ASTANA’S MAXIM IGLINSKIY claimed the gruelling Liège-Bastogne-Liège road race on Sunday, overhauling former Giro champion Vincenzo Nibali on the final climb to claim comfortably the most prestigious title of his seven-year career.
The Kazakh rider, an accomplished time triallist, brought his endurance to bear in the closing stages, conspiring with Flèche Wallonne winner Joaquin Rodriguez to erode Nibali’s advantage. Having laboured alone at the head of proceedings for some time, the Italian proved incapable of responding to Iglinskiy’s challenge.
Passed at the base of the final climb, he made an abortive attempt to take the 31-year-old’s wheel before resigning himself to second place.
Iglinskiy’s teammate Enrico Gasparotto triumphed in a sprint finish to decide the final podium placing, outmanoeuvring a group of high-profile competitors, including Thomas Voeckler (Europcar), Ireland’s Dan Martin (Garmin), Michele Scarponi (Lampre) and Samuel Sánchez (Eustaltel), to cross the line 36 seconds after the Kazakh.
Last year’s winner Philippe Gilbert, of BMC, flagged in the closing kilometres to finish 16th.
Speaking to Eurosport after the race, Iglinskiy credited his team director with the formulation of a winning strategy:
“Well, what I wanted to do was catch up with Nibali and go on with him, but my team director told me he was absolutely exhausted, so I tried to attack, but I myself was very tired. Anyway, I tried to carry on attacking… he was absolutely burnt out. I pushed, and I pushed, and I pushed to victory.”
Ireland’s other competitors, Nicolas Roche and Matt Brammeier, endured difficult days in the saddle. The former finished over 12 minutes adrift of the leaders, while Brammeier, the Irish National Road Race champion, failed to complete the 257km route.
