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Pre-race favorite Tadej Pogačar made light work of winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday, attacking with just under 35km remaining and soloing to the finish line.
The Slovenian made the most of a strong ride from his UAE Team Emirates squad, with those riders softening up the peloton with a constant high tempo over the course’s endless string of climbs. Pogačar made his move on the Côte de la Redoute and stomped home to win by an impressive margin.
Romain Bardet (Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL) held off the chasers for second, 1:38 back, while Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) made up for an otherwise quiet day by winning the chase group sprint for third, two minutes behind.
Pogačar crossed the finish line with his arms pointing skywards. The race occurred two years to the day after the passing of partner Urška Žigart’s mother, and pointed to the heavens as he crossed the line.
“It was a miserable day from the start but we kept pushing hard with the team. We made a good pace so we kept a little bit more warm,” said the world No. 1. “It was quite emotional for me all day riding on the bike, thinking of Urška’s mother from two years ago when we had to go home, and last year when I broke my hand.
“The last two years were really difficult anyway. I was riding for Urška’s mother today and I am really happy that finally I can again win in this beautiful race.
“Thanks to all the team who worked for me today, it was amazing teamwork. I couldn’t have done it without them and I am full of emotion.”
Pogačar’s crash 12 months ago put him off the bike for several weeks and that disruption was a big factor in him finishing second in the Tour de France. He wanted to avoid something like that happening once again.
“Of course today I had in mind all day just to be careful,” he explained. “Last year I had all day in my mind to save as much energy as possible, but today I was more on the safe side. I was thinking of staying warm also. I had more layers on to stay warm because the first part was super, super cold.
“The team did a super job. We rode hard on the climbs, safe on the downhills and on La Redoute we did exactly what we said. From then on it was suffering to the finish.”
#Replay / #LBL
Revivez l’attaque de Tadej Pogacar (UAD) dans La Redoute. Une seule accélération a suffi pour faire la différence et s’imposer en solitaire !pic.twitter.com/pkDG5fNZkF— Renaud Breban (@RenaudB31) April 21, 2024
A race of attrition, with UAE Team Emirates driving the pace
The last of the Ardennes Classics took the riders 254.5km from Liège to Bastogne and back again, with the riders facing 11 climbs en route.
The final three of those would be the most important, starting with the Côte de la Redoute, 1.6km in length and summiting with 34km to go. That would be followed by the Côte des Forges, which tops out with 23.3km to go, and the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons exactly ten kilometers later. The latter two climbs were 1.3km in length, but made more difficult by the accumulated fatigue.
The day’s break went very soon after the start, with Gil Gelders (Soudal Quick-Step), Rémy Rochas (Groupama-FDJ), Lilian Calmejane (Intermarché-Wanty) and Paul Ourselin (TotalEnergies) the first to fly. They were subsequently reinforced by Christian Scaroni (Astana Qazaqstan) and Iván Romeo (Movistar Team), then Enzo Leijnse (Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL), Fabien Doubey (TotalEnergies) and Loïc Vliegen (Bingoal WB). They quickly got three minutes and this increased to almost five minutes with 100km covered.
The UAE Team Emirates squad chased and trimmed down the lead to a minute and a half. However a huge crash in the peloton with 98km remaining caused chaos behind, with Van der Poel, Pidcock, Simon Yates (Team Jayco AlUla), Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-hansgrohe) and Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) amongst a number of riders delayed behind.
The break was caught with 88km remaining, but Pidcock, Van der Poel and the others weren’t back up to the Pogačar group until 70km remaining.
UAE Team Emirates did much of the driving to try to soften things up and brought the peloton toward the key climb of the Côte de la Redoute. Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) and Mathias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) were close to the front as the climb began, but had no answer when Pogačar leaped clear with 34.8km remaining.
Instead Healy’s teammate Carapaz was the only one able to go with the Slovenian, but blew up before the summit and was caught by the next chasers. Pogačar held a 10-second lead just after the top, 34km to go, but with 28km left was already 56 seconds ahead of Healy and Bardet.
Those two chasers were joined by Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ) and Benoît Cosnefroy (Decathlon Ag2r) with 25.3km remaining, but despite their pooled effort the gap climbed to 1:19 with 20m left. The Van der Poel group was a further 37 seconds adrift there, with the world champion appearing drained from all the climbing.
With roads drying after a brief shower, Pogačar raced onto the final climb, the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons and continued his momentum there. The gaps had stayed remarkably constant for a long time and going over the top, Bardet—who had dropped the other three—was 1:28 behind the leader.
Healy, Gregoire and Cosnefroy were several seconds further adrift and had been joined by Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost). Others then bridged and various surges occurred, but the stop/start racing ultimately enabled Bardet to remain out front.
He was running close to two minutes back but the gap was less at the line due to Pogačar’s celebration. The race winner made sure to fully savor the emotion and the manner of his victory.
“It is special. I think after these kind of long races it is super special to come solo,” he said. “Also with the national champion’s jersey, it is beautiful to come like this to the finish.”
His next race is the Giro d’Italia, starting in two week’s time. His rivals there will work hard in the meantime but on the evidence of today’s race, will worry about what will be in store.