Philippe Gilbert took the Ardennes Triple by winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège in a three-up sprint against the Schleck brothers Fränk and Andy. The trio went after the break of the day on the penultimate climb, the côte de la Roche aux Faucons. The three arrived on the finishing straight together, with Andy trying to put his brother Fränk into the position to win, but Gilbert's sprint was irresistible. Fränk came in second and Andy was third.
The winner was a little exhausted after the 255 kilometers. "I need some air!" he said as he was crowded in by the media. After a few minutes, he had at least his air back. "I have no words to explain this. It is the best day in my sports career. I appreciate every moment." He enjoyed going up the steep climb of La Redoute. "It was a crazy ambiance up there. It is 'magnifique'."
Frank Schleck was disappointed with how things turned out, but accepted that they could do little. "Philippe was simply the strongest...we said we didn't want to reach the finish with him, but we couldn't drop him. We have to be satisfied with what we did. He was unbeatable today."
Last year's winner Alexandre Vinokourov was riding the race for the final time. He hoped to do something, but lost out to Gilbert, a rider who he has described as the strongest classics rider this spring. The Astana leader had bad luck, breaking his derailleur in the decisive part of the race. "I exchanged bikes with [Maxim] Iglinsky, they were about the same size." But the Kazakh rider, who had won twice here before, was unable to mount a comeback.
Ten-man break rides through sunny Belgium
A first break attempt by Sébastien Delfosse (Landbouwkrediet), Jesus Herrada Lopez (Movistar) and David Le Lay (AG2R) came after only three kilometers. Ten kilometers down the road, they were joined by Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana), Eduard Vorganov (Katusha), Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil), Tony Gallopin (Cofidis), Mickaël Delage (Française des Jeux) and Yannick Talabardon (Saur-Sojasun). Mathias Frank (BMC) was the last to join, yielding a ten-man breakaway.
After almost 50 kilometers, the gap was 3'15. It slightly dropped down under three minutes, but atop the first climb of the day, the côte de Saint-Roch, the gap was back up at 3'20. The pace was brisk, with the first two hours ridden at an average speed of 42 km/h. The leaders came to the turnaround point in Bastogne (km 101) with an advantage of 3'40. Omega-Pharma Lotto was controlling the pace, keeping the gap at something more manageable than the 17 minutes at Flèche Wallonne.
When the final approached with the côte de Wanne, 98 kilometers from the finish, the gap hovered around the four-minute mark. On Stockeu, individuals, like Lars-Peter Nordhaug, Johnny Hoogerland or Preben van Hecke, made moves. But the Leopard-Trek team took over the work on the front and reeled these efforts back in.
The work reduced to gap to one and a half minutes, with Le Lay, Delage and Talabardon dropping back from the front. On the Côte de la Haute-Levée, a counter move formed with Enrico Gasparotto, Juan Manuel Garate, Dario Cataldo, Jérôme Pineau, Damiano Caruso, Laurens Ten Dam, Kanstantsin Siutsou, Blel Kadri, Greg Van Avermaet. Through the second feed zone in Stavelot, with 85 kilometers to go, the chase group was 40 seconds behind the leaders and 45 seconds ahead of the peloton.
Herrada, Frank, Gallopin, Vorganov and De Gendt emerged on the front after the Col du Rosier. But their gap to the chasers dropped constantly and with 63 kilometers to go, the groups merged. The peloton was around a minute behind.
For twenty kilometers, the peloton was contend to let the gap slowly go up to one and a half minutes. With the col de la Redoute approaching, Leopard-Trek took responsibility, as the gap had gone up to a maximum of 1'43.
On la Redoute, the gap reduced constantly, with Fuglsang pulling the group. At the top, the break - reduced to seven riders - was only 45 seconds ahead. The front runners were Gasparotto, Pineau, Van Avermaet, Garate, Ten Dam, Kadri and Siutsou continued ahead. Behind, Omega-Pharma Lotto and Leopard Trek entered into some discussions, with Euskaltel-Euskadi ending up doing some of the chase work. With 30km to go, the gap was 30 seconds.
With the peloton still undecided on who was to do how much work, the gap opened up again to 45 seconds with 26 kilometers to go. Leopard-Trek realized that Omega-Pharma Lotto was using its recent string of successes to not put any work in at this point. Fuglsang and Monfort took over for the Luxembourg team to try to get the break back.
On the penultimate climb, the côte de la Roche aux Faucons, Gasparotto and Van Avermaet took off from the break. Behind, the Schlecks jumped with Gilbert in tow. All three traded turns on the front, quickly reaching the leaders. Pineau had moved back up to Gasparotto and Van Avermaet just before the top. The six men started the descent with around half a minute on the chasers. On the next false flat, Gasparotto and Pineau had to let go, while Van Avermaet hung on to the three superstars with ease.
The gap to the peloton came as close as 24 seconds, but with 12 kilometers to go, the elastic had snapped. As they passed the soccer stadium from Standard de Liège, the gap was 40 seconds.
Gilbert attacked towards the top of the St Nicolas, dropping Van Avermaet and Andy Schleck. Fränk Schleck sat on Gilbert's wheel and with five kilometers to go, Andy was back. The trio reached the finishing straight together, where Gilbert made his decisive move to the joy of the home crowd.