True to form, Guillaume Boivin (Israel-Premier Tech) was at the service of his leader Michael Woods during another outing in the Ardennes. On Sunday in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Boivin allowed his Ottawa teammate to finish in 12th place after hard work on the day’s many climbs.
Belgian Remco Evenepoel (Soudal – Quick Step) broke away from the peloton with 30 kilometers to go and rode straight to victory for the second year in a row at La Doyenne. Behind him, everything was possible for second place.
Woods was ultimately unable to battle for the second step of the podium, instead finding himself in a small group of nine riders a little further back and eventually taking 12th place.
“It was a good day for us, Mike [Woods] was in great shape. He found himself out of position before the ascent of the Côte de la Redoute, but he worked hard to get back into the group for second place,” commented Boivin in an interview with Sportcom.
It was finally the Briton Thomas Pidcock (INEOS Grenadiers) who took second place by sprinting ahead of the Colombian Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain – Victorious), both 1 minute 6 seconds behind Evenepoel.
For his part, Boivin made the decision not to finish the event. However, he says he is very satisfied with the work done by his team over the past month in the various classics.
“The whole team rode really well, we were ‘in the game’. Everything is played at the end of the race, sometimes it goes in our favor and sometimes not. On the other hand, we can be proud of our day and our spring. It was a whole month of April and we delivered the goods. »
Boivin will now take a few days off before resuming training for his participation in the Tour de Suisse on June 11.
Earlier in the day, the seventh edition of the women’s section of Liège-Bastogne-Liège was won by the Dutch Demi Vollering (SD Worx) as she won in the sprint ahead of the Italian Elisa Longo Borghini ( Trek–Segafredo).
Olivia Baril (UAE ADQ) was the best among the Quebec women, finishing the day in 65th place. The athlete from Rouyn-Noranda worked for her teammates Silvia Persico and Erica Magnaldi up to the Côte de la Redoute.
While expectations were high for the two Italians, a failed attempt to enter a breakaway seemed to dash all their hopes of victory as the other favorites took the lead.
“I did my job well for Silvia [Persico], at the 60th kilometer where there was a very technical part and I was really exhausted for the rest. Unfortunately we weren’t able to come back as we would have liked, Silvia felt a little less fit today and she wasn’t able to put all the rubber in the end of the race,” said she explained.
Not far behind Baril, Clara Émond (Arkéa Pro Cycling, 14 minutes 41 seconds) and Magdeleine Vallières-Mill (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB, 14 minutes, 55 seconds) finished 67th and 71st respectively.
It was also the second World Tour race of Clara Émond’s career, who was extremely happy to have the chance to make her debut in this Monument of cycling, even if the race was not easy. .
“When I found out that Liège-Bastogne-Liège was on my schedule, I was really excited. I suffered a head injury last week during a race in France and felt that I was not completely healed today. I rode alone for a long time, it was difficult, but I’m happy to have pushed until the end,” said Émond.
Finally, Gabrielle Pilote Fortin (Cofidis) was unable to complete the race.
