SAME OLD WINNERS
The 2017 Classics saw some familiar and experienced faces at the front
Amstel Gold Race may have attracted plaudits for its route change and for the inventive and aggressive tactics of Quick-Step Floors rider Philippe Gilbert in winning it, but it was business as usual at Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Alejandro Valverde’s astonishing run of spring form continued with wins in both races. It was his fifth career win in Flèche and his fourth in Liège. It was also the third time he has won both races in the same season – he did so in 2015 and 2006. (Even though Gilbert also took his Amstel win total up to four, just one off the record held by Jan Raas, there was less of a feeling of déjà-vu among fans – with the end of the race completely revamped, the Dutch race felt much fresher.) Flèche and Liège have been attracting criticism for their formulaic structure for many years now. There has been a slow-motion, albeit absorbing and exciting sprint up the Mur de Huy to settle Flèche every year since 2004. Liège has had it a little better – the race is often settled on the final drag up to the line in Ans, but there have been muchreduced groups and even individuals escaping to win, though that scenario hasn’t happened since Maxim Iglinskiy won in 2012. Valverde’s 2017 victory was a typical example of the genre: he made one move, to chase Dan Martin down in the finishing sprint, and since he is the best hilly sprinter in the world, with a team strong and motivated enough to get him to the finish, it was unsurprising that he passed Martin and won. But the hilly Classics weren’t just a working example of how stale route design leads to predictable racing and the same winners year in, year out. They were also a demonstration of the current power structure in one-day racing, in some cases with interesting ramifications for both hilly and cobbled races in future. By adding Amstel Gold to his Tour of Flanders title, Philippe Gilbert won two of the five most prestigious spring Classics. He also instigated a rare reunification of the cobbled and hilly Classics. Riders have tended to focus on one or the other –
If you consider the eight biggest spring Classics, there were only four winners across them
in recent years Greg Van Avermaet and Micha ¯ Kwiatkowski have dabbled in both, for example, but not to the extent of winning one of each in the same season. It had been widely considered that Gilbert’s best chances in Flanders had been and gone, and his focus on the Ardennes during his years at BMC meant that he rarely got the chance to double up. Though Gilbert is an exception – he’s good at races which finish on a climb – riders who previously considered themselves better at Flanders and the cobbled events may now look at the new Amstel parcours, see that attacking enterprise can now be as useful as finishing punch, and broaden their targets. Likewise, riders who have previously contended at Amstel may look at Flanders with fresh eyes, although the journey in this direction is more complicated than the other way round: it’s easier for a cobbles natural to translate his ability to a one-day race with short, steep hills than for a puncheur to learn to ride the cobbles.
Valverde had to show less versatility in his Classics wins, although his previous successes in the Basque Country and Catalonia demonstrated his all-round ability, in case anybody was in doubt. The Spanish rider’s rivals in the Ardennes might have thought he would slow down years ago, but they have had to keep watching his back wheel disappearing up the road. Given how easily he won Flèche and Liège, it’s not difficult to imagine him winning either or both again next year.
If there was one theme in the Classics, both cobbled and hilly, in 2017, it was that a select few riders dominated affairs. If you consider the eight biggest spring Classics – San Remo, E3, Wevelgem, the Ronde, Roubaix, Amstel, Flèche and Liège – there were only four winners across them. Six or seven is more typical, and in 2014, each race had a different winner. (Kwiatkowski took Milan-San Remo and Greg Van Avermaet won E3, Wevelgem and Roubaix this year.) There was also a theme of experienced riders winning. Van Avermaet has just turned 32, Gilbert is almost 35 and Valverde is 37. There has been a lot of talk of the young generation of riders, headed by Peter Sagan, taking over, but the 2017 Classics largely went to the same riders who’ve been winning them for years.