There is something to love about a race that makes a deviation to its route for the simple joy of sending a fleet of professional riders up a fiendishly steep and narrow ramp. The Cote du Stockeu offers zero benefit to the route from a logistical standpoint – in fact, all it does is complicate things. On the way down from the Cote de Wanne – usually at breakneck speed – the race enters the small down of Stavelot. Just before hitting the town proper, you make a right turn and ascend a wall that does little more than become steeper as it twists it way up for 2.4km. Riding the route with Museeuw during Keepers Tour, he quietly tried to dissuade us of riding it, “You don’t need to do this for me; I’ve never enjoyed this one.”
At the top lies the monument to Merckx and his 525 victories. Upon reaching it, the route takes a sharp left turn and descends right back down to exactly the same spot from which it climbed up. This is why I love this climb so much; its just free pain for the racers – a steep climb just for the sake of making their legs hurt a bit more. Shortly thereafter, the route rolls down a few valleys and arrives at the Cote de la Redoute (The Fearsome), which signals the beginning of the finale. Its too far from the finish to make a winning move, but if you’ve got bad legs, you’ll be left behind to suffer all the way to Ans.
Amstel has been sorted, as has La Fléche. Both were won by an outsider. I don’t think the big names will let that happen again. Surely Gilbert and the Sag Wagon will have their act together this time around.
Check the start list and enter your picks in by the time the countdown clock goes to zero at midnight on Sunday morning Pacific Time. The winner of this monument will post for the next year with the LBL Winners Badge. Good luck.
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It's funny, on some forums the anglos are trying to lay claim to Danny Boy because he lived in englandshire for a time. That panda should have been back in edinburgh shagging the girl panda, bloody shirker.
Tell you what, I'm nearly tempted to dispute my 4 point purely because they came from Valverde being in 4th...did anyone see him at all before the last km? Not to mention 'knee warmers' that basically go to the ankles!
You got to love this race. Where else can you get the suspense, the drama, the craziness of the Cote de Saint Roch, the V, the Canadian content, a panda and an awesome win by a well deserving competitor. I love this sport.
@Mirko He said, "YES!" You could barely hear it under the cheers and commotion. Then Carlton mentioned it. Fun day of racing.
Has a World Champ ever gone winless in the year following the WC win?
I peed myself. Or at least I think I did. I was tweeting with JV about and his response was like no shit man.
L-B-L!
@Ron
I think your spiritual mentor itty bitty Bettini had a pretty dry year his first year round in the rainbow stripes. He did, however back up and win the WC again the following year before retiring.
Cav did set some sort of record for crashing in the rainbow stripes as well.
@Marcus
Oh well now you've jumped on the bandwagon I'm changing my mind. Valverde was the strongest in the race and should have won, Garmin cheated somehow and you two wankspanners can jog off into the sunset cranking each others' drivetrains till you're blue in the face and sore in the wrist.
Back to normal then. And how did those tools get inside the barriers? I admit I didn't see the finale.
Excellent race, unmarred by my single point. Looks like Hesjedal is rounding into form nicely for the Giro defense.
@minion Or not, after reading Bettini's Wiki, perhaps not so dry, winning Lombardia and stages at the TOC and Vuelta. He did crash a lot in 2008 while in the stripes though, even though he did win another couple of Vuelta stages and some smaller stage races. According to Wikipedia. According to my recollection of events he fell over just looking at his bike and spent 11 of the 12 months in hospital.