Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2024

Liège-Bastogne-Liège: Tadej Pogačar crushes the field on La Redoute to take solo sixth Monument victory

As it happened: Tadej Pogačar dominates at Liège-Bastogne-Liège 

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) took a sensational solo victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège after attacking the field with a crushing attack on the Côte de la Redoute, 34km from the finish.

The Slovenian, who no doubt viewed the win as settling unfinished business after crashing out of the 2023 edition, finished 1:39 ahead of a solo chase from a smiling Romain Bardet, with Mathieu van der Poel winning the sprint for third from the main chase group at 2:02 back.

Liège-Bastogne-Liège information

Liège-Bastogne-Liège will have its 110th edition on April 21, 2024. It is the oldest Classic on the calendar. Known as La Doyenne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège closes out the Ardennes Classics with a last-man-standing war of attrition over 250km or more and 10 classified climbs in the rolling hills of eastern Belgium.

The climbs of the Saint-Roch, Wanne, Stockeu, La Redoute, and Roche-aux-Faucons are among those which pepper the route, making the race the toughest of Ardennes week.

From 1992 until 2019, Liège-Bastogne-Liège finished in the industrial suburb of Ans rather than in Liège with the last climb of the Côte de Saint-Nicolas just 5.5km from an uphill run-in to the finish line.

In 2019, the race finish returned to the centre of Liège now with the Côte de la Roche-Aux-Faucons the final climb with 13.3km to go.

The move hasn't turned the Monument into a sprinter's affair, however, with 2019's rainy edition won by Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) after a solo attack on the Roche-Aux-Faucons. In 2020, the race was held in late October after being postponed due the coronavirus pandemic. New world champion Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quickstep) sparked the winning move on the final climb, and was followed by Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma), Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Marc Hirschi (Team Sunweb).

He dodged his way through the group and celebrated what he thought was a victory only to have Roglic continue through and pip him at the line. The jury later relegated the Frenchman for irregular sprinting to fifth, with Hirschi and Pogacar rounding out the podium behind Roglic.

The Côte de la Roche-Aux-Faucons played a key role again in 2021, when Pogačar sparked the winning move, then out-sprinted Alaphilippe and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ).

Then, in 2022, Remco Evenepoel (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) launched the winning move further out on the Côte de la Redoute with 29km to go and soloed in for victory. Quinten Hermans (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) topped Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) in the sprint for second.

Last season, Evenepoel repeated that performance but attacked on a new uncategorised climb after the Côte de la Redoute and soloed in for victory.

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), who was seeking to win the Ardennes triple after winning the Amstel Gold race and La Flèche Wallonne, crashed at roughly 85km into the race and was forced to abandon with a broken wrist.

Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) won the chase group sprint for second place ahead of Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious).

Liège-Bastogne-Liège winners

Liège-Bastogne-Liège is a maker of legends, and no male rider has won more than the biggest Belgian name in cycling, Eddy Merckx, who accumulated five titles in the race between 1969 and 1975.

Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), who retired in 2022, has four wins (2006, 2008, 2015, 2017) - equalling Moreno Argentin (1985, 1986, 1987, 1991) - and the most podium appearances in history with eight. His 2017 victory also made him the oldest winner of the race at 36 and 363 days.

No active rider has more than a single victory in the race, but that could change in 2023 with now-World Champion Remco Evenepoel an undoubted favourite for a repeat win.

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Liège-Bastogne-Liège route

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The 110th edition of  Liège-Bastogne-Liège is 259 kilometres long with 10 classified climbs on a slight longer route than the past few years. The finale still includes the Côte de La Redoute, Côte des Forges and Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons in the final 40km.

Read more about the 2024 Liège-Bastogne-Liège route.

Liège-Bastogne-Liège Start list

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