Tadej Pogacar took an imperious fourth victory at Liege-Bastogne-Liege to take a step closer to Eddy Merckx’s record of five wins at the Belgian Monument, with French wunderkind Paul Seixas continuing his rapid rise in the sport with a superb second place.
Pogacar sported a black armband in memory of former teammate Cristian Camilo Munoz, who died on Friday after a knee injury sustained in a fall during a race became infected, and pointed to the sky in tribute as he crossed the line in Liege.
The Slovenian came home 45 seconds clear of Seixas after going solo with 14km to go on the last major climb, the Cote de la Roche-aux-Faucons.
The pair shared an embrace in the finish area, with two-time winner Remco Evenepoel sprinting clear of a large chasing pack to finish third, 1’42” behind Pogacar.
This was Pogacar’s third Monument win of the season so far and his 13th overall, leaving him just six behind Merckx’s all-time record, after a maiden Milan-San Remo title and a third win at the Tour of Flanders.
Only Il Lombardia – where the 27-year-old has won a record five titles – is still to come this season, where he can make history as the first rider to ever win four Monuments in a single year.
Sunday’s race was much anticipated as the first major duel between Pogacar, the dominant rider of this century, and Seixas, the highly rated teenager hotly tipped as the Slovenian’s eventual successor.
Pogacar said: “It means a lot to win again one of the biggest races of the year, of cycling. I don’t do many races, I don’t have a lot of opportunities to win because I don’t race a lot. There’s a lot of pressure on me to deliver, I’m really happy that we succeeded. I couldn’t be more proud of the team.”
And it proved an electric clash, with Seixas clinging to Pogacar’s wheel as he attacked over the brutal climb of La Redoute – where he has made his race-winning move in the last two editions – with 35km to go, and he worked well with the two-time world champion to stretch their lead.
Lidl-Trek’s Mattias Skjelmose, who finished second in last weekend’s Amstel Gold, was the best-placed of the remaining favourites to follow Pogacar’s attack, with Evenepoel caught out on the climb and unable to live with the pace set by Pogacar’s lead-out lieutenant Benoit Cosenfroy.
But after struggling in no-man’s-land for a few kilometres Skjelmose was caught by the chase group, led by Evenepoel. The Belgian’s teammate and former Giro d’Italia winner Jai Hindley attacked inside the final 30km, taking a few riders with him, but the group reformed shortly after and it became clear the battle was on for third place.
Pogacar attacked three times on the short but brutally steep, 10 per cent gradients of the Cote de la Roche-aux-Faucons. Although Seixas initially stuck doggedly to the three-time winner’s wheel, the 19-year-old – bidding to become the youngest winner of La Doyenne this century – was ultimately dropped by another seated acceleration with just under 600m to go.
Seixas’ performance in the Belgian hills will only add to the chorus of voices urging his Decathlon CMA CGM team to send him to the Tour de France, a baptism of fire for the young talent, who has yet to make his Grand Tour debut and only took his first WorldTour win earlier this month, at Itzulia Basque Country.
On the same climb but two minutes back Skjelmose also accelerated to drop the 25-strong Evenepoel group, but he was caught inside the final 3km to set up a showdown for the final podium place.
And it was the Belgian who surged clear in the finishing strait, doubling up on third-place finishes after taking the same result in the Tour of Flanders last month.
Skjelmose ultimately finished 17th while former Tour de France winner Egan Bernal, who suffered a horrific crash in 2022 which nearly killed him, took one of his best results since his return to racing with a fifth place.
Earlier Evenepoel’s Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe outfit had taken advantage of a split in the peloton within the first few kilometres of the race, with both Pogacar and Seixas stuck in the group behind.
The huge 54-strong breakaway established a lead as big as 3’40” at one point, but UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Decathlon CMA CGM worked together to bring them back over the next 150km.
Gradually order was restored and Pogacar was able to lay down the law in his usual fashion with another peerless display in the fastest-ever edition of the Ardennes race.
