The clock is ticking down to the start of this year's Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
The riders are at the start, signing on and preparing for arguably the hardest Classic of the season.
Cyclingnews will have full live coverage of all the action from the 258km race.
It is cold but dry and sunny in Liege as riders make their final preparations for the race.
The women also race the first edition of their Liege-Bastogne-Liege today.
We will bring as much information on the women's race as possible too.
This 103rd edition of the race will start in the centre of the city, with riders covering 6.8km of neutralised riding before the official start.
Following the tragic death of Michele Scarponi, a minute of remembrance will be held before the start.
The Astana riders lined up at the front of the peloton, with applause from the riders, official and crowd remembering Scarponi.
The Astana riders are wearing black armbands and several were in tears as everyone applauded. A huge photo of Scarponi was shown on the start podium.
The Astana riders at the head of the peloton as everyone remembers Michele Scarponi.
This video shows the peloton paying tribute to Michele Scarponi before the start #LBL pic.twitter.com/Qpd1tFF37Q
The women's race is also underway.
They rolled out of Bastogne and will cover many of the same climbs of the men before the finish in the Liege suburb of Ans.
The men are still in the neutralised sector, wrapped up well against the cold temperature of 5C.
Cyclingnews understands that all the prize money from the men's race will be donated to Scarponi's family.
Départ réel donné! They're off! Right on schedule, the race starts.
The men face 258km of racing and must climb ten cotes (hills) today.
The first cote of the race is at the 70km point. Eight of the climbs are in the final 90km and come one after another.
This year's route has been changed slightly, with three new climbs forming the first decisive moment of the racing.
For all the information on the new climbs and how it could impact the racing, click here to read Alasdair Fotheringham's detailed recon of the new route.
This is the new and very challenging Côte de la Ferme Liberte (1.2km, 12.1%).
Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) is the first to attack when the flag is dropped but he is chased down by two riders sand the peloton.
In the women's race, the peloton is all together after 12km of the 135km race.
We have anew attack of eight riders trying to go away.
The eight are: Bart De Clercq, Nick van der One, Tiago Machado, Anthony Perez, Stéphane Rossetto, Mekseb Debesay, Aaron Gate and Fabien Grellier.
The eight lead the peloton by 30 seconds. We could have the early attack of the race.
242km remaining from 258km
The break has flown. The eight riders have opened a 4:00 lead after the peloton let them go.
Olivier Pardini of the WB Veranclassic Aqua Protect team is trying to chase across but is 1:00 behind.
The big-name contenders for final victory are all in the peloton, staying warm and safe until the final 90km of the race and the testing final hills.
In the women's race Lizzie Deignan suffered a mechanical problem but is now back in the bunch.
The race is still all together.
In the men's race Olivier Pardini is slipping back to the peloton. He's failed to get acros to the break of eight riders.
They lead the peloton by 7:30, with five kilometres separating toe the two groups out on the road.
212km remaining from 258km
After the opening hour of racing the average speed is 41.4km/h.
The riders face another six hours or so in the saddle.
The riders in the break are Tiago Machado (Katusha), Anthony Perez and Stéphane Rossetto (Cofidis), Mekseb Debesay (Dimension Data), Bart De Clercq (Lotto Soudal), Nick Van Der Lijke (Roompot), Fabien Grellier (Direct Energie) and Aaron Gate (Aqua Blue).
The peloton is riding steady, letting the break go out to 10:00 after 55km of racing south towards Bastogne.
Alasdair Fotheringham, our man on the ground at Liege-Bastogne-Liege, spoke to several riders at the start today.
2014 winner Simon Gerrans (Orica-Scott) predicted a different race and an unusual favourite.
"They’ve changed the route a bit, and that could make for a different race," he said.
"But in any case my favourite today’s not Alejandro Valverde, it's Michael Albasini!"
We will see later is he is proved to be right.
The peloton is lined out as the Movistar team sets the tempo to protect Valverde's chances.
The gap is still at 10:00.
#LBL Le groupe de 8 compte plus de 10' d'avance sur le peloton après 65 km. https://t.co/e9Eltp3deI
Peter Vakoc is now on the front of the peloton leading the chase for Quick-Step leader Dan Martin.
He is swapping turns with the Movistar riders.
59km remaining from 258km
Next cote is the Col du Rosier.
The race is getting serious as the gap falls to 6:30.
Despite his spectacular spring, Olympic champion Greg van Avermaet is in the BMC team and has not ruled out a result. He spoke briefly to Belgian television before the start.
“It’s great to be here. I’m not the big pre-race favourite but I hope to do a good ride and do something,” he said.
“My legs aren’t as strong as they were for the Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix but they’re still there. Lets see what I can do.”
Dan Martin also spoke to Cyclingnews before the start of the race.
He was happy the weather was dry this year.
"I’m a lot happier with the weather this year, it’s a really important race on the calendar, and it’s a pleasure to be here today," he said.
"I’m in good condition, I’ve had good results all years, and the team’s had incredibly good results. To continue that chain is a very difficult challenge and missing Julian [Alaphilippe] is not ideal either. But we’ve got a great team spirit."
In other racing news, Sacha Modolo won the final stage to Zagreb at the Tour of Croatia.
Vincenzo Nibali won overall, thanks to taking some vital bonus seconds mid-stage.
For a brief results from the Tour of Croatia, click here.
#LBL 47kms to go and the breakaway has 6 minutes, but the pace has picked up in the peloton. Should see it fall quite quickly over last kms.
1 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 6:24:27 2 Daniel Martin (Irl) Quick-Step Floors 3 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Team Sky 0:00:03 4 Michael Matthews (Aus) Team Sunweb 5 Jon Izaguirre (Spa) Bahrain-Merida 6 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 7 Michael Albasini (Swi) Orica-Scott 8 Adam Yates (GBr) Orica-Scott 0:00:07 9 Michael Woods (Can) Cannondale-Drapac 10 Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe
Tears for Valverde: "This victory is for Michele Scarponi, my friend. I will donate my prize money to the family." https://t.co/PQ1cbMGhR3
Thanks to his win Valverde also jumps up the UCI WorldTour rankings to second place behind Greg van Avermaet (BMC).
Valverde celebrates with his family and teammates before the podium ceremony.
Michel Kwiatkowski and Dan Martin fill the podium places for third and second. Valverde takes the top step, shaking hands with them in congratulation.
He lifts the winner's trophy above his head but the celebrations are muted after Sacrponi's death.
He poses holding four fingers for his four wins at Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
Valverde dedicated his victory to Michele Scarponi and said, as he had promised, that he'd give his prize money to Scarponi's family.
“This win is for Michele Scarponi. He was good friend of mine,” Valverde said, fighting back the tears.
“It hurts to think he’s gone, I’ll miss him. I’ll give all my prize money from this victory to his family. This win is also dedicated to him.”
Asked about the race, Valverde said: “The team was fantastic, we worked excellently. We controlled the break because it was dangerous."
“On the last climb Dan Martin attacked really hard but I managed to reach him at the right moment to then sprint to the finish line.”
We have the first images of the finish, showing how Valverde beat Dan Martin with a late attack.
This shot shows how close the race was today.
Dan Martin attacked first with 80m to go and powered past late attacker Davide Formolo. Valverde jumped after Martin and caught at the turn. using his speed to sprint away to win.
Behind Michel Kwiatkowski won the battle for third place from a small group as other riders fought and sprinted for positions in the top ten.
- Su 4ª #LBL (empate Argentin, a 1 de Merckx) - Su 3º doblete en Ardenas (récord) - Su 9ª victoria (a 1 de Merckx)… https://t.co/aFf90cp58m
This shot shows just how close the other riders were at the finish. Everything was decided in the final kilometre after a tactical and aggressive race came back together.
Kwiatkowski explained that he didn't have a great day and why, because of a head wind and a strong riders in the move, it was so difficult to pull the break back.
“The breakaway got so much time very quickly. We expected Movistar to control it easily and they would bring it back before the real race started. But it was so difficult to chase them down, and we were trying to cooperate together with a couple of teams. The pace was so hard and nobody was really able to make the difference," he said.
"Sergio was a real team-mate today. I told him that I was feeling good and he was there to support me at the end. I’m happy we worked so well together.”
The man of the day, close up: Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) wins Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) was one of the revelations today. The Australian handled the cotes well and sprinted hard in the finish straight to take fourth place.
“The plan was to go for Warren (Barguil) today, but he said on the second to last climb that he wasn’t feeling good,” explained Matthews after the finish.
“I tried to keep him motivated to try to get him up there to go for the win, I know that if sometimes you motivate your team mates you can give them the push that they need."
"On Saint-Nicolas he said over the radio that he really wasn’t good so we decided to go for me. From then it was just about trying to survive and see what I could do in the finish."
"I gave everything that I could, it wasn’t enough for the podium but for a super hard final I am really pleased to take 4th.”
Davide Formolo tried to attack alone over the Saint Nicolas climb. It was a brave and strong move but he was swept up with less than a kilometre to go.
"I saw that there was a bit of hesitation by the bunch at the top of the Saint Nicolas. I felt good and so I said: OK. All in! I’ll take a risk to finish alone; everything or nothing," he explained via his team.
"I got away and then I was looking for the last corner to the left, pushing to get there. The problem was that someone had hit my gears on the La Redoute climb and so I had to push a big gear all the way up the final climb."
"This is just my second Liege-Bastogne-Liege. I can only thank the team because they let me do this race. I was there and so if I could do this it’s thanks to the team."
The 2017 Liege-Bastogne-Liege in five photos
1. The Astana team and the rest of the peloton emotionally remembers Michele Scarponi at the start.
2. The eight-rider break of the day almost stayed away.
3. Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) jumped from a counter-attack to the remains of the break but was caught on the Saint Nicolas climb.
4. Davide Formolo (Cannondale-Drapac) made a brave solo attack over the top of the Saint Nicolas and was only caught with less than a kilometre to go.
5. Dan Martin attacked with a kilometre to go but Alejandro Valverde sprinted up to him before the final corner and then passed him to win at the line. The rest of the leaders were close behind.
Thanks for following our live coverage from Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
For our full race report and photo gallery click here.
We will also have comment and reaction from the main protagonists of the race.
Join us for more live coverage from the Tour de Romandie that starts on Tuesday.
