Christian Knees finishes in Lüttich with the peloton

Publiceret af: danny 2008-04-27

Spaniard Alejandro Valverde of Team Caisse d'Epargne won the 94th Lüttich-Bastogne-Lüttich.  After 261 km he outsprinted Davide Rebllin (Gerolsteiner) and the Luxemburger Fränk Schleck of CSC.  The best MILRAM rider was Christian Knees in 38th.
The decisive move came  19 km before the finish.  On the Cote de la Roche aus Faucons, a new climb in the traditional race through the Ardennes, solo escapee Andy Schleck (CSC) was joined by his brother Fränk as well as Davide Rebellin and Alejandro Valverde.  At first Valverde's teammate Joaquin Rodriguez was also part of the group, but the Spanish champion could not keep up and fell back to the first following group which contained Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) and Damiano Cunego (Lampre).
Christian Knees:  „I was in good shape today and felt good, too.  But I had a few problems on the third-from-last cllimb and had to fall back.  That's why I didn't finish higher.  Now I have ridden all the big Classics for the first time and think that I have continued to improve in all of them.“
Jochen Hahn, Sportlicher Leiter:  „It was the difficult race that we expected.  We were focussed on Andrey Grivko and Igor Astarloa.  Andrey had bad luck on the first climb with a mechanical problem which threw him back.  Igor simply didn't have a good day.  But Christian Knees tried his best and presented himself very well in his premiere in Lüttich-Bastogne-Lüttich.“
Peter Velits: „It was a hard day for me today.  After my cold, which I caught in the Vuelta a Pais Vasco and which caused me to break my training, I am still not 100 percent fit again.  But I could help the team today and finished the race.  So I am satisfied with this day.  It's too bad that we weren't able to pull a small surprise.“
The MILRAM line-up: Andrey Grivko (UKR/ Simferopol), Artur Gajek (GER / Bergisch Gladbach), Christian Knees (GER / Euskirchen), Dominik Roels (GER / Köln), Igor Astarloa (ESP / Monte Carlo), Peter Velits (SVK / Puchov), Matej Jurco (SVK / Liptovsky Hradok), Sebastian Schwager (GER / Neusäß)