Cycling: Gilbert victorious at Liege

LIEGE: Belgium’s love of cycling’s tough one-day classics came to a dramatic crescendo when Philippe Gilbert finally landed a ‘dream’ victory at Liege-Bastogne-Liege. A perfectly-executed display of power, endurance and tactical nous allowed Gilbert to beat Frank and Andy Schleck at the end of the 255.5 kilometre epic to claim his maiden triumph in the sport’s oldest one-day classic, first raced in 1892. As a result, he secured a rare hat-trick of wins in the ‘Ardennes Classics’, achieved only once when Italian Davide Rebellin also won the Amstel Gold Race and Fleche Wallonne in the week before Liege.



Published in The Express Tribune, April 27^th, 2011.