Photo by HERBERT MOOS

1 EVENEPOEL Remco BEL QUICK-STEP ALPHA VINYL TEAM 06:12:38
2 HERMANS Quinten BEL INTERMARCHE – WANTY – GOBERT MATERIAUX 00:48
3 VAN AERT Wout BEL JUMBO – VISMA 00:48
4 MARTINEZ Daniel Felipe COL INEOS GRENADIERS 00:48
5 HIGUITA Sergio Andres COL BORA – HANSGROHE 00:48
6 TEUNS Dylan BEL BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS 00:48
7 VALVERDE Alejandro ESP MOVISTAR TEAM 00:48
8 POWLESS Neilson USA EF EDUCATION – EASYPOST 00:48
9 HIRSCHI Marc SUI UAE TEAM EMIRATES 00:48
10 WOODS Michael CAN ISRAEL-PREMIER TECH 00:48
11 HAIG Jack AUS BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS 00:48
12 MAS Enric ESP MOVISTAR TEAM 00:48
13 FUGLSANG Jakob DEN ISRAEL-PREMIER TECH 00:48
14 VLASOV Aleksandr RUS BORA – HANSGROHE 00:52
15 BARGUIL Warren FRA TEAM ARKEA – SAMSIC 01:36
16 ARMIRAIL Bruno FRA GROUPAMA – FDJ 01:36
17 STANNARD Robert AUS ALPECIN – FENIX 02:30
18 MOLARD Rudy FRA GROUPAMA – FDJ 02:30
19 MEURISSE Xandro BEL ALPECIN – FENIX 02:30
20 PACHER Quentin FRA GROUPAMA – FDJ 02:30
21 VUILLERMOZ Alexis FRA TOTALENERGIES 02:30
22 ULISSI Diego ITA UAE TEAM EMIRATES 02:30
23 VANSEVENANT Mauri BEL QUICK-STEP ALPHA VINYL TEAM 02:30
24 COSNEFROY Benoit FRA AG2R CITROEN TEAM 02:30
25 KRAGH ANDERSEN Søren DEN TEAM DSM 02:30
26 POZZOVIVO Domenico ITA INTERMARCHE – WANTY – GOBERT MATERIAUX 02:30
27 IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI Ion ESP COFIDIS 02:30
28 WILSLY Jonas DEN UNO-X PRO CYCLING TEAM 02:30
29 MOLLEMA Bauke NED TREK – SEGAFREDO 02:30
30 NIBALI Vincenzo ITA ASTANA – QAZAQSTAN TEAM 02:30

Photo by HERBERT MOOS

It’s Liège at first sight for Evenepoel

Veni, vidi, Remco. The Belgian rider took over Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl’s leadership baton from his teammate Julian Alaphilippe, who crashed out of contention with 62 kilometres to go, and pulled off an amazing solo ride to win Liège-Bastogne-Liège on his maiden participation in La Doyenne. No one could match Evenepoel’s impressive attack atop the legendary Côte de la Redoute, and all the attempts to bring him back afterwards turned out fruitless. Intermarché-Wanty Gobert’s Quinten Hermans was the quickest in the sprint of the chase group, with Jumbo-Visma’s Wout van Aert coming home third. It’s the first time Liège-Bastogne-Liège has had a full Belgian podium since 1976.

172 riders took the start on the 108th edition of Liège-Bastogne-Liège at 10:21 as there were three non-starters: Tiesj Benoot (Jumbo-Visma), Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe), and Kamiel Bonneu (Sport Vlaanderen). It was five kilometres into the race that Lotto-Soudal’s Sylvain Moniquet first opened up a gap. He was quickly joined by his teammate Harm Vanhoucke, Groupama-FDJ’s Bruno Armirail, Uno-X’s Jacob Madsen and TotalEnergies’ Fabien Doubey. Many groups tried to follow their example, yet failed to do so as Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl didn’t grant any leeway to the attackers until kilometer 40, when Pau Miquel (Equipo Kern Pharma), Baptiste Planckaert (Intermarché-Wanty Gobert), Paul Ourselin (TotalEnergies), Marco Tizza, Kenny Molly and Luc Wirtgen (Bingoal Pauwels Sauces) managed to go clear and finally reached the front of the race 17 kilometres later to establish a 11-strong breakaway. Meanwhile, Sport Vlaanderen’s Gilles de Wilde tried to counter as well, but failed to bridge back and gave up atop the Côte de la Roche-en-Ardenne (km 76,8).

A huge crash gave knocked the race into shape
Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl, Jumbo-Visma, Movistar Team and Bahrain Victorious took turns at the helm of the bunch to keep tabs on the breakaway, which registered a maximum gap of 6’30” clocked at kilometer 101, as the race went past Bastogne. The array of climbs between the kilometers 165 and 190 split the break by half, as Vanhoucke’s pace uphill proved too high for Miquek, Planckaert, Tizza, Molly and Madsen. Meanwhile, the bunch cut the gap down to 3’00” atop the Côte de la Haute-Levée (km 187). It was in a small descent on the way to the Col du Rosier (km 201,2), with 62 kilometres to go and Bahrain Victorious leading the way, that a huge crash happened in the bunch, making 30 riders hit the deck and forcing many more to stop. Amongst the most affected, pre-race favourites like Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), Romain Bardet (Team DSM) or Wilco Kelderman (Bora-Hansgrohe). The peloton was reduced to 60 riders for a minute, until being reinforced by several groups that had been caught on the wrong side of the cut provoked by the crash. This is how Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team), Sergio Higuita (Bora-Hansgrohe) or Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) came back to contention.

Evenepoel’s unmatchable acceleration
As has happened many times in the history of this race, the Côte de la Redoute (km 227,7) was key on the outcome of this edition. Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl led the reduced pack both on its approach and its steeper ramps. Near the summit, with just 29 kilometres to go, Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) made good use of the work deployed by his teammates Louis Vervaeke and Mauri Vansevenant to put on an impressive acceleration – an no one had an answer to it. The Belgian rider went on to catch Bruno Armirail (Groupama-FDJ), who by then was the last man standing from the day’s breakaway, with 22 kilometers to go. They began the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons (km 243,8) with 30” on the pack, where many teams were contributed to keep tabs on the move. Evenepoel dropped Armirail early on the climb and undertook his successful solo raid to victory. The many attacks that happened behind were not good enough to bring his gap down, as he indeed came home with a comfortable 48-second advantage on the first chase group.