Best Races of 2017 – #5

Dec 17
cyclical

5 Liège-Bastogne-Liège Féminin  |  Ans, Belgium  |  23 April

 

This race was all about trying out the same trick on your audience and getting away with it, three times inside a week. In the same way that the Men’s Liège and Flèche Wallone is about everyone riding around for a few hours before Valverde wins, the women’s races were about Anna van der Breggen winning despite anything anyone else can manage.

Kasia Niewiadoma (WM3) detonated the race, but only succeeded in getting a five-roder break with two Boels-Dolmans riders. Everyone knew what was coming, but could do nothing about it.

The foregoing doesn’t necessarily make Anna van der Breggen’s triple triumph less worthy; if you get into a race-winning position in a Classic, you’d better be damn sure you can do it, over and over again.