Moreno victorious on Mur de Huy

There is a subtle art to mastering the nuances of the Mur de Huy, and Daniel Moreno showed that he had paid close attention to the lessons of his Katusha leader Joaquim Rodriguez over the years as he captured Flèche Wallonne with a perfectly-timed attack.

Moreno carefully bided his time on the steepest section of the climb and then accelerated off world champion Philippe Gilbert’s shoulder in the closing 200 metres. The Spaniard’s burst brought him clear of the main group and saw him overhaul late escapee Carlos Alberto Betancur (Ag2r-La Mondiale) within sight of the line to take the win.

Sergio Henao (Sky) emerged from the carnage behind to take second place at three seconds, while Betancur at least had the consolation of holding off a rapidly-finishing Dan Martin (Garmin-Sharp) for the third step on the podium.

Prior to the race, all of the focus in the Katusha camp had been on defending champion Joaquim Rodriguez, who had sustained an injury in a crash at Amstel Gold Race on Sunday. Although Rodriguez was still strong enough to finish the race in 6th place, he was lacking the sharpness of twelve months ago, and in the tumult of the final haul up the Mur de Huy, Moreno was handed his opportunity to chase the win.

Wisely, Moreno maintained a watching brief when Carlos Alberto Betancur (Ag2r-La Mondiale) careered off the front with 700 metres of the fearsome wall still to go. Indeed, there was a general reluctance to take up the pursuit, but as Betancur bounded up the steepest section of the climb with a sizeable advantage, the burden of responsibility fell on the shoulders of the pre-race favourite Gilbert.

The world champion began his first tentative forcing with 500 metres to go, with Peter Sagan (Cannondale) locked on his rear wheel, and he then sought to replicate the attack that brought him victory on the Mur two years as the gradient pitched upwards still further.

While Gilbert’s acceleration ended Sagan’s challenge (he would finish 12th), he was unable to rip clear of the group in the same manner as he did in 2011. This time, Gilbert simply played his hand too early. For his part, Moreno was sizing up his opportunity and when he bounded past as the road began to flatten out slightly, a disappointed Gilbert almost ground to a halt and would finish 16th.

From there, Moreno’s victory was inevitable, as he shot past the flagging Betancur and was never threatened by Henao’s late pursuit. The quickest man over the final 200 metres was undoubtedly Dan Martin, however, and the Irishman – who had punctured 20 kilometres from the line – will rue his positioning as the climb began.

How it unfolded

After a cold spring to date, unfamiliar sunshine and warm temperatures greeted the riders as they took off on their tour of the Walloon countryside from Binche. Only 20 kilometers into the race, the first break slipped away as Gilles Devilliers (Crelan-Euphony) and Pirmin Lang (IAM) took off to build up a nice lead. Accent Job-Wanty's Jurgen Van Goolen took off in pursuit, and after a seeming eternity of dangling between the leaders and the peloton, finally caught them.

The trio quickly pushed their gap up to nearly 10 minutes at one point, but as the first of the day's twelve climbs approached, the peloton finally decided to take action, and managed to cut it to about seven minutes for the first climb of the Mur de Huy after 108.5km.

From there the gap came down steadily. BMC looked determined to place world champion Philippe Gilbert atop the podium, and took firm responsibility for the chase, throwing their whole team to the front to reel in the group.

With some 53km to go, the gap was down to one minute, and a handful of riders took off out of the peloton in pursuit. Shortly thereafter on the day's seventh climb, the Côte de Bohisseau, the trio was caught.

The next to try their luck were Laurens Ten Dam (Blanco) and Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale), and that brought BMC back to the front of the chase, as they saw too much of a threat in Ten Dam. Bardet fell back on the second climb up the Mur, but Ten Dam stayed away and was joined by Argos-Shimano's Simon Geschke.

BMC continued to hold control of the field, keeping the two leaders on a short rein. Their big German Marcus Burghardt put in a particularly strong performance, pulling the field along in pursuit of the break. On the penultimate climb, an Orica-GreenEdge rider then dashed out of the group to catch Ten Dam and Geschke, and the action was over.

That was enough to drop Andy Schleck of RadioShack-Leopard, but all the favourites were still near the head of the group, including injured defending champion Joachim Rodriguez (Katusha).

As expected, a large group charged up the Mur for the final time. Blanco led the way up, with Gilbert on second wheel. Carlos Betancur was the first to jump, and Gilbert led the chase but the world champion misplayed his cards this time and jumped too early. Instead of repeating his world championship explosion on the Mur, Gilbert backfired, and was engulfed by the chasers in the final 100 metres.

Instead, the day belonged to Dani Moreno, who proved to be the perfect understudy for Joaquim Rodriguez on the steep slopes of the Mur de Huy and took an identikit victory twelve months on from his friend and teammate’s triumph.

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