Kazakh Alexander Vinokourov gave his T-Mobile team their first victory of the season when he won the Liege-Bastogne-Liege classic over 260 kilometres yesterday.

Germany's T-Mobile was one of the only leading outfits without a win in the ProTour so far and the 31-year-old Vinokourov set the record straight when he broke away with German Jens Voigt, who finished second.

Dutchman Michael Boogerd, second in the Amstel Gold Race the previous week, had to be content with third spot.

Vinokourov, whose only previous success in a one-day classic was the Amstel Gold Race in 2003, attacked with Voigt in one of the last of the 14 hills of the day, the Vecquee climb, to part company with the leaders.

The pair joined forces and took a lead of nearly a minute over the main chasers.

Italian Danilo Di Luca, winner of the Amstel Gold last week and the Fleche Wallonne on Wednesday was unable to complete the same treble as compatriot Davide Rebellin last year.

The Liquigas team leader, who retains top place in the ProTour standings, lost contact with the leaders in the steep St Nicolas climb leading to the finish.

The Liege-Bastogne-Liege was the last one-day classic of the Spring before a series of stage races leading up to the Giro d'Italia starting on May 7.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.