LIÈGE- BASTOGNELIÈGE FEMMES
28.04.19
2The Belgian region of Wallonia has historically had far less interaction with the Netherlands than Flanders. These territories have been fought over and changed allegiances (and even formed part of the same nation, temporarily), but the cultural divide is wide – Flanders, to the north, shares a language with the
Netherlands, but the Walloons speak French. The evidence is in the immigration figures – while the Dutch form by far the largest foreign national group in Flanders with three times more migrants than the next country, Poland, they are only the ninth largest in Wallonia, 0.2 per cent of the population.
However, the Dutch occupied 100 per cent of the podium in Wallonia’s biggest one-day race, with Van Vleuten winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège ahead of Floortje Mackaij and Demi Vollering. Van Vleuten attacked off the back of a long leadout into the hardest climb of the race, La Redoute, with 30km to go. Nobody could stay with her, and she turned the rest of the race, including the final climb of the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons, into an individual time trial. Trek-Segafredo looked like the most ambitious of her rivals, but the chasers could do no more than hold the gap to Van Vleuten. By the finish, she was a minute and a half clear.
The quirk of the women’s version of Liège is that it starts in Bastogne, but by calling it Bastogne-Liège, it would lose the all-important branding that contributes to the event’s cachet.
You could lengthen the race, but the impression remains that the result would probably be the same. On a hilly course in a one-day race, Van Vleuten is on her own, far ahead.