Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Inge's Flag

We come in at 103km to go: and almost immediately I'm reminded of Inge's fabulous story about Lars Boom having a puncture, frantically waiting for the new wheel and being accosted by a fan asking for his signature. "Dude, I'm racing!" he said.  At 103km to go we see Lars Boom at the front of the chasing group, clearly telling the camera bike to get out of the way.   All together now:

"Dude, I'm leading!"

It's early days, but I spot a small collection of RaNT jerseys near the front of the peloton; but it is Shack, or are they Leopards?  I still worry about them not pulling together as a team.

Suddenly, the race speed picks up, the gap is dropping, it's all getting very exciting and then we cut to an interview with Rodriguez, and then an interview with Frankie. "I have done a lot of training," says Frankie, looking rather like Andy ie dour and non-smiley:  "and a lot of sack fighting."

Huh? Is this a new training regime? I used to do this on horseback, we would half-fill a sack with straw and try to knock each other off with it: and if anyone dropped it, it was a free-for-all until someone else had picked it up - without getting out of the saddle of course. But I can't quite imagine Andy and Frankie galloping around their lake on horses...

Perhaps he meant lots of sacrifices?

I am nearly as puzzled by this as by the rather unusual step of stopping the race in order to have interviews, until we realise that there are serious problems with the footage, and they have lost the picture. We are being shown interviews from earlier in the day, and pictures of the start (oh look, there's Andy,  "Hi, Andy!" as he waits on the line) until such time as we can get the pictures back.

Oh dear, the pictures are back, but we have already seen this footage, except that the first time around, we had a commentary to go with it. We hear David Harmon's voice apologising that they can't hear anything from the race, so they don't know if they are commentating to us, or have been cut off for an advert break or for interviews. Then, for quite some time, we get race pictures and race sounds, but no commentary.

Well! I will never again criticise the commentators: watching a race without a commentary is pretty damn dull!

LLB and I, predictably, start making our own commentary, but before it gets too silly, we get David Harmon back. He clearly still doesn't know if we are hearing him or not, and we suspect that he can't see the race footage, as he's giving a lecture on how racing has changed in the last year, with no more long breaks: the teams now try to keep their squad together, in order to get as many men as possible into the top 10 in order to get UCI points.

I have been saying this for the last year!!!  I guess it's good to know that other people are now realising it as well.

80km to go and we are now getting French commentary. Huh? Oh that's better, we're back to no commentary at all. LLB and I start making it up again.

LLB: "Aaaaand Sammy Sanchez  has made it back to the peloton."
Me: "Oh, well done Sammy. Do you think his forehead hurts when he wrinkles it like that?"
LLB: "Aaaaand the peloton are slowing down: they are adjusting their hats and taking off their gilets."
Me: "Foolishly, it would appear, as there are black clouds up ahead."
LLB: "Mmmm, you might be right. There certainly seems to be some weather coming up."
Me: "Aaaaaand Jensi is on the front of the peloton! The speed is picking up! Go Jensi!"
(LLB gives me a Look, as I am getting a bit over-excited. I sit back down again.)

Thankfully, the proper commentary returns, just as we see Andy ("Hi, Andy!") at the back of the peloton. What's he doing there? Did he go back to the car? Comfort break? No one knows.....

Once again the race footage is interrupted for an interview, but this one is with Andy *sits up straight on the sofa and pays attention*. Oh dear, he's very "down" again. He says that he is working for Frankie and for Chris Horner, as he is concentrating on July. Not a single smile, no twinkle in his eyes. Oh dear.

There we go, told you so, it's raining: jackets are going on, arm warmers are being rolled up and Sean Kelly comments on the number of winter gloves being worn.

Incidentally, am I the only one to find it hilarious when they roll up their arm warmers but don't quite get them aligned properly with the sleeves of their jerseys? It's that little flash of bare skin, it always makes me laugh. Possibly the proximity to the legs is what makes it funny: there's a subliminal "stocking top" feel to it.

We see Gilbert, very relaxed, at the car, swapping his specs and picking up some arm warmers. I don't particularly like Gilbert, for no real reason, but I'm starting to feel very sorry for him, as he must be under so much pressure to perform this year. But no-one can have a season like the one he had last year, and then repeat it, surely? Years like 2011 are rare things: he had a stormer of a season and won nearly every race he entered! But now he's been bought by a new team, and they are clearly expecting some return for their money, so I expect he is feeling the pressure.

Mind you, it's not all bad news: so far Gilbert has 72 UCI points, that is twice as much as the entire SaxoBank team...

Anyway, Gilbert, relaxed, taking his time to wrap up the arms: well no wonder, he has a team-mate at the front of the peloton who is doing a very good impression of someone pulling the peloton, whereas actually he is dawdling along in order to keep it easy for Gilbert to get back into it.

It takes a while, but eventually the other teams realise this, and push on past the BMC guy. Suddenly a SaxoBank rider pings off the front! Is he doing this for sponsor-time? Or is it a desperate effort to get points? Yes, Saxo still have only 32 points. Fancy, that's half as many as Gilbert has, all by himself.

At 41k to go we get a nice shot from the front of the peloton, with Frankie in his black coat and Andy ("Hi, Andy!" ) just in front of him. LLB says "They look miserable." Don't they all! There are lots of wet muddy bottoms to be seen, where the road spray is rising: suddenly the second-most-popular-sponsor-site is looking like less of an good idea...

AND AT 35k TO GO - INGE'S FLAG!!

Well done, Inge, and wow! it's bigger than I thought it was.  Even LLB was impressed.

Now we're at 25k to go, and the race is starting to hot up: there's a small group chasing the 3-man break, and it almost looks like Andy?  The commentator confirms that it's not Frankie... but clearly he doesn't know who it is, either.

David Harmon is now burbling on about "the industrial heartland of the Liege area." Is he seeing the same pictures as us? We have lush fields, green trees, forests, neat little houses scattered around beside the road: not exactly heavy industry.

As Nibali descends, we get a lovely soft focus effect on the camerabike, where the lens is steaming up from the rain. It persists right through to the end, giving us a very romantic, soft view of the area, and of the final chase.

At 8km to go, the group suddenly slow up, as no-one wants to pull. Now, Andy! Come zooming around the corner behind them! Now! Drat, it doesn't happen, and we get the amazing finish where Nibali just about kills himself, but is thrashed by Iglinsky. I'm really glad that Nibali got second, he certainly deserved it: well, he deserved to win, but there again, Iglinsky deserved it as well, he did a superb job of chasing.

Gilbert wobbles home all along (shame, shame *coughs*)  and I am left to admire the number of Lux flags there are at the line, and to think that I must try and get myself one.