Fleche Wallonne: Valverde with strong performance

The T-Mobile Team presented themselves once again in top shape placing three riders into the top ten: Patrik Sinkewitz finished in fifth, the Russian Sergey Ivanov came in ninth, ahead of Matthias Kessler.

Piva satisfied with the outcome
"It was our goal to ride an aggressive race straight from the gun like we did at the Amstel Gold Race and to put our top riders in a good position in the finale. We accomplished that”, said T-Mobile sporting director Valerio Piva. He expected things to get tough for his team at the Mur de Huy in the finale. ”Still, this was a strong team performance today“.

193 riders set off at 11.15 am on the 202-km trek from Charleroi to Huy. A total of eight climbs awaited them, among them the notorious Mur de Huy, which had to be tackled three times. ich dreimal. Nur 170 m lang, dafür aber mit einer Steigung von bis zu 25 Prozent stellte sie sich den Fahrern im Finale ein letztes Mal in den Weg.

The peloton set out on Wednesday morning from Charleroi in mild and calm conditions and the attacks started, almost from the gun. A two-man breakaway group consisting of Frenchman Frederic Finot and Spaniard José Luis Arrieta formed at km 30, quickly building up a five-minute lead. After the first of three ascensions of the Mur de Huy, the pair had increased the gap to almost seven minutes.

Ivanov and Kessler active
95 km into the race and Russian Sergey Ivanov launched an attack from the main field, but was reeled in and kept his team mates company in the first third of the peloton again.

A little later, a 14-man chasing group had formed including Matthias Kessler, who soon tried his luck himself at getting clear. However, he was quickly reeled in again by the group, among them Stefano Garzelli (Liquigas), Jens Voigt, Niki Sorensen (both CSC), Paolo Bettini (Quick Step), Markus Fothen (Gerolsteiner) and Jörg Jaksche (Liberty Seguros).

The high pace of the chasers eventually put paid to the escapees Finot and Arrieta – they were caught with 80 km to go. However, the attacks kept coming thick and fast. The Spaniard Oscar Freire (Rabobank) and the Swiss Alexandre Moos got clear and built up a one-minute lead.

Team Liquigas in pursuit
Meanwhile, in the peloton, Liquigas led by defending Champion Danilo di Luca organised the chase work: With seven riders at the front, the Italian team pushed the pace, pegging the fugitive’s lead back to merely half a minute.

With 25 km to go, the magenta team had four riders riding aggressively at the front of the pack: Matthias Kessler, Patrik Sinkewitz, Steffen Wesemann and Sergey Ivanov all looked good and prepared for the finale at the Mur de Huy.

Once more it was Ivanov, who attacked, albeit without success. At the front, Alexandre Moos had to let go, leaving Oscar Freire alone up fronted. However, the Spaniard was soon running out of steam and swallowed by the peloton at last.

Valverde’s gutsy attack
Things got messy in the finale: At first it was once more Kessler, who plucked up his courage, racing at the front together with Igor Astarloa, Paolo Bettini and Valverde. When their escape proved short-lived, Patrik Sinkewitz tried his luck, with Tour runner-up Ivan Basso (CSC) holding his wheel.

A leading group of 20 riders finally tackled the feared Mur de Huy, containing the favorites like Bettini Schleck, di Luca, Valverde and Astarloa as well as three T-Mobile riders in the shape of Kessler, Ivanov and Sinkewitz.

In a perfectly timed attack, the explosive Valverde took the victory.

"We rode a strong race today and kept on attacking in order to put ouselves in a good position“, said Patrik Sinkewitz post-race. "It wasn’t enough to win, unfortunately, but we can be satisfied with our performance just the same“.