Alejandro Valverde won the prestigious Liege-Bastogne-Liege one-day classic on Sunday, nine years after he first triumphed at ‘La Doyenne’.
And while the competition has changed over the last nine years, one name remains the same on the honours lists in the three Ardennes Classics, which include Amstel Gold and Fleche-Wallonne.
“In the end, more than cycling changing, it’s the generation that has changed,” said the 35-year-old.
“In 2006 it was (Paolo) Bettini, Andy Schleck, (Damiano) Cunego and other riders, now it’s (Julian) Alaphilippe, and Purito (Joaquim Rodriguez) who’s still there.”
Valverde outsprinted Alaphilippe, who took second place behind the Spaniard for the second time in four days, and Rodriguez at the end of the 253km ‘Monument’ race.
But before then he had to haul back an attack from Rodriguez’s Katusha teammate Dani Moreno, who had opened a gap on the final climb into the finish at Ans.
“It was a tough attack from Moreno but this is a long race and it had been a fast race. I kept an eye on the gap but it was clear that everyone was waiting for me to close it,” added Valverde.
“I was managing the gap and with 600m to go I resolved to close it. I caught him but I still held back something for the sprint finish.”
Rodriguez has so often missed out on the big victories and he was clearly frustrated at the end.
He has seven top four finishes in Grand Tours, has twice finished on the podium at the world championships and a host of high finishes at one-day classics.
But two wins at the Giro di Lombardia, one at Fleche and stage race wins at the Tours of Catalonia (2010, 2014), Burgos (2011) and the Basque Country (2015) don’t make up for the many near misses in more prestigious races.
“First of all, it’s really difficult, almost impossible to beat Valverde in a sprint finish,” he moaned.
“Today he raced in a very intelligent way, as always, he controlled the distance (to breakaways).
“At Fleche we (Katusha) didn’t attack at the right time and we were disappointed about that. Today, when I saw Dani attack, I was delighted because I thought he had the legs to make it.”
He added: “But if it had been me in Dani’s place, I might have been able to hold on.”
– Empty glass –
Although he was fourth at Fleche and took another high finish at Liege, Rodriguez, whose only Ardennes victory was the 2012 Fleche, took no consolation.
“I see the glass as totally empty. I was here in great form but I didn’t win. It’s the race I like the most but it’s very difficult to win and once again I’ve missed out on a possibility of winning it.
“It’s true that I worked well with the team but I leave bitter.”
At just 22-years of age, Alaphilippe has been a revelation in the Ardennes where he was supposed to be working for world champion and Etixx-Quick Step teammate Michal Kwiatkowski.
He was seventh at Amstel Gold, where Kwiatkowski won, but outdid his teammate by taking second in Fleche and Liege.
And he suggested that with reversed roles, things might have been different.
“Today my role was very much to accompany Michal Kwiatkowski for as long as possible, which we (Etixx) did perfectly,” said the Frenchman.
“(Zdenek) Stybar did great work on the front of the peloton at the end to control breakaways and we had three riders at the front in the final 15km.
“I put in a lot of effort on the Saint-Nicolas climb in the final kilometres to chase the breakaways and it was only at the end that I realised I was the last one (for the team).”