Max Sciandri and Valerio Piva talk to Philippe Gilbert(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Directeur sportif Fabio Baldato talks to sporting manager Allan Peiper before training(Image credit: Sirotti)
Valerio Piva and Allan Peiper have steered BMC to success during the spring campaign with the team wining Amstel Gold Race courtesy of a late attack from Philippe Gilbert.
Piva and Pieper worked together at HTC but are also ex-professionals who have ridden the Ardennes Classics. Piva of course helped Moreno Argentin in a number of impressive rides during his career, while Peiper was more of man for the cobbled classics, although he did have the odd foray into the Ardennes.
At the start of the week, a day before Amstel, both men talked to Cyclingnews about the Ardennes and what exactly makes them special.
During the spring campaign there’s a number of notable shifts as teams and riders change their focus from the cobbles to Ardennes. For the first time in week, teams change hotels, personnel are altered too with cobbled specialists slipping out and grand tour contenders and climbing specialists docking in for the week.
And each of the Ardennes races, despite their course modifications, their shifts in dates, remain at the heart of the sport. As Peieper explains in this exclusive video for Cyclingnews, each race has its own identity forged by their iconic climbs; whether it’s the Cauberg at Amstel, the Mur de Huy in Flèche Wallonne or the hills that litter the route of Liège-Bastogne-Lige.
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