Ans, Belgium - Alejandro Valverde won the prestigious Liege-Bastogne-Liege one-day classic on Sunday, nine years after he first triumphed at 'La Doyenne'.
And while the competition has changed over the last nine years, one name remains the same on the honours lists in the three Ardennes Classics, which include Amstel Gold and Fleche-Wallonne.
"In the end, more than cycling changing, it's the generation that has changed," said the 35-year-old.
"In 2006 it was (Paolo) Bettini, Andy Schleck, (Damiano) Cunego and other riders, now it's (Julian) Alaphilippe, and Purito (Joaquim Rodriguez) who's still there."
Valverde outsprinted Alaphilippe, who took second place behind the Spaniard for the second time in four days, and Rodriguez at the end of the 253km 'Monument' race.
But before then he had to haul back an attack from Rodriguez's Katusha teammate Dani Moreno, who had opened a gap on the final climb into the finish at Ans.
"It was a tough attack from Moreno but this is a long race and it had been a fast race. I kept an eye on the gap but it was clear that everyone was waiting for me to close it," added Valverde.
"I was managing the gap and with 600m to go I resolved to close it. I caught him but I still held back something for the sprint finish."
Rodriguez has so often missed out on the big victories and he was clearly frustrated at the end.
He has seven top four finishers in Grand Tours, has twice finished on the podium at the world championships and a host of high finishes at one-day classics.
But two wins at the Giro di Lombardia, one at Fleche and stage race wins at the Tours of Catalonia (2010, 2014), Burgos (2011) and the Basque Country (2015) don't make up for the many near misses in more prestigious races.
"First of all, it's really difficult, almost impossible to beat Valverde in a sprint finish," he moaned.
"Today he raced in a very intelligent way, as always, he controlled the distance (to breakaways).
"At Fleche we (Katusha) didn't attack at the right time and we were disappointed about that. Today, when I saw Dani attack, I was delighted because I thought he had the legs to make it."
He added: "But if it had been me in Dani's place, I might have been able to hold on."
AFP
