HUY, Belgium, April 22, 2009 (AFP) – Italian veteran Davide Rebellin, of the Serramenti team, joined an elite club of triple winners when he won the Fleche Wallonne one-day classic for the third time here Wednesday.

Rebellin, who previously won in 2007 and 2004, played a smart waiting game on the notoriously steep ‘Mur de Huy’ climb before overtaking Luxembourg’s Andy Schleck then Australian Cadel Evans in the final 200 meters on his way to triumph.

“I felt good on the climb, which wasn’t that long but was very difficult,”
explained Rebellin.

“I’ve been working hard in that respect (climbing),” added Rebellin, who revealed he had spend time beforehand training hard in Monaco, Bassano del Grappa in his homeland and also in Spain to “mentally picture the finish.”

Rebellin had struggled in last week’s Amstel Gold Race afte a bout of bronchitis. But, as he told reporters, “today, I had a good feeling, though I didn’t know if I’d be 100 percent. Yet as the kilometres went by I felt better and better.”

The Italian added he saw the classic circuit as made for him rather than the long tours as “I don’t do so well on the long climbs and the third week (of a major tour) is too much for me.”

The 37-year-old pointed to his head as he crossed the finish line of the hilly 195.5km race, his gesture appearing to underline the old cycling adage that you need the head as well as the legs to be successful.

It means Rebellin becomes only the fourth rider in the race’s 73-year history to win it three times, after Belgian pair Eddy Merckx and Marcel Kint and Italian Moreno Argentin.

In his wake Schleck, of the Saxo Bank team, came in second place while Damiano Cunego of Lampre took third place for the second consecutive year.

Evans had been hoping to go one better than his runner-up place to Luxembourg’s Kim Kirchen last year but the Australian’s efforts driving the pack on the final, steepest sections of the climb appeared to take their toll.

After his efforts had allowed Schleck and Rebellin to sit on his wheel, the Silence-Lotto rider eventually slipped to fifth place, one behind Olympic road race champion Samuel Sanchez of Spain.

At the foot of the third and final climb to the summit of the Mur de Huy the peloton and all the favourites were all together, only for another Frenchman from Agritubel, David Lelay, to shake things up.

However, his attack, with nearly 1km of climbing to go, was more than audacious and moments later a rapidly tiring Lelay was overtaken by those wise enough to know the toll that can be paid on the ‘Mur’.

Rebellin Attacks Schleck With 200M To Go
Photo’s by: CorVos Pro