Liege-Bastogne-Liege, La Doyenne

Live coverage of Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

1. 10:36 CEST (257.5km remaining from 257.5km)

   The 199 starters have just set out from Liège under clear skies, with the temperature a pleasant 18 degrees and set to rise as the day goes on.

2. 10:40 CEST (254.5km remaining from 257.5km)

   In spite of the 257.5km and ten categorised climbs facing the riders, the attacking starts from the moment the flag is dropped.
   Sébastien Delfosse (Landbouwkrediet) and Jesus Herrada Lopez (Movistar) manage to jump clear 3km in, and shortly afterwards David Le Lay (Ag2r-La Mondiale) bridges across.

3. 10:45 CEST (249.5km remaining from 257.5km)

   8km in and the trio of escapees have an advantage of 20 seconds over the peloton, but there is no shortage of riders who want to try and make it into the echapee matinale, so they might have their work cut out to stay clear.
   The outward leg of the race, to Bastogne, is significantly flatter than the return journey, with just the Côte de Saint-Roch (1km at 11 %) to test the legs 71.5km in. Depending on the wind conditions (which will not be a factor today, it seems), it gives any early breakaway ample opportunity to build up a lead before the pace begins to ratchet up ahead of the gruelling series of climbs in the final 100km.

4. 10:47 CEST

   Simon Geschke (Skil-Shimano) makes a bid to bridge across to the leaders, but it's hard to escape the clutches of the peloton.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   I am thinking that the Schleck brothers work over Philipe Gilbert for the win, either Andy or Frank, and deny Gilbert the Ardennes Hat Trick..
   
   
   La Doyenne - the oldest woman...
   
   
   Liège–Bastogne–Liège, often called La Doyenne ("the oldest"),^[1][2][3] is one of the five 'Monuments' of the European professionalroad cycling calendar.^[4] It is run in the Ardennes region of Belgium, from Liège to Bastogne and back.

   Liège–Bastogne–Liège was part of the UCI Road World Cup and is part of the Belgian Ardennes Classics series, which includes La Flèche Wallonne. Both are organised by Amaury Sport Organisation. At one time, Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège were run on successive days as Le Weekend Ardennais. Only six riders have won both races in the same year: the Swiss Ferdi Küblertwice (in 1951 and 1952), Belgians Stan Ockers (1955) and Eddy Merckx (1972), Italians Moreno Argentin (1991) and Davide Rebellin(2004), and the Spaniard Alejandro Valverde (2006).

   
   

   The British magazine Cycling Weekly said: "In purely physical terms, this is probably the toughest classic: the climbs are long, most of them are pretty steep as well, and they come up with depressing frequency in the final kilometers.^[12]

   Moreno Argentin said:

   Riders who win at Liège are what we call fondisti - men with a superior level of stamina. [The climb of] La Redoute is like the Mur de Huy in that it has to be tackled at pace, from the front of the peloton. The gradient is about 14 or 15 per cent, and it comes after 220 or 230 kilometers, so you don't have to be a genius to work out how tough it is. I remember that we used to go up with a maximum of 39 x 21 - it's not quite as steep as the Muur de Huy. A lot of riders mistakenly think you should attack on the hardest part, but in reality you hurt people on the slightly flatter section that comes after this.

   Liège is a race of trial by elimination, where it's very unlikely that a breakaway can go clear and decide the race before the final 100km. You need to be strong and at the same time clever and calculating - in this sense it's a complete test of a cyclist's ability.^[13]