Hear from Mattias Skjelmose and Niamh-Fisher Black before the fourth Monument of the season
It’s time for the final act. The cobbles of Flanders and Roubaix are a distant memory and the curtain has been drawn on the punchy bergs that make up the Amstel Gold Race and Flèche Wallonne. All attention now turns to Sunday and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the oldest one-day race in cycling history. As the fourth of the Monuments, La Doyenne (The Old Lady), is characterised by its extreme, mountainous and gruelling route through the Belgian Ardennes. Only the strongest will survive.
Riders who excel in Liège are those who relish the succession of short steep climbs, such as the Côte de la Redoute and Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons, which define the second half of this bike race. With over 4000 metres of climbing in the men’s race and 2500 metres in the women’s, Liège is always a war of attrition. It is the crown jewel of the spring Classics season, and anyone who adds their name to the list of winners will be classed as bike racing royalty.
Image: Anouk Flesch
Both Lidl-Trek’s men’s and women’s teams can take confidence heading into Liège-Bastogne-Liège after the Ardennes classics week so far. On the men’s side, Mattias Skjelmose has impressed with a second place at Amstel and fifth place in Flèche. The 25-year-old is perfectly-suited to the repeated, explosive efforts that these Belgian ascents require and has proven his quality here every year. Alongside Skjelmose, our men’s squad also has options with Giulio Ciccone who finished second in Liège last season, and Matteo Sobrero who comes from a strong second place finish on the queen stage of Tour of the Alps.
Skjelmose commented:
We're looking forward to the race. We've been here in the Ardennes for eight, nine days now and it's all been a build-up for the last showdown of the spring here in the air. I can take confidence from the last two races too, I think both for me personally and as a team. Ciccone and Matteo are joining us and I think it's going to be super nice for the group to make us do the final push and finish this week strongly. Cicco was second here last year so we have a lot we can do.
Photo: Anouk Flesch
Niamh Fisher-Black is expected to lead our women’s team for the tenth edition of Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes. The Kiwi climber has already had a solid start to the season with top-10 finishes at Strade Bianche and Flèche Wallonne, and she also finished in seventh place at Liège last year. Alongside Fisher-Black, Isabella Holmgren proved her quality at Flèche Wallonne earlier this week where she came ninth despite a relative lack of experience in these Classics. The likes of Riejanne Markus and Lucinda Brand will be crucial road captains, sharing their experience with the younger riders on the squad, while Shirin van Anrooij and Loes Adegeest will be on the look out for early breakaways.
Niamh Fisher-Black said ahead of the race:
We're optimistic going into Sunday’s race. I am a bit hungry because I've had a lot of bad luck the last couple of races. I hope that everything can go well on Sunday and I can actually show my legs. I think we have actually have a really strong team so I think there is an opportunity and we can do something nice. The best way to do it is to play all our cards and make some chaos because it's a really hard race, and it's always open.
