Liège–Bastogne–Liège 2013

The road

At the start

La Doyenne without a favourite

Liège, the oldest race in cycling, and nobody can say who wins it. Philippe Gilbert carries the rainbow bands and a spring that has not gone to plan; Moreno arrives off Flèche Wallonne, Rodríguez still mending after his Amstel crash. Garmin have Dan Martin and Ryder Hesjedal, who had this race between them a year ago and made nothing of it. The Roche aux Faucons has gone to roadworks; the Colonster replaces it.

How it was won

1. 1217 km to go

   Fourteen minutes for six men

   It takes ten kilometres of attacking under a grey Liège sky before six riders are allowed to go: Armée, De Clercq, Jérôme, Lang, Veuchelen and Fumeaux. The bunch is so unbothered that by the forty-fourth kilometre the gap is fourteen minutes, and it takes Katusha coming to the front to stop it growing.

2. 294 km to go

   Stockeu breaks the break

   A thousand metres at twelve per cent past Eddy Merckx's stele, and the six are six no longer: Pirmin Lang comes off the back and spends the next ten kilometres crawling his way back on. Behind, the peloton has finally started to take the day seriously, and the lead is down to 5:29.

3. 376 km to go

   Saxo strike at the top of the race

   The Col du Rosier is the highest road of the day at 565 metres, and it is where Saxo-Tinkoff decide to make it hurt: Mads Christensen and Chris Anker Sørensen go off the front of the bunch. Fifteen more seconds come off the break, then more, and more — and by the Maquisard, Armée is gone and the six are five.

4. 438 km to go

   La Redoute, and the day catches fire

   The escape has nothing left — a minute and a half after Mont-Theux, and shrinking. On a left-hand bend before the climb Andrey Amador goes down and takes a knot of Cofidis riders with him, which is the worst possible news for Alejandro Valverde. Then the Redoute: Jérôme goes, David López and Jakob Fuglsang go with him, and Liège finally becomes a bike race.

5. 516 km to go

   Hesjedal will not sit still

   Contador has the front of the race and the world champion cannot go with him — Philippe Gilbert, in rainbow, is simply not there. Pierre Rolland threatens and is hauled back before the summit. And then Ryder Hesjedal, who is supposed to be riding for somebody else, attacks the group before the top and throws himself down the far side as if the descent owed him something. Twenty seconds, and BMC and Astana are scrambling. Behind him, in the bunch, Dan Martin follows wheels and says nothing.

6. 65 km to go

   Caught, and still driving

   Betancur, Valverde, Martin, Rodríguez and Scarponi come up to Hesjedal on the Saint-Nicolas. A caught man is entitled to sit up; instead the Canadian stays on the front and keeps the six of them clear of everything behind.

7. 7At the line

   Ans belongs to Dan Martin

   Up the long drag into Ans, with a few hundred metres left, Dan Martin comes past Joaquim Rodríguez and does not come back. A first Classic for the Irishman — and two Garmin cards, played over the last twenty kilometres, that finally came good.

The result