Fifth place for Merida’s Izaguirre

Manama : In the last of the Ardennes Classics, Bahrain Merida Pro Cycling Team member Ion Izaguirre finished fifth in the Liège-Bastogne-Liège race in Belgium which was the grand finale of the series and the last major spring Classic and also the oldest and the hardest of cycling’s five monumental races.

A gruelling trek over an up-and-down parcours in Wallonia, the race favours the more vertically inclined in the peloton, but requires serious Classics grit to boot, thanks to its length.

The 2017 edition of the race was 258 km long. It started in Liège and headed south to Bastogne, before making a wide loop back to the finish in the town of Ans in the Liège suburbs. The journey included 10 climbs officially, not including the uphill finale, with the closing trio of the Côte de La Redoute, Côte de La Roche-aux-Faucons and Côte de Saint-Nicolas typically putting paid to all but the strongest riders on the day.

Recent editions of the race have been decided in the closing kilometres, with attacks getting clear in the run-up to or sprints won on the slopes of the final drag to the line. And this year was no different as top sprinters fought in the last 500 metres and Alejandro Valverde from Movistar Team was the strongest, Izaguirre was in front of the peloton the whole race and in the final sprint took fifth place.

“Valverde is now on another planet but I am very happy. I was all the time in the heat of the race and now I am looking forward to the Tour of Romandie,” said a satisfied Izaguirre.

“It was not easy to start this morning, thinking of Michele Scarponi. I had a very hard week and I did what I could. See you next year, Liège,” said a sad Enrico Gasparotto after the race.

Sports director of the team at the race Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Alberto Volpi commented: “We did the best we could at the toughest classic race in the world. Everybody made brilliant performances and this fifth place is a great achievement.”