Alejandro Valverde wins Liege-Bastogne-Liege in sprint finish

Spain's Alejandro Valverde won the prestigious one-day classic Liege-Bastogne-Liege for the third time in a 10-man sprint finish on Sunday.

Valverde (Movistar), who also triumphed in 2006 and 2008, chased down a late attack from Dani Moreno (Katusha) and still had enough energy left over to beat Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx - Quick-Step) into second place and Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) into third.

It was the 35-year-old Spaniard's sixth victory of the year and concluded his outstanding week in the three Ardennes classics, having finished second at the Amstel Gold Race last weekend and won La Fleche Wallonne on Wednesday.

The result also takes him above Team Sky's Richie Porte at the top of the UCI WorldTour rankings.

Valverde said: "All my three victories here have been beautiful; winning in Liege is phenomenal. However, today's is even more special after such a complete week: second in Amstel, winner in Fleche, winner in Liege. 

"It makes me even happier taking the victory here because of that, doing it in a monument of cycling, and claiming a third one is entering history."

Liege-Bastogne-Liege is the fourth of the season's Monument classics - the five most coveted one-day races - and this year took place over 253km.

The race came to life with around 19km to go when Roman Kreuziger (Tinkoff-Saxo) attacked on the day's penultimate categorised climb, the Cote de la Roche-aux-Faucons, and was followed by Giampaolo Caruso (Katusha) and Jakob Fuglsang (Astana).

The trio opened up a lead of more than 20 seconds, but a strong chase led by Zdenek Stybar (Etixx - Quick-Step) and then an injection of pace from Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) saw them caught with 6km to go.

The front group was later reduced to just 12 riders on the final categorised climb, the Cote de Saint-Nicolas, but Moreno then went on the attack with 1.1km remaining and was only hauled back following a determined chase from Valverde, who subsequently reaped the rewards for his efforts in the sprint.

Result

1 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, 6:14:20

2 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Etixx – Quick-Step, same time

3 Joaquim Rodriguez (Esp) Katusha, st

4 Rui Costa (Por) Lampre-Merida, st

5 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Tinkoff-Saxo, st

6 Romain Bardet (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, st

7 Sergio Henao (Col) Team Sky, st

8 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Ag2r-La Mondiale, st

9 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana, st

10 Daniel Moreno (Esp) Katusha, st