Wout Poels seals Team Sky win at Liege-Bastogne-Liege

Wout Poels produces a heroic ride in poor conditions to claim Team Sky's first-ever Monument triumph.

Wout Poels produced a heroic ride in poor conditions to win Liege-Bastogne-Liege, achieving Team Sky's first-ever Monument triumph in the process.

Poels pulled ahead with Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida), Michael Albasini (Orics GreenEdge) and Samuel Sanchez (BMC Raing) as the race crested the penultimate climb, and then kept pace with his rivals on the long drag into Ans.

Once the quartet had rounded the final corner, Poels then unleashed his sprint and held off a late response from Albasini to seal Team Sky's biggest-ever one-day win.

The victory was also the biggest of Poels's career and came at the end of a cold, wet and wintery 102nd edition.

After the race Poels caught up with TeamSky.com and admitted it still hadn't sunk in that he'd won the oldest Monument of them all.

"It's unbelievable," he said. "I'm really happy and I still can't believe I won Liege-Bastogne-Liege. It's a really nice victory that's for sure!

"To be able to win the first Monument for the team, especially a team like this, is really special. I'm riding with the best riders in the world. It's a huge win for the team and also for myself."

Poels was also able to talk us through the final sprint, which marked him out as the strongest man in the race.

"I know I'm quite fast but I also knew that guys like Albasini were quick too. After 260km no sprint is the same. I think everyone was really tired from the cold, rain, snow and everything else the weather threw at us today. I did a good sprint and luckily it was enough to win Liege-Bastogne-Liege!"

Monuments Men

The race also marked the first Ardennes Classic as lead Sport Director for Kurt-Asle Arvesen. Naturally the Norwegian was thrilled with the result, and told TeamSky.com: "The team were on top of everything for the whole day. The clothing we had from Rapha and fuelling was crucial, and the riders worked together really well. It was a fantastic performance.

"I was really happy to see that we had numbers after the Côte de La Redoute and that meant we could start playing our cards. Lars Petter and Wout said they were feeling good Sebastian and Kwiato were doing a good job for the team.

"Wout then opened up his sprint early at the end and proved beyond any doubt he was the strongest rider in the race. He pulled off an amazing win."

Team Sky had numbers to the fore throughout the day, conserving energy in the group as conditions veered between bright sunshine, rain, sleet and snow.

Working hard as a unit, every rider was present towards the front, with Chris Froome, Salvatore Puccio, Sebastian Henao, Lars Petter Nordhaug, Michal Golas, Ben Swift and Michal Kwiatkowski all working tirelessly for the cause.

With 10km remaining Kwiatkowski turned the screw with an acceleration, and on the penultimate climb, the cobbled Cote de la Rue Naniot, Poels was able to drag himself over into an elite quartet under flamme rouge.

Despite a small dig on the climb, Poels still had the strength to lead out the sprint from the front, raising his arms in celebration of a truly monumental victory.