Wout Poels wins Liège-Bastogne-Liège
Wout Poels produced a perfect ride in poor conditions to win Liège-Bastogne-Liège, achieving Team Sky’s first-ever Monument triumph in the process.
Poels pulled ahead with Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida), Michael Albasini (Orics GreenEdge) and Samuel Sanchez (BMC Raing) as the race crested the penultimate climb, and then kept pace with his rivals on the long drag into Ans.
Once the quartet had rounded the final corner, Poels then unleashed his sprint and held off a late response from Albasini to seal Team Sky’s biggest-ever one-day win.
The victory was also the biggest of Poels’s career and came at the end of a cold, wet and wintery 102nd edition.
Immediately after the race a delighted Sport Director Kurt-Asle Arvesen told TeamSky.com: “The team were on top of everything for the whole day. The clothing and fuelling was crucial and the riders worked together really well. It was a fantastic performance.
“I was really happy to see that we had numbers after the Côte de La Redoute and that meant we could start playing our cards. Lars Petter and Wout said they were feeling good Sebastian and Kwiato were doing a good job for the team.
“Wout then opened up his sprint early at the end and proved beyond any doubt he was the strongest rider in the race. He pulled off an amazing win.”
Liège – Bastogne – Liège 2016 results:
| 1 | Wouter Poels (Sky) |
6:24:29 |
| 2 | Michael Albasini (Swi) Orica-GreenEdge |
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| 3 | Rui Costa (Por) Lampre – Merida |
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| 4 | Samuel Sanchez (BMC) |
+04” |
| 5 | Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) |
+09” |
| 6 | Roman Kreuziger (Tinkoff) |
+12” |
| 7 | Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) |
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| 8 | Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) |
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| 9 | Diego Rosa (Astana) |
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| 10 | Tanel Kangert (Astana) |
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