The Moment The Race Was Won: Liège Bastogne Liège.

Alejandro Valverde sprints for the line ahead of Julian Alaphilippe and Joaquim Rodriguez. The Movistar rider won the sprint after controlling the final kilometer and outwitting Katusha’s numerical superiority.

The early breakaway took time to form, a flurry of attacks in the first half hour finally ended with a move that didn’t contain any threats. It still prompted Europcar to lead the chase, strange for the wildcard invitees to feel responsible for controlling events especially as they were doing it before the TV coverage started.

Things heated up on the the Côte de Wanne where Astana’s Andriy Grivko took off, launching the first of a series of moves by the Kazakh team. Were they celebrating their continued presence in the World Tour?

Probably not and the hilly terrain suits a team that’s built for stage racing and Vincenzo Nibali had started 2015 with two targets circled in red: the Tour de France and Liège Bastogne Liège.

Videos ...

Third career Liège victory ...

Alejandro Valverde takes win ...

Valverde wins Liège Bastogne Liège.

Alejandro Valverde chased down a late breakaway and then prevailed in a rain-soaked dash to the line to win his third Liège Bastogne Liège on Sunday.

Dani Moreno had attacked a small lead group just ahead of the final kilometer, and as the favorites hesitated he opened a significant gap. Finally Valverde took the initiative to drag him back, and despite bringing most of the other hopefuls along with him the 35-year-old Spaniard found the legs to kick to the victory at the end. (velonews.com)

1 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 6:14:20
2 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Etixx - Quick-Step
3 Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha
4 Rui Costa (Por) Lampre-Merida
5 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Tinkoff-Saxo
6 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
7 Sergio Luis Henao (Col) Team Sky
8 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale
9 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team
10 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Team Katusha.

Weekend Race Wrap-Up: Borsele and Westhoek.

Three races this weekend marked the beginning of the end of the one-day spring classics for the women’s peloton. While Belgium and Holland will play host to a handful of single day races in May, we’re on the cusp on stage race season in Europe as the World Cup series visits the further-flung destinations of Chongming Island, China and Philadelphia, USA in the next six weeks.

Familiar faces graced the top step of the podium at Borsele. Ellen van Dijk won her fourth consecutive individual time trial title on Friday evening. The following afternoon Kirsten Wild scored her fifth victory of the season – and her fifth victory at Borsele.

A new winner emerged at Dwars door de Westhoek where Elise Delzenne soloed to her first professional victory.

Bardet struggles through Liège-Bastogne-Liège final sprint in Ans.

Romain Bardet mixed it up with some of the most experienced riders in the peloton to secure his best finish yet at Liège Bastogne Liège.

The 24-year-old Frenchman was ever present on the front of the small bunch in the finale, cresting the climb to Ans with just 10 other riders. Bardet was visibly struggling in the sprint but battled home to take sixth, however, he had hoped for more.

“Sixth is a good result but we hoped for a podium and with 30 meters to go I still hoped for the podium but the legs cried and I couldn’t do much in the sprint,” Bardet told Cyclingnews as he warmed down by the team bus.

2014-15 Races & Results.

Liège - Bastogne - Liège - Apr 26 (Results),

Joe Martin Stage Race - Apr 23-26 (Results),

Tour of Turkey - Apr 26-May 3 (Stages & Results),

Giro d'Italia 2015 - May 9-31 (Stages),

Tour de France 2015 - July 4-26 (Stages),

Vuelta a España 2015 - Aug 22-Sept 13 (Stages),

UCI Road World Championship 2015 - Sept 20-27 (Stages),

Giro del Trentino - Apr 21-24 (Results),

La Flèche Wallonne - Apr 22 (Results),

Amstel Gold Race - Apr 19 (Results),

De Brabantse Pijl - Apr 15 (Results),

Paris Roubaix - Apr 12 (Results),

Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco - Apr 6-11 (Results),

Circuit Cycliste Sarthe - Apr 7-10 (Results),

Scheldeprijs - Apr 8 (Results),

Tour of Flanders - Apr 5 (Results).

More...

Video: Tour of Croatia Stage 5 - final kilometers.

Maciej Paterski wins the finall stage and the overall classification.

Holloway defends title at Athens Twilight Criterium.

Daniel Holloway defend his title at the Athens Twilight Criterium held on Saturday night in Georgia.

The elite criterium champion lapped the field and out-sprinted his breakaway companion Ruben Companioni to take the win. Frank Travieso was third.

Pic wins Athens Twilight Criterium.

Former six time US criterium champion, Tina Pic won the women's race at the 35th Annual Athens Twilight Criterium on Saturday.

The veteran sprinter won the bunch kick to the line ahead of Samantha Schneider and Laura Van Gilder.

Videos ...

Caleb Ewan takes second ...

Mark Cavendish takes opener ...

Cavendish wins opening stage of Tour of Turkey.

Mark Cavendish claimed the opening stage of the 2015 Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey on Sunday.

Cavendish won the bunch sprint after a perfect lead-out from the Etixx squad at the end of the 145-kilometer stage looping around Alanya. Australian prodigy Caleb Ewan placed second, with Italian Nicola Ruffoni in third.

Cavendish’s win means that he wears the leader’s jersey going into Monday’s second stage Alanya to Antalya covering 182 kilometres. It’s the Manxman’s seventh victory of the season – only Alexander Kristoff and Richie Porte have won more, with 11 and nine wins respectively. (cyclingweekly.co.uk)

Joe Martin Stage Race: Scotti Wilborne wins stage 4, Lauren Stephens wins overall.

Breakthrough win for Omar Fraile in the Apennines.

Having made it into an 8-rider group that escaped in the hardest part of the race, Fraile beat his companions in a sprint to win the Giro dell’Appennino; Pirazzi and Cunego completed the podium.

In the first part of his professional career, Fraile has been known as one of the most aggressive riders in the peloton. However, his many escapes have never paid off and he started the 2015 season with no wins on his palmares.

Manzin confirms his potential with big Coupe de France win.

Lorrenzo Manzin confirmed that he has a huge potential as a future top sprinter when he won La Roue Tourangelle which is an important part of the Coupe de France race series.

After a wet day in the saddle, his FDJ teammates brought back a dangerous four-rider group in the finale before the young sprinter held off Clement Venturini and Jan Dieteren in the 30-rider sprint to take his first pro win.

Going into the 2015 season, FDJ lost sprinter Nacer Bouhanni to Cofidis but they were intent on finding a replacement to supplement Arnaud Demare in the bunch sprints. Hence, they signed the two promising youngsters Marc Sarreau and Manzin and promised to give them lots of chances in their first pro year.

The slow but steady return to racing for Marianne Vos.

With a 1.2 UCI ranking, the Ronde van Gelderland might be a minor race on the women’s race calendar, but for 12-time world champion Marianne Vos this race was a big one. Sidelined with a hamstring injury since the 2015 Cyclocross World Championships in January, Gelderland marked Vos’ long-awaited return to the peloton.

Prior to Gelderland, Vos pinned on a number for the the Rabobank Bikecenter VANTUYL Paasbike mountain bike race. It was a final test of the hamstring and fitness.

She won race with ease.

Tom Boonen: Tour out of question, Giro stage/worlds are targets.

Making his return to racing after injury on stage one of the Presidential Tour of Turkey, Tom Boonen has ruled out any participation in the Tour de France this year and said instead that he will likely pursue a Giro/Vuelta program in order to be in top shape for the world championships.

“The Tour is out of the question,” the 34 year old told CyclingTips at the stage one start in Alanya. “I go two months now à bloc [flat out – ed.]. Then July I am off, then August September two months à bloc again for the world championships. The Tour just doesn’t fit the program and the team is pretty full as it is.”

Tour de Romandie Course Preview.

Swiss stage racing.  The six day Tour de Romandie starts Tuesday.

It's a Jura mountains focused course this year.  We'll see numerous lakes  and vineyards, we'll climb to ski stations, and, hopefully, we'll see lots and lots of cows. And, of course, conforming to Swiss law, the peloton will cycle past UCI headquarters in Aigle while visiting the Alps.

The Tour de Romandie has been raced since 1947. Romandie refers to the French speaking region of Switzerland - approximately 20% of the population - in the western edge of the country.

A list of former Romandie winners reads like a who's who of cycling: Merckx, Hinault, Bartali, Koblet, Thévenet, Zoetemelk, Roche, Rominger, Evans, etc.

Tour of Turkey 2015 Live Dashboard ...

2015 Tour of Turkey LIVE.

Monday's Tour of Turkey Stage 2 departs Alanya at 10:30am EEST (local) (9:30am CET or 3:30am U.S. Eastern) and is expected at the finish at Antalya at around 2:45pm EEST (local) (1:45pm CET or 7:45am U.S. Eastern). 

Tour of Turkey live streaming video should get underway at around 1:15pm EEST (local) (12:15pm CET or 6:15am U.S. Eastern, 3:15am Pacific).

Daily Distractions.

Steve Tilford: Belgian Waffle Ride and Trans Iowa.

DCR: Week in Review.

Podcast: The Recon Ride. Tour de Romandie.

Podcast: Murder We.

Video: Martin, Gerrans and Roche caught up in Liege Bastogne Liege crash.

Injured Gilbert fades ...

Nibali unable to follow ...

Crashes continue for Gerrans ...

Rodriguez leaves empty handed ...

Alaphilippe takes France’s best result since 1998 ...

Young Meintjes impresses at Liège Bastogne Liège.

Up and coming climber Louis Meintjes put in an impressive performance at Liège Bastogne Liège, following the attacks in the latter stages of the race to finish in 11th place.

Meintjes was sitting in the wheel of Daniel Moreno with two kilometers to go after the Katusha rider put in a dig, although he was eventually distanced on the final climb into Ans and was beaten to 10th by Moreno when the pair came to the line together.

“A top 10 would have been nice but I’m obviously very happy to be in the front group of a race like Liège,” Meintjes said after the race. “I was thinking if I am there and I am on the wheels I didn’t want to get stuck behind someone else and I thought I’d go to the front and follow the action.

Women's Cycling: Doing it not for the money.

When Australia’s Tiffany Cromwell won the 2013 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad classic she had every right to be delighted – and one reason not to be. She’d just cemented her name on the European scene with what was arguably the biggest win to date in her career, trouncing Megan Gruanier of Rabobank in the sprint to seal a brilliant victory.

The win brought her the spotlight her talent deserved and gained her a reputation for being a no nonsense rider who could mix it with the best in the sport.

Surely, a win like that will have brought in a nice little pot in prize money? Well, not quite.

For her suffering on that cold morning at the tail end of February last year, Cromwell picked up an altogether underwhelming 270 euro. After splitting that among her teammates she might just have had enough for a glass of vino and a plate of pasta down her local trattoria.

Three doping positives in Africa hint at deeper problems on the continent.

News of a positive doping test for Algeria's Hichem Chaabane and two other as yet unidentified cyclists from Africa in the past few days points to a deeper problem with banned substance abuse in one of the UCI's most important growth areas and serves to highlight the fact that the same mistakes made in Europe are being made in other regions where the sport is in a development phase.

Chaabane recently won the Circuit d'Alger, a UCI 2.1 race that finished on March 6th.

"The National Commission for the fight against doping were informed by letter of 22 April as urinary analyzes conducted by the Paris laboratory of Chatenay Malabray on two samples of the same rider revealed the presence of two banned substances," revealed the Algerian Cycling Federation in a statement, but did not specify what the prohibited substances were.

Steele Von Hoff wins CiCLE Classic without realizing it.

Steele Von Hoff raced to victory in the Rutland-Melton International CiCLE Classic on Sunday – but as he crossed the line he thought he had been sprinting for fifth place.

The Australian had battled back from last place after his chainring had exploded, and was happy to have made it back and be sprinting just for the minor placings – but he took the win.

“It was a real surprise because I thought there were four other riders away up the road,” said Von Hoff as he stepped from the top of the podium. “I thought there was a group that went earlier.

“I thought they were a long way off and we had no chance of catching up so I honestly thought we were sprinting for fifth.”

Blood Medicine, by Kathleen Sharp.

A story about some of the frauds at the heart of EPO's rise to becoming America's most popular prescription drug

Sharp takes a complex story and explains it clearly,focusing the story on one of those who blew the whistle on EPO.

2015 Tour de Romandie LIVE.

Tuesday's Tour de Romandie Stage 1, a 19.2 km Team Time Trial from Le Sentier to Juraparc, gets underway at 3:45pm CET (9:45am U.S. Eastern) with the departure of the first team.

Tour de Romandie live video streaming should get underway at around 4:00pm CET (10:00am U.S. Eastern, 7:00am Pacific).

Tour de Yorkshire 2015 Live Dashboard ...

2015 Tour de Yorkshire LIVE video stream.

Friday's (May 1st) Stage 1 starts at -- BST (-- U.S. Eastern). Finish at around -- BST (-- U.S. Eastern).

Live video from -- BST (-- U.S. Eastern).

Lance Armstrong: Ice Driving Was a Bad Idea.

Photos: Liège Bastogne Liège team presentation.