Race Breakdown: Liège-Bastogne-Liège was the last event of the spring Classics. Before ‘La Doyenne’, Tadej Pogačar was the top favourite and he announced that he would attack on La Redoute… Which he did. Pogačar took over from Mathieu van der Poel in the winning department, but the World champ still finished third in a race he wants to win, one day.
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Tadej Pogačar made his ‘premeditated’ attack on La Redoute
Tadej Pogačar attacked on La Redoute, exactly where everyone expected it and where he said he would. “Everyone knew where Tadej would attack and no one could follow. This makes it easy as a sports director to make tactics,” UAE Team Emirates general manager, Mauro Gianetti, said after Liège was won. La Doyenne was the Slovenian champion’s last race before the Giro d’Italia. One that Pogacar took as a final test. At the Tour of the Alps, the team DS’s had already given up any chance at all in the Giro and as Jonas Vingegaard is injured, Pogačar is now in pole position for his third Tour victory. A Giro/Tour double is now a big possibility, although a lot can happen between now and the end of July in Nice. After his dominant performance on Sunday, he has to be the top favourite for both Grand Tours.
Can anything stop Pogačar from doing the double?
Before the Wallonne Monument, opinion was split on Mathieu van der Poel’s chances of winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The sight of the World champion adding Liège to his palmarès was probably a heart over mind thing, but his third place finish shows that a win is possible, don’t forget he was also 6th in 2020, the day after winning the BinckBank Tour final stage and the overall. But victory in this year’s Liège-Bastonge-Liège was not a possibility. Like the rest of the peloton, he was up against Tadej Pogačar, that 2 minute gap shows a big difference. The World champion said in his press conference that after the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, he had felt a bit of a dip and the peak that he has been on since the cyclo-cross World championships in Tábor is also starting to take its toll. He also admitted that Liège will always be a race for climbers and that it would be impossible to follow Pogacar, if/when he attacks on La Redoute. With a different winter season and with less climbers in the start list, Van der Poel could have a chance of the win, but that is a lot to hope for.
Maybe Liège is not possible for Van der Poel
The big crash that hit the peloton 100 kilometres from the finish, caused problems for two of the race favourites, Mathieu van der Poel and Tom Pidcock as they were stuck behind the carnage and at one point were over a minute behind the carnage. The situation wasn’t helped by Israel-Premier Tech, Bahrain Victorious and UAE Team Emirates putting the pressure on. When UAE team manager, Gianetti, was asked about it, he dismissed any criticism. “We can’t look back, can we? We were already riding from the start, and just wanted to make it a hard race.” But the other team hadn’t been seen until that moment. There used to be an unwritten rule that you didn’t ride hard when half the peloton are either sitting on the road or waiting to get past a crash.
That crash
The weather wasn’t as bad as in the Flèche Wallonne, but the conditions certainly didn’t suit all the riders. Flèche winner Stephen Williams had to abandon the Liège very early, as did some of the other Flèche finishers. Even after three days to warm up, the cold took its toll on the peloton. Maxim Van Gils was the exception. The 24-year-old Lotto Dstny rider is the one rider who showed his promise in the hilly Classics. Romain Bardet and Aurélien Paret-Peintre both finished in the top 5 after finishing the Tour of the Alps on the Friday before Liège. The weather wasn’t great there either, but it shows that the stage race can be good preparation, although Pogačar and Van der Poel were on training camps and not racing.
Maxim Van Gils has been very good on Wallonne the hills
This spring Classic Monument season must be the worst for Visma | Lease a Bike: Olav Kooij was 14th in Milan-Sanremo, Tiesj Benoot 15th in the Tour of Flanders, Tim van Dijke 16th in Paris-Roubaix and Benoot also took 12th place in Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The Dutch team has been the most dominant team in recent years, but in 2024 it has not been possible. Christophe Laporte has been struggling with illness since Sanremo, and of course Wout van Aert was injured in the Dwars Door Vlaanderen before his two big goals of the spring – Flanders and Roubaix. Plus Dylan van Baarle couldn’t compete. In the hilly Classics the team was dependent on Tiesj Benoot as Jonas Vingegaard doesn’t ride the Classics, but maybe he should in the future, after he recovers from his Basque crash.
Tadej Pogačar was impressive
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* Thanks to ProCyclingStats and WielerFlits for facts and figures. *
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