‘Cannibal’ Valverde continues winning streak with Liège-Bastogne-Liège victory

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Alejandro Valverde

Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) won Liège-Bastogne-Liège for the fourth time in his career, overhauling 2013 champion Daniel Martin after the latter made his move inside the final kilometre.

In an emotional interview afterwards a tearful Valverde paid tribute to Michele Scarponi who was killed on Saturday after being hit by a van while training and will donate his €20,000 winning to the former Giro d’Italia winner’s family.

“That was for you Scarponi,” said Valverde after crossing the line at the end of the gruelling 258km race. “He was a very god friend of mine and when I heard the news, it was terrible. All of the prize money is going to his family. The race was unbelievable today, the team did a fantastic job.”

There was a minute of applause before the start of Sunday’s 258-km race in memory of Scarponi, with his Astana team mates wearing black armbands.

Italian Davide Formolo attacked at the top of the penultimate climb, the Cote de Saint-Nicolas, and opened a 10-second gap over a group of some 20, but he faded with a kilometre to go.

Martin sped away from the leading group but there was no stopping Valverde, who added to his Tour of Murcia, Tour of Catalonia, Tour of Andalucia, Tour of the Basque Country and Fleche Wallonne titles.


Liege-Bastogne-Liege 2017 results:

1Alejandro Valverde (Movistar)

6:24:27

2Daniel Martin (Quick-Step Floors)

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3Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky)

+03”

4Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb)

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5Jon Izaguirre (Bahrain Merida)

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6Romain Bardet (AG2R)

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7Michael Albasini (Orica-Scott)

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8Adam Yates (Orica-Scott)

+07”

9Michael Woods (Cannondale-Drapac)

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10Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe)

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11Greg Van Avermaet (BMC)

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12Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R)

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13Sergio Henao (Team Sky)

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14Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates)

+10”

15Jakob Fuglsang (Astana)

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16Fabio Felline (Trek-Segafredo)

+14”

17Rudy Molard (FDJ)

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18Julien Simon (Cofidis)

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19Jelle Vanendert (Lotto Soudal)

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20Patrick Konrad (Bora-hansgrohe)

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