Elisa Longo Borghini says she has recovered from victory at Roubaix, but it wasn't easy, especially because of the rush of emotions that the victory has given her: «Luckily I'm human – she says – and I'm fine. It wasn't so much a recovery of strength, but Let's say that on Wednesday at the Freccia I was definitely not at my best».
Marta Cavalli, who the Arrow won it, says it was nice to celebrate with her classmates and that It was better to have stayed in BelgiumIf the post-Amstel period had been so tiring, imagine what it was like after what she did on the Mur d'Huy: "Those last 500 meters were incredibly long," she says, "but never as long as the Amstel finale, where I was alone. On Wednesday, I knew I had the strength to win."
A greeting to his Marion and then Alaphilippe goes towards the stage Once again Ineos will be fearsome, with Kwiatkowski and Martinez Matthews skipped the Freccia due to the onset of the flu: now he says he's feeling better Only one Italian in the Alpecin-Fenix: Kristian Sbaragli Bettiol isn't at his best, but he's recovering. Here with Rigo Uran.
A greeting to his Marion and then Alaphilippe goes towards the stage Matthews skipped the Freccia due to the onset of the flu: now he says he's feeling better In Alpecin-Fenix only one Italian: Kristian Sbaragli Bettiol isn't at his best, but he's recovering. Here with Rigo Uran. Once again Ineos will be fearsome, with Kwiatkowski and Martinez
The world champion
Alaphilippe is very thin, more than I've seen before. Even though Bramati, slyly, says it's always like this. The world champion kissed his Marion, race director of the Tour Femmes who in the meantime was chatting with his colleague Prudhomme, then set off with Evenepoel and the rest of the gang to the presentation. The Arrow in fourth place was not the best sign, but if explosiveness is lacking, maybe there will be the foundation for tomorrow to be different.
Evenepoel, who is making his debut, is keeping an unusually low profile. People still give him a big round of applause.. Not like the one reserved for Van Aert and Gilbert, but still substantial enough to make him smile. The boy will have to fill their future one way or another.
Caruso was in Belgium and asked himself: why shouldn't I race? The team answered his question. An important debut for Aleotti, under the watchful eye of Cesare Benedetti Jungels won the 2018 Liège with an attack from Roche aux Faucouns This Frenchman with a gentle and slightly sleepy look is Cosnefroy, second at the Amstel Prudhomme and Marion Rousse, directors of the men's Tour and the women's Tour respectively
Caruso was in Belgium and asked himself: why shouldn't I race? The team answered his question. An important debut for Aleotti, under the watchful eye of Cesare Benedetti This Frenchman with a gentle and slightly sleepy look is Cosnefroy, second at the Amstel Jungels won the 2018 Liège with an attack from Roche Aux Faucouns Prudhomme and Marion Rousse, directors of the men's Tour and the women's Tour respectively
There is Caruso
In Team Bahrain Victorious that comes from far away, there is a masked figure gesturing strangelyStrange, we think, Caruso had said they wouldn't let him run. But it's him.
«I was here – he says – I asked to be able to run. I'm fine, why would I stay and watch her in the hotel? We'll think about Romandie later."
Well done, friend Damiano, it will be good news for athletes who look askance at commitments with scales and for Mohoric, Landa and Teuns who will have great support in the race.
Valverde's journey in the Ardennes ends tomorrow: 5 victories at La Flèche, 4 at Liège Velasco laughs: it's not so easy to stand next to a giant like Nibali during the announcement
Valverde's journey in the Ardennes ends tomorrow: 5 victories at La Flèche, 4 at Liège Velasco laughs: it's not so easy to stand next to a giant like Nibali during the announcement
The last of the “Bala”
Among the various and sundry, among the confetti of this afternoon in the sun of Liège, the smile of Anastasia Carbonari of Valcar-Travel&Service, on the run at the Freccia and maybe tomorrow too. The placid calm of Vincenzo Nibali, just ten years after the second place behind Iglinskij that made him cry. Aleotti's curiosity, on its debut. The intriguing gaze of Demi Vollering who won it last year. And then Valverde's gaunt and withered face, he too like Gilbert at the last Liège, who has already won four times. Like Argentin, but one less than Merckx, who holds the record.
The “Bala” has a lively look and certainly the second place of the Freccia told him somethingLast night he ate it a rice cake, a kind gift from Florio Santin, an Italian-Belgian Visconti fan, who used to bring it when Giovanni was at MovistarYesterday morning, to say goodbye to Valverde, he passed it to his masseur Escamez on the summit of La Redoute.
The last to parade are the riders and the girls of the UAE Team Emirates, then theThe tribe disperses towards the last hotels of this Ardennes tripTomorrow evening, no matter what happens, everyone will be on their way home.
