Poels seals prestigious Liege win for Team Sky (Reuters)
Team Sky claimed their first major classic win when Dutchman Wout Poels prevailed in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege one-day race on Sunday, the fourth of five ‘Monuments’ of the season. The lanky Poels jumped away from a group of four late attackers with 250 meters to go in a 248-km ride from Liege, beating Swiss Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Portuguese former world champion Rui Costa (Lampre) who finished second and third. Spain’s Samuel Sanchez (BMC), the 2008 Olympic champion, took fourth place while hot favorite Alejandro Valverde, who was gunning for a second consecutive Fleche Wallonne-Liege double, ran out of gas and finish 12 seconds off the pace in 16th.