Last week the Grand Prix de Wallonie 2011 took place between Chaudfontaine and the citadel of Namur. Big favorite Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) was without much surprise the winner of this race. Today I suggest you to discover some images which have never been shown before of this race, from the start to the finish passing in the middle of the peloton and close to the leading group of this Belgian race, in this article!
203.1 kilometers separated Chaudfontaine from the final climb towards the citadel of Namur. The short climbs at several places in this race allowed several leading groups to be created with especially the one with 11 riders who left the peloton quite early and the one, more dangerous, with Thomas Voeckler (Team Europcar), which left at 25 kilometers from the finish. He got company from 7 other riders including Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team), Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R La Mondiale), Steve Chainel (FDJ) and Stefan Denifl (Team Leopard-Trek).
When this group had a 35 seconds lead at 10 kilometers from the finish, the riders of the Omega Pharma-Lotto team of Philippe Gilbert seriously started chasing. Since the leading group didn't really work quite well together either - the other riders in the breakaway probably were afraid they wouldn't be able to beat the leader of the Europcar team at the finish - the gap quickly disappeared and the leading group was thus taken back by the peloton at 3 kilometers from the finish.
The local boy, Philippe Gilbert, placed his attack, in his very own way, in the final climb at the last kilometer sign and no one was able to follow him. He finished 2 seconds ahead of the peloton in which Julien Simon (Saur-Sojasun) took the second place, leaving the third place to Björn Leukemans (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team).
The video of the Grand Prix de Wallonie 2011
Watch all this in this video with images which have never been shown before!
Rodania, the car opening the race
In Belgian races there are several cars which announce the race passing by, with an "attention" sign, the word race and a red flag. In most of the cases this car is a Rodania car, a watches brand.
This was also the case in the Grand Prix de Wallonie 2011 and it was the last race for Alphonse Detré. That's why, and also to show it to one of the readers of this website (she'll recognise herself) the video below is dedicated to this remarkable car and its typical music ...
by Thomas Vergouwen
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