Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2017: Valverde powers to his fourth Doyenne

Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2017: Valverde powers to his fourth ‘Doyenne’

This year's Liège-Bastogne-Liège amounts to 258 kilometres, while the route takes in ten hills. Dan Martin attacks in the ultimate kilometre before Alejandro Valverde crosses over to sprint to victory. Martin comes in second, Kwiatkowski in third. (Slideshow route/profile)

Results Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2017

1. Alejandro Valverde (spa)
2. Daniel Martin (irl) s.t.
3. Michal Kwiatkowski (pol) + 0.03
4. Michael Matthews (aus) s.t.
5. Ion Izagirre (spa) s.t.
6. Romain Bardet (fra) s.t.
7. Michael Albasini (swi) s.t.
8. Adam Yates (gbr) + 0.07
9. Michael Woods (can) s.t.
10. Rafal Majka (pol) s.t.

Race report
After a tribute to Michele Scarponi the race begins with a Thomas De Gendt attack. He is brought back at km 5 before a group of eight riders sets off. Bart De Clercq, Nick van der Lijke, Tiago Machado, Anthony Perez, Stéphane Rossetto, Mekseb Debesay, Aaron Gate and Fabien Grellier race to a maximum lead of more than 13 minutes over the peloton. Debesay is dropped when the riders enter the hilly zone.

Atop Col du Maquisard Pierre Latour goes on the counter-attack along with Betancur, Benedetti, Haas, Fraile, Brambilla and De Marchi, yet they are brought back on La Redoute. Meanwhile Perez is alone in the lead, while his team mate Rossetto bridges over on Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons to leave him alone. A little later a group with Wellens, Vuillermoz, Vilella, Caruso, Konrad, Woods and Kreuziger gobbles up Perez. Oomen bridges over.

Wellens leaves his companions alone with 10 kms remaining. He re-joins Rossetto en they hit Côte de Saint-Nicolas 13 seconds ahead of the main group.

It’s not enough. Formolo takes over and the Italian forges on. Dan Martin jumps across in the last 500 metres, but Valverde latches onto Martin’s wheel and shows now mercy in the ensuing sprint.

Read about the route and start list of the 2017 Liège-Bastogne-Liège.