Mini Liege – The first road stage has started!
Touted as a mini Liege Bastogne Liege, the course covers many of the same roads as the race known as La Doyenne, one of the single day Classics known as a Monument.
The last time these roads were tackled at the Tour was in 2009, easily the worst working day of my Sports Physio career – I was working for the Garmin team at the time.
Broken bones galore, Fabian calling a “go slow” to let Andy Schleck catch back up, Thor complaining about not having the opportunity to work for Green Jersey points, and Johan Van Summeren cheekily making sure Thor didn’t cross the line up the front to give Tyler Farrar every opportunity to win the Green if he was able to ride on.
Good times!
Today the race is lumpy, without being super difficult, and finishes with a very tough final hill.
The fast, strong lads will be to the fore, and hopefully despite the desperation that is always present early in the Tour, there won’t be any major crashes.
My money is for Phillipe Gilbert to win in his home region on the sort of course that he has shown himself to be extremely dominant over the past few years.
Looking forward to seeing if anyone has the power to match him!
