{"id":7984,"date":"2025-04-25T15:33:42","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T13:33:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/?p=7984"},"modified":"2025-04-30T15:37:43","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T13:37:43","slug":"pogacar-and-evenepoel-go-at-it-again-in-sundays-liege-bastogne-liege","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2025\/04\/25\/pogacar-and-evenepoel-go-at-it-again-in-sundays-liege-bastogne-liege\/","title":{"rendered":"Poga\u010dar and Evenepoel Go At It Again in Sunday\u2019s Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Among the spring Classics, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix get most of the love, primarily, I think, because of the cobblestones that often shake up the riders and the races and make for some great TV visuals. But Sunday\u2019s Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge is very much their equal in terms of drama, difficulty and even, given the countryside through which it rolls, appealing optics. And unlike the aforementioned cobbled Monuments, where luck and mechanical issues often affect the outcome, the winner of the oldest of all the Monuments is usually the best rider.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As proof of that, only one cyclist has ever won the race five times, the great Eddy Merckx.<\/a> In addition, three riders have won the last five editions of the Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge, and they are the cream of this generation of cyclists: Tadej Poga\u010dar (UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) have won it twice, and Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d\u00a0(Red Bull\u2013BORA\u2013hansgrohe, but then Jumbo-Visma) won in 2020.<\/p>\n

Evenepoel and Poga\u010dar will be on the starting line in Li\u00e8ge on Sunday again, and it should make for a cracking race. Oddly, the two have never raced against each other in the Li\u00e8ge before. Both riders did start the 2023 edition, but the Slovenian crashed out of the race as he was going for a rare Ardennes Classics grand slam, having won both the Amstel Gold Race and La Fl\u00e8che Wallonne<\/a> in the week leading up to the race. Evenepoel won that race, as he had won the 2022 edition, with a long solo ride, taking off halfway up the redoubtable C\u00f4te de la Redoute (1.6 km at 9.5 %) and winning by a margin of 1:06 over Tom Pidcock (then of INEOS Grenadiers).<\/p>\n

\"Tadej<\/a>
Poga\u010dar celebrating the La Fl\u00e8che Wallonne win. \u00a9 Profimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With Poga\u010dar in the race and hopefully remaining on his bike, the double Olympic champion won\u2019t be able to ride alone to the finish line this year \u2013 and he and the Slovenian world champion may not have the race all to themselves. Pidcock is back again and, as the leader of the second-level team Q36.5, he has become a stronger and more mature rider than he was two years ago. And Lidl-Trek\u2019s Mattias Skjelmose, who beat both Poga\u010dar and Evenepoel in the Amstel Gold Race this year, is still slated to ride, despite having crashed out of Wednesday\u2019s La Fl\u00e8che Wallonne and appearing to injure his leg and elbow.<\/p>\n

Whether they ride away from the bunch or are accompanied by a small, select group, the key to the race is likely to be the final climb in the 257.2 km race, up the steep slopes of the C\u00f4te de la Roche aux Faucons (1.3 km at a daunting average grade of 11%, with ramps of more than 15%). It comes with about 20 km left to ride in the race and would appear to be the ideal spot for Poga\u010dar to try to drop any riders still on his wheels, the way he did on the imposing Mur de Huy (1.3 km @ 9.6%, with ramps of up to 19%) in La Fl\u00e8che Wallonne.<\/p>\n

No one was able to stay within shouting distance of him on that climb, with Pidcock finishing third, 12 seconds behind, and Evenepoel coming ninth, at 16 seconds. But the finish line on Wednesday was atop the Mur; on Sunday, there will be another 20 km left to ride. Assuming that Poga\u010dar drops Evenepoel, Pidcock and perhaps another rider or two on the C\u00f4te de la Roche aux Faucons, a small group of top riders could work together and bring the Slovenian back over 20 km.<\/p>\n

In any case, there are three difficult climbs in the last 40 km, the C\u00f4te de la Redoute, the C\u00f4te des Forges (1.3 km @ 7.2%) and the C\u00f4te de la Roche aux Faucons. At some point in that stretch of mountainous road, the endgame will kick off.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar looked very tired at the finish of La Fl\u00e8che Wallonne, as that had been his sixth hard Classics race since March 8 and his fourth in 17 days. Will three rest days be enough for him to recover his full strength? I\u2019m not sure. He rode a similarly full schedule in 2023, and I have always believed that his crash in that year\u2019s Li\u00e8ge was largely due to fatigue.<\/p>\n

If Evenepoel and Pidcock, say, come off the C\u00f4te de la Roche aux Faucons trailing a tired Poga\u010dar by 10 or 12 seconds, they have a good chance to catch him. (But if it\u2019s 30 or 40 seconds, they can forget it.) If Evenepoel and Poga\u010dar come to that climb together, with a chase group 30 seconds behind, the world champion should win. Though he has looked very good since his return from injury, Evenepoel is not yet at full strength and is not, and may never be, his rival\u2019s equal as a climber. On the other hand, the Belgian is fresher and gaining in strength with every race.<\/p>\n

Whoever wins, it is sure to be a humdinger of a race. And the weather, which had such an impact on Wednesday, is currently forecast to be sunny and pleasant with a high of 19\u00b0C. So there won\u2019t be any excuses for the losers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Among the spring Classics, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix get most of the love, primarily, I think, because of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":8029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-7984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-the-latest"],"yoast_head":"\nPoga\u010dar and Evenepoel Go At It Again in Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge<\/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\/2025\/04\/25\/pogacar-and-evenepoel-go-at-it-again-in-sundays-liege-bastogne-liege\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Poga\u010dar and Evenepoel Go At It Again in Sunday\u2019s Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Among the spring Classics, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix get most of the love, primarily, I think, because of […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2025\/04\/25\/pogacar-and-evenepoel-go-at-it-again-in-sundays-liege-bastogne-liege\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling - 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