He wasn't able to put the icing on the cake with a third victory in the race, but Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) went onto the podium -for the fourth time in his career- of Liège-Bastogne-Liège today.

Valverde was eventually overcome by Irish Daniel Martin (Garmin-Sharp) and fellow countryman Joaquím Rodríguez (Katusha), the duo attacking into the penultimate straight from the elite group that escaped with Valverde, Betancur (AG2R) and Scarponi (Lampre-Merida).

"I'm really happy to reach the podium again, and this race makes for a really good Ardennes trio," Valverde said on the Movistar website.. "2nd in the Amstel Gold, 3rd in here... I'm satisfied with what I got. Two podiums in three Classics are not within everyone's reach. It's obvious I was coming here for a victory, but all the big riders were here and aspired to the same thing. Martin and “Purito” [Rodriguez] were stronger in the finale today and I've got to be satisfied with my 3rd place. It was a hard trio of Classics and we'll try to recover well tomorrow and get ready for the Tour de Romandie from Tuesday - it will be my last race before the build-up to the Tour."