The Cycling Disciple

Given the typical profile of a rider competing at Liege-Bastogne-Liege, sprinting isn't usually their forte - unless your name is Michael Matthews - and so an attack before the final climb could prove pivotal for a rider to get the better of outright favourite Alejandro Valverde. Alejandro Valverde dedicated his 2017 win at Liege-Bastonge-Liege to the late Michele Scarponi Photo credit: roadcyclinguk.com Liege-Bastogne-Liege is littered with short climbs, some not even categorised, but it'll likely be the penultimate ascent of the day, the Cote de Saint-Nicolas at 6km to go, that produces the race defining move if one of the following five wants to avoid a sprint finish. If 6km proves too far out after 252km of racing though, a punchy attack on the finale in Ans may be the only chance to stop Valverde equaling Eddy Merckx's tally of five wins at La Doyenne - it was Alaphilippe's strong attack on the brutal Mur de Huy in the final kilometre that prevented the Spa...

Tim Wellens attacked in the last 10km and stayed clear over the final climb to win a poignant De Brabantse Pijl, the first race after the death of Michael Goolaerts. Tim Wellens salutes Michael Goolaerts Photo credit: nieuws.vtm.be Wellens (Lotto Soudal) attacked the front group with 7.7km to go and  had a comfortable advantage as he came to the flat section after the Schavei climb, and rolled over the line pointing to the sky in tribute to Goolaerts. Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) won the battle for second, followed by Tiesj Benoot (Lotto Soudal), Pieter Serry (Quick-Step Floors) and Jan Tratnik (CCC). The Race Verandas Willems Crelan led the peloton through the neutral zone in tribute to Michael Goolaerts who passed away on Sunday night following a cardiac arrest at Paris-Roubaix. Calvin Watson (Aqua Blue Sport), Tyler Williams (Israel Cycling Academy), Eduard Michael Grosu (Nippo-Vini Fantini-Europa Ovini), Elmar Reinders (Roompot), Dries De Bondt (Verandas Wille...

Paris-Roubaix is such a unique race that invariably it requires a specific style of rider to win it, usually one who's primary role throughout the season is to protect their teammates. Peter Sagan is the bookies favourite for Paris-Roubaix 2018 despite only one classics victory this season at Gent-Wevelgem Photo credit: cyclingnews.com Talking of domestiques, Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors) has been banking credits across the entire classics campaign, working for his teammates in every race bar Dwars door Vlaanderen. You can only imagine this was to curry favour as he takes aim at the 'Queen of the Classics'.  The 35-year old is very much running out of time to win all five monuments - Milan-Sanremo looks like it could evade him - and with Quick-Step claiming all but one Belgian one-day races this season, it could be the best chance he's ever going to have to claim his fourth different monument. In the absence of a favourite lifting the famous cobble ston...

Primoz Roglic won the time trial at the Basque Country for the second successive year to take the yellow jersey from Julian Alaphilippe on stage four. Photo credit: naszosie.pl Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo), one of the favourites for the stage given his performance last year, took 42-seconds out of race leader, Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors), who now sits 34-seconds adrift on general classification. Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) finished ninth on the stage to jump to third on GC, Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hangrohe) came 12th to leap up to fourth, while Gorka Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) dropped to fifth overall. The Stage Remi Cavagna (Quick-Step Floors) set the scorching early benchmark at the first intermediate split but faded catastrophically in the final section. Patrick Bevin (BMC Racing) set the first fast time, notching 22'35" on the 19.4km pan flat out and back course around Lodosa. Team Sky's key time trial men, Vasil Kiryienka, Jonathan Castroviejo and ...

Jay McCarthy lived up to his status as one of the favourites for the more sprinter friendly stage three to take his first ever win in the Basque Country. Jay McCarthy came second twice in last year's edition Photo credit: zikloland.com The Basque Country only very rarely throws up a stage for the faster men and McCarthy (Bora-Hansgrohe) grabbed the opportunity with both hands. While nowhere near flat, the terrain in the final kilometres was manageable for riders of McCarthy's ilk and the Australian proved the strongest as he beat Alexandr Riabushenko (UAE Team Emirates) and Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky). Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb), another favourite for the stage, finished in a disappointing seventh. The Race Stage three took the riders 184.8km south from Bermeo to Valdegovia. With 76km to go, the break - Christopher Juul Jensen (Mitchelton-Scott), Ben King (Dimension Data), Willie Smit (Katusha-Alpecin), Aritz Bagues (Euskadi-Murias), Pavel Sivakov (Team Sky...

Julian Alaphilippe out sprinted a select group of climbers in Bermeo to take his second successive stage win and retain the overall lead of Itzulia Basque Country. Julian Alaphilippe gets the better of Primoz Roglic for the second sprint finish in a row at Itzulia Basque Country 2018 Photo credit: inthebunch.co.za Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors),  Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo), Gorka Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) and Mikel Landa (Movistar) broke clear on the San Pelaio climb with 7km remaining, but following the descent the three climbers never stood a chance against the stronger Frenchman in the sprint. The Race The break didn't go until the first categorised climb of the day with 60km gone in the race. The combination of strong cross winds and the gradients of the category three Natxitua split the peloton, resulting in an unusual breakaway containing a fair number of general classification hopefuls - Carlos Verona (Mitchelton-Scott), Michael Woods (EF Education First-Drapac ...