{"id":4715,"date":"2023-04-24T18:09:14","date_gmt":"2023-04-24T16:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/?p=4715"},"modified":"2023-05-05T18:14:39","modified_gmt":"2023-05-05T16:14:39","slug":"evenepoel-dominates-liege-bastogne-liege-after-pogacar-crashes-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2023\/04\/24\/evenepoel-dominates-liege-bastogne-liege-after-pogacar-crashes-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Evenepoel Dominates Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge After Poga\u010dar Crashes Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remco Evenepoel (Soudal\u2013Quick Step) won the oldest and season\u2019s last of the five Spring Monuments, Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge, on Sunday after race favourite Tadej Poga\u010dar crashed and was forced to abandon the race.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The dream matchup of the world road race champion against the season\u2019s dominant rider turned into a nightmare for the Slovenian \u2013 and a huge disappointment for racing fans \u2013 when he fell heavily with 174 km to go in the 258.5-kilometre course, breaking two bones in his wrist. Poga\u010dar had taken 12 victories in 18 days of racing this year, and was going for a rare hattrick of wins in the three-race Ardennes series, after wins in the Amstel Gold Race<\/a> a week earlier and La Fl\u00e8che Wallone on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Last year, Poga\u010dar abandoned the race the day before it kicked off because he wanted to be with his fianc\u00e9e after the death of her mother. Evenepoel went on to win that day as well. This year\u2019s withdrawal was the first time in his career that the UAE Team Emirates leader has quit a race because of a crash. Sporza reported<\/a> that the reason for the crash was that EF Education-EasyPost’s Mikkel Honor\u00e9, who was also forced to drop out, fell after suffering double punctures on a potholed descent and Poga\u010dar was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.<\/p>\n

He underwent surgery in a Genk hospital on Sunday. The latest Instagram post from his team showed a smiling Poga\u010dar with a bandaged left wrist and quoted a statement from the hospital\u2019s medical director: \u201cThe surgery on @TamauPogi\u2019s scaphoid was successful, he will travel home [on Monday] for recovery and rehabilitation.\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CrY3crIox8u\/<\/p>\n

With Poga\u010dar out, all the attention was focused on Evenepoel, who won last year after a long solo run, and the 23-year-old Belgian did not disappoint. Taking off at virtually the same spot as he did in 2022, halfway up the C\u00f4te de la Redoute climb (1.6 km at 8.7%), he was briefly joined by Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), but shook him off with 29 km remaining and was never troubled again, crossing the line waving and smiling after 6 h 15 min and 49 sec of hard racing.<\/p>\n

Pidcock finished a courageous second in the final race of the Spring Classics season, 1 min 6 sec adrift, beating Colombia\u2019s Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) in a sprint. \u201cIt was a tough race because of the cold and the rain in the last few hours,\u201d Evenepoel told Eurosport after the race. \u201cThe roads were very slippery. On La Redoute, my rear wheel even slipped away. After that, I knew I had to grab as much time as possible and I took control of the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on to praise his Soudal\u2013Quick Step teammates, saying: \u201cMy team did a great job. We controlled the course, despite Jumbo[-Visma’s] attacks.\u201d Speaking of Poga\u010dar\u2019s crash, he said that he heard a \u201chorrible noise\u201d and added, no doubt echoing the feelings of millions of cycling fans: \u201cI hope everything goes well and wish him the best. It’s a pity he couldn’t finish the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

The race started under sunny skies but rain began falling at the halfway point and left the pavement treacherous. There was an immediate breakaway that took 15 minutes to form into a group of 11 riders who managed a lead of almost 5 minutes before Soudal\u2013Quick Step began to gradually reel them in. The breakaway and the peloton started losing riders with about 85 km to go, on the ascent of the C\u00f4te de Mont-le-Soie (2 km at 5.3%).<\/p>\n

That is when the Slovenian Jumbo-Visma rider Jan Tratnik broke away from the peloton and soon caught the breakaway. When he accelerated again, only Simone Velasco (Astana Qazaqstan) could stay with him. They were caught on the La Redoute climb, just before Evenepoel made his winning move and became the first reigning world champion to win Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge since Moreno Argentin in 1987. That pleased him as much as the fact that he had won the race two years in a row. \u201cIt was great to get two out of two,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m so proud to win in the World Champion\u2019s jersey. I really wanted a photo of me doing that and now I have it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But racing fans and Poga\u010dar are left to ponder the vexing question, what if he hadn\u2019t crashed? The answer is that we\u2019ll never know. The more important issue is what effect the broken wrist will have on his season. How much training time will he lose? Fortunately, he had been planning to take an extended rest after his spring exertions and the Tour de France is more than two months away.<\/p>\n

For cycling fans, it\u2019s finger-crossing time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remco Evenepoel (Soudal\u2013Quick Step) won the oldest and season\u2019s last of the five Spring Monuments, Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge, on Sunday after race […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":167,"featured_media":4732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-4715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-the-latest"],"yoast_head":"\nEvenepoel Dominates Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge After Poga\u010dar's Crash<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2023\/04\/24\/evenepoel-dominates-liege-bastogne-liege-after-pogacar-crashes-out\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Evenepoel Dominates Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge After Poga\u010dar Crashes Out\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Remco Evenepoel (Soudal\u2013Quick Step) won the oldest and season\u2019s last of the five Spring Monuments, Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge, on Sunday after race […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2023\/04\/24\/evenepoel-dominates-liege-bastogne-liege-after-pogacar-crashes-out\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling - 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