La Flèche Wallonne 2011

Posted on April 20, 2011 by big jonny

Philippe Gilbert is a god damn BALLER!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g6lRr_EdrE[/youtube]

The man has no shortage of fans here at Drunkcyclist.

The Walloon fans of his home region carried Philippe Gilbert up the über-steep Mur de Huy Wednesday as he ran away with his third win in a row. The Omega Pharma-Lotto rider came onto the steepest section of the Mur at the front of the peloton and burst away from his rivals 400 meters from the line at La Flèche Wallonne.

http://velonews.competitor.com/2011/04/news/philippe-gilbert-wins-fleche-wallonne_169539.

What will this weekend bring?

With wins already this year at March’s Montepaschi Strade Bianchi, as well as De Brabanste Pijl and Amstel Gold race in the last seven days, Gilbert hasn’t been defeated in a hilly one-day race this season. Liège-Bastogne-Liège looms on Sunday and is now the only hilly classic the 28-year-old hasn’t won.

“Of course if I win on Sunday at Liège; it would be fantastic, but it’s still too far away,” he said. “I don’t want to think about that too much.” Id.

I can barely wait.

About big jonny

The man, the legend. The guy who started it all back in the Year of Our Lord Beer, 2000, with a couple of pages worth of idiotic ranting hardcoded on some random porn site that would host anything you uploaded, a book called HTML for Dummies (which was completely appropriate), a bad attitude (which hasn’t much changed), and a Dell desktop running Win95 with 64 mgs of ram and a six gig hard drive. Those were the days. Then he went to law school. Go figure. Flagstaff, Arizona, USA

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26 Replies to “La Flèche Wallonne 2011”

Expat in NL on April 20, 2011 at 3:25 pm said:

and he said that he didn’t think he could win because it didn’t suit him…then promptly crushes all doubts, including his own, and all comers. he also announced he will ride Le Tour with the goal of winning a stage and wearing yellow. then if he performs in Giro di Lombardia again, we will have seen one of the all-time season performances in cycling. if he’d had a team in Flanders, who knows, he was attacking in the finale. Phil is panache and pro personified.
ant1 on April 20, 2011 at 4:08 pm said:

well said Expat
Doug P on April 20, 2011 at 4:15 pm said:

A Belgian doesn’t have to be Flemish to be a BALLER!
mikey on April 20, 2011 at 5:34 pm said:

Dude can drive nails just by staring at them.
MM on April 20, 2011 at 5:37 pm said:

Beast. Baller. Hammer. Horse. PRO.
SloanL on April 20, 2011 at 7:17 pm said:

What a BEAST! That whole climb was brutal. Truly Pro Cycling.
Gypsy on April 20, 2011 at 7:37 pm said:

Crap that is a steep hill. I ache all over just watching them fly up it.
big jonny on April 20, 2011 at 8:10 pm said:

Gilbert just opened up a No. 10 can of Jens Voight on ’em.
big jonny on April 20, 2011 at 8:12 pm said:

The chief export of Philippe Gilbert is pain.
littlejar on April 20, 2011 at 8:52 pm said:

Hurt-on climb at the end. Rugged. Is that Hinault pushing the extra tired riders out of the way there? Great footage.
Danimal on April 20, 2011 at 9:18 pm said:

I look forward to this tradition on DC every year…spring classics, calling out the HUGE performances…awesome.
bikesgonewild on April 20, 2011 at 10:51 pm said:

…it’s still such a beautiful sport, despite all the bullshit…phillipe gilbert is testimony to the awesome aspects…
Martin on April 21, 2011 at 5:27 am said:

@big jonny – the contents of said can are changing, eh?
The knife on April 21, 2011 at 5:31 am said:

Gilbert: Gotta go boys, have fun thumbing your own asses! Rest of group: What?
nikthe on April 21, 2011 at 6:46 am said:

Jonny likes Balls
bikesgonewild on April 21, 2011 at 12:52 pm said:

…fabian cancellara “…rather than riding liege – bastogne – liege on easter sunday, i’ll be going to church with my wife & family…i fully expect, however, that several teams will have riders marking me”…
Expat in NL on April 21, 2011 at 1:45 pm said:

@bgw…it’s either that or Fränk *Crash* Schleck takes him out in again ;)
bikesgonewild on April 21, 2011 at 1:49 pm said:

…‘la doyenne’, liege – bastogne – liege, ‘the old one’, first run in 1892…the last of the awesome springtime classics…these races, with their history & past winners have created a mystic & romance that’s revered by both the riders & the fans…

…our boy frankie vandenbrouke won in 1999 after boldly announcing ahead of time where he would attack…

…vinokourov won last year & in 2005 & andy schleck picked up the win in 2009…

…with everybody gunning for the very ‘on-form’ phillipe gibert, obviously his every move will be marked but you saw it in fleche wallonne, he simply used his talent & the steepness of the ‘mur de huy’ to ride away…

…schleck & all the pundits are saying that l-b-l is a very different race & he won’t have that feature to use to his advantage but i’m pretty sure the savvy monsieur gilbert is more than aware of the details…i’d love to see him add sunday’s race to his list of palmares’…
bikesgonewild on April 21, 2011 at 1:54 pm said:

…expat in nl…‘ouch’…to be honest, i’m surprised with l-b-l being the last of the spring classics, that cancellara won’t be riding it…even were it to be in support of andy & ‘crash’…

…too hilly ???…
mikey on April 21, 2011 at 4:58 pm said:

Gilbert can win LBL, but Omega Pharma Lotto has to be all over the front all day long…
HUMPTY on April 21, 2011 at 5:30 pm said:

I have not seem Contador dropped like that in a long time…..like a prom dress.
bikesgonewild on April 22, 2011 at 4:06 am said:

…i meant to say “mystique”, not mystic…‘duh !!!’ on moi…

…& i hope contador gets ‘outed’ this year for the fraud he is…

…it’s gonna be an interesting race, mikey…i gotta scan the tv guide, see if it’s on vs or universal or if i have to watch it herky jerky on the internet…
mikey on April 22, 2011 at 4:43 pm said:

I see that homeboy Chad Beyer will line up for the Giro:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/giro-ditalia-start-list-1

I will root for young Mr. Nibali to bitch-slap Contador in the GC, and for young Mr. Farrar to bitch-slap all the other 53×11 honchos for sprinting honors. Forze!
big jonny on April 22, 2011 at 4:46 pm said:

Yep, I heard about that one too. We were afraid to jinx ’em with a broken arm or some shit! Go Chad Beyer!
bikesgonewild on April 24, 2011 at 9:22 am said:

…SPOILER ALERT…

…to quote myself, “…schleck & all the pundits are saying that l-b-l is a very different race & he (meaning phillipe gilbert) won’t have that feature to use to his advantage but i’m pretty sure the savvy monsieur gilbert is more than aware of the details…”…whoa !!!…

…to quote gianni, “…Philippe Gilbert is a god damn BALLER!!!”…

…well fuck me but phillipe gilbert is a god damn MONSTER !!!…paint a target on his back & let the ‘fleches’ fly & without an excuse or a whimper, the man just goes out & gets the job done…leige – bastogne – liege is in the fucking books in an incredible spring-time of cycling…
the knife on April 24, 2011 at 10:49 am said:

This Gilbert is a balls out STUD!! He knew this race was his and so did the nancy boy schleck brothers. Thats just damn good racing!