Tadej Pogacar took his third victory at Liege-Bastogne-Liege, defending his title from last year, with a seemingly effortless solo attack 35km from the finish.
It was a second Monument win for the world champion this season, after victory in the Tour of Flanders earlier this month, and continues another excellent Classics campaign, having also notched wins in Fleche-Wallonne on Wednesday and Strade Bianche in March.
He pointed to the sky as he crossed the line and sported a message reading “For you D” on his bib number, dedicating the win to his partner and fellow cyclist Urska Zigart’s late mother Darja, who died shortly before the race in 2022.
Giulio Ciccone was second, 1min 3secs behind the rainbow jersey, and the Irishman Ben Healy third as the pair contested a two-up sprint for the remaining podium places, with a large group rolling across the line shortly behind them.
The Slovenian, who first won “La Doyenne” – the oldest of cycling’s prestigious Monuments – in 2021, was widely expected to attack on the Cote de La Redoute, a short but steep climb at 8.8 per cent for 1.6km, and stayed true to form with a seated acceleration towards the bottom of the ascent.
“It feels great to finish the first part of the season like this, just happy that the whole season so far went perfectly,” Pogacar said afterwards.
“It actually was not a plan [to attack there] but the pace was so hard before, I saw that a number of teams didn’t have a lot of teammates, so I said I would I test my legs and see if I could get a gap on the top, and then I would decide if I would continue or not. Then I just committed because I had good legs.”
Between them, Pogacar and Dutch great Mathieu van der Poel have now won 13 of the last 15 Monuments, and the Slovenian looks set to beat his tally of two from last year if he defends his four consecutive titles at Il Lombardia in October.
He barely looked to break a sweat with his acceleration on La Redoute but left his rivals scrambling to chase, with none able to follow his move and Remco Evenepoel – winner at last week’s Brabantse Pijl and expected to be one of his closest challengers – caught completely out of position towards the bottom of the bunch.
Tom Pidcock, Ciccone, Healy and the French veteran Julian Alaphilippe looked the best-placed to challenge, but having initially only had a small gap Pogacar extended his advantage on the final two climbs of the 252km race, a hilly, attritional loop through the Belgian hills.
Ciccone and Healy bridged away in a chasing duo with 14km left to race, with the others dropping back to join a large group led by Evenepoel.
The Belgian himself fell away in the closing kilometres, with successive days of hard racing perhaps taking a toll, having only returned to action on Friday after a serious crash in December. He ultimately finished 59th, three minutes down on the winner.
“I think [Pogacar] went so early, normally we kick at the bottom [of La Redoute] and then it settles a bit and then we go again,” Pidcock, who finished ninth, said after the race.
“I think he went so early that no one was able to get their breath [back]. I felt super good and then when we were away I didn’t let myself recover enough and I didn’t have the gas on the Cote de la Roche-aux-Faucons [the final climb], so a bit disappointed about that actually.”
