Liege-Bastogne-Liege 2005

Having had such a nice time following the LBL last year, I'd decided that I had to turn this little trip into an annual event. This year (as last) I didn't feel much up to it on Saturday, though this year it was the tail end of a cold that reduced my enthusiasm. I took a train to Maastricht then cycled along the Maas to Liege. It rained a bit along the way but I really enjoyed the ride, being the second evening ride along that route this year. The peace and quiet of riding as the sun goes down is great. As normal I stayed at the Liege Youth Hostel and the next morning I went into the centre of town and caught the sign-on. The area around where the team buses were all parked was accessible to the public, it was even possible to peer into the buses! At around 10:45am the riders started off and I headed back to the hostel to pick up my bike in order to see some hills. I'd decided that I would wait for the riders at the top of the Cote de la Redoute, a killer hill that I hoped would slow them down a bit, where they weren't supposed to arrive until about 4pm. From Liege to there were a few kilometers of quiet hilly roads. I was still feeling the tail end effects of the cold and by the time I got to the top of the Redoute I was beat! An hour or so later the first riders came through. Vinokourov and Voigt seemed to come off the top at the sorts of speed that I'm capable of on the flat! The chasers were looking pretty knocked by the hill, they never managed to the catch them and Vino won the sprint in Ans to take the race. After the riders came past a French-Belgian TV crew came by asking people to say something, they pointed the camera at me and I tried to mumble something but I think I sounded like a fool, I expect that it got cut out in the edit. Once the last riders past the end of race car signaled the re-opening of the road. I time trailed it to Maastricht, a distance of 45km or so. I got home exhausted shortly before midnight.