Liège–Bastogne–Liège 2010

The road

At the start

Schleck wears number one at the Doyenne

The ninety-sixth Doyenne, Place Saint-Lambert to the drag up to Ans, and roadworks force ASO to swap the Haute-Levée and the Vecquée for the Col du Rosier and the Maquisard. Andy Schleck wears number one in Luxembourg colours, all of Saxo Bank around him. Evans rides in rainbow, Contador and Valverde have come north, Vinokourov has flown in from Trentino — and Gilbert carries a Belgian drought running back to 1999.

How it was won

1. 152 km to go

   Devenyns cracks the break

   Just over fifty kilometres from Ans, Dries Devenyns decides he has had enough company and rides the rest of the day's escape off his wheel on Mont-Theux. Over the top he has fifty seconds, and behind him HTC, Rabobank and Omega Pharma start throwing riders up the road in anticipation of La Redoute.

2. 238 km to go

   La Redoute, and nobody blinks

   At the foot of the most famous wall in the Ardennes everything is together again, Devenyns swallowed. The favourites climb it watching each other and doing nothing at all; it is the lieutenants who race. Over the top Agnoli, Barredo, Ten Dam, Martin and Garzelli slip away while their leaders let them go.

3. 328 km to go

   Ten Dam alone in front

   Laurens ten Dam sheds the last of his companions and rides for the Roche aux Faucons on his own. Serguei Ivanov comes across the gap in pursuit and gets it down to twenty-eight seconds — no further.

4. 420 km to go

   Fireworks on the Roche aux Faucons

   Nine hundred metres at nearly ten per cent, and the race that has been waiting all afternoon finally goes off. Andy Schleck and Philippe Gilbert attack together and go past Ivanov and Ten Dam as though the two of them were parked; Alberto Contador drags himself across to make it three, the defending champion, the Belgian and the Tour winner clear on the steepest road of the day. It is the move that should win Liège — and over the summit the road flattens, the bunch swarms, and the three of them are swallowed whole.

5. 517 km to go

   Vinokourov slips away on the descent

   With seventeen kilometres left, while everyone else is still counting the cost of the climb, Alexandre Vinokourov goes on the way down it. Alexandr Kolobnev is the only rider quick enough to read it, and the two of them are gone. Gilbert, Valverde and Evans set off after them; the field concedes a minute.

6. 66 km to go

   Saint-Nicolas splits everything

   Thirty seconds in hand on the last wall. Vinokourov jumps near the summit; Kolobnev refuses to break and hauls him back on the descent. Behind, Valverde attacks the chase, Gilbert answers, drops both his companions and closes to within twenty-two seconds. It is as near as anyone gets.

7. 7At the line

   The drag up to Ans

   Inside the last kilometre, on the long rise into Ans, Vinokourov opens the sprint and Kolobnev has nothing to answer with: six seconds, and a second Doyenne five years after the first. Alejandro Valverde takes the scrap for third at 1:04 — a result the Court of Arbitration for Sport will later annul, which is why the podium reads Gilbert.

The result