Remco Evenepoel wins Liège-Bastogne-Liège

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Remco Evenepoel (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) claimed the biggest victory of his career to date at Liège-Bastogne-Liège after he soloed clear atop the Côte de la Redoute with 29km remaining.

The sheer difficulty of the oldest Monument traditionally calls on contenders to mete their efforts out carefully but Evenepoel showed no inhibitions when he powered away from the group of favourites on the race’s emblematic climb, the Côte de La Redoute. He was not to be seen again by his rivals until he mounted the podium in Liège.

Quinten Hermans (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert) won the group sprint for second place ahead of Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) at 48 seconds, but that joust was a mere footnote as Evenepoel notched up the first Monument win of his career in his belated first appearance at La Doyenne.

Evenepoel’s victory saved his QuickStep-AlphaVinyl team’s Spring Classics campaign, but came after his teammate Julian Alaphilippe left the race in an ambulance following a mass crash ahead of the Col du Rosier.

For Evenepoel, the victory also appeared to mark the final, triumphant step in his long recovery from the heavy crash that ended his challenge at the 2020 edition of Il Lombardia. Although he has been a regular winner since his return to the peloton, the 22-year-old had also suffered high-profile setbacks in major events, but his dominance here brooked no argument.

He was in a race of his own from the moment he hit the front on La Redoute, climbing from the saddle and burning Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) off his wheel.

“I think today was my best day on the bike maybe ever. The perfect day to have my best day on the bike, I guess,” said Evenepoel.

“It’s incredible. I’ve been suffering a lot, mentally and physically, over the last year and a half. Finally, this year I feel that everything is going well, everything is getting stable, and I’m getting back to the best Remco again. [QuickStep] always believed in me, even when I had difficult days like in Tirreno.”

Evenepoel’s fierce attack near the top of the Redoute saw him force his way clear of the group of favourites, and he proceeded to pick his way through the remnants of the day’s early break. He would drop the last survivor of the move, Bruno Armirail (Groupama-FDJ), on the final ascent of the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons with 14km remaining.

Evenepoel had a lead of half a minute over his pursuers at the base of that climb and when he extended that advantage on its steep slopes, the run-in to Liège became something of a coronation. Indeed, he was already punching the air in celebration with a little under 3km to go.

Ironically, Evenepoel was perhaps aided by the presence of his rival Van Aert in the chasing group, given that few wanted to help bring the Belgian champion to a sprint in Liège.

When Van Aert was distanced by accelerations from Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Dylan Teuns (Bahrain Victorious) on the unclassified hill at Boncelles with 10km remaining, for instance, Evenepoel’s advantage briefly dipped inside 20 seconds. But when Van Aert clawed his way back on over the other side, the momentum ebbed from the chase, and Evenepoel’s lead stretched out accordingly.

Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) made an attempt to clip away for a podium spot in the finale, but he was clawed back on the outskirts of Liège, and a 13-man sprint ensued, with the surprising Herman and Van Aert beating Daniel Martínez (Ineos), Sergio Higuita (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Dylan Teuns (Bahrain Victorious) to the podium.

“I tried to hang with the best on the steep climbs but there was just one really strong guy in front of us that was better than the others,” said Van Aert.

The day belonged to Evenepoel, who became the first Belgian winner since Philippe Gilbert in 2011. He was perhaps also the first winner to show his hand so openly on La Redoute since the late Frank Vandenbroucke in 1999. On that occasion, Vandenbroucke opted to desist and wait to unleash his winning move on the Côte de Saint-Nicolas. Here, Evenepoel simply never let up.

“With a headwind, it was really difficult to keep pushing,” he said. “But I knew that everybody was suffering the whole day.”

How it unfolded

The absence of defending champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) changed the complexion of La Doyenne, even if the race’s intrinsic difficulty remained resolutely in place.

A rapid start saw some 46km covered in the opening hour of racing, and the early break took shape in instalments, with 11 riders eventually forming the échapée matinale: Bruno Armirail (Groupama-FDJ), Jacob Madsen (Uno-X), Sylvain Moniquet, Harm Vanhoucke (Lotto-Soudal), Pau Miquel (Equipo Kern Pharma), Baptiste Planckaert (Intermarché-Wanty Gobert), Fabien Doubey, Paul Ourselin (TotalEnergies), Marco Tizza, Kenny Molly and Luc Wirtgen (Bingoal Pauwels Sauces).

Their lead stood at 6:05 come the first climb of the Côte de la Roche-en-Ardenne after 76km before the increasingly rugged terrain and the growing urgency in the peloton began to take effect.

QuickStep-AlphaVinyl and Bahrain Victorious were laid down the tempo on the early climbs and by the time they hit Stavelot with 75km remaining and swung onto the Côte de Stockeu, the break’s advantage had been pared down to inside three minutes.

The Stockeu was followed in quick succession by the Côte de la Haute-Levée, and that combination whittled the break down to six riders, as Armirail, Moniquet, Vanhoucke, Ourselin, Doubey, and Wirtgen forged ahead.

The race took on an altogether different guise with a little over 60km remaining, however, when the peloton was hit by a mass crash on the rapid run-in to the base of the Col du Rosier, with Julian Alaphilippe among the heaviest fallers. The world champion was forced to abandon, while others such as Romain Bardet (DSM) and Rigoberto Uran (EF Education-EasyPost) also saw their challenges end here.

Only a third or so of the peloton managed to escape getting caught up in the incident, with Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), and Tom Pidcock (Ineos) among those who later succeeded in chasing back on to the Bahrain Victorious-propelled peloton.

Despite the crash, there was little let up at the head of the bunch, and Bahrain Victorious stepped up their onslaught on the Côte de Desnié, where Mikel Landa launched a volley of attacks.

The Basque made no fewer than four accelerations, prompting immediate reactions on each occasion, and his aggression also whittled the bunch down to just 40 or so riders as the race entered the final 40km, while the break’s lead was now at 1:38.

QuickStep-AlphaVinyl took up the reins on La Redoute, however. While Armirail dropped his breakaway companions and pushed on alone, Evenepoel bided his time behind until the steepest portion of the climb has passed before he unleashed a vicious attack near the summit that nobody could follow.

Evenepoel then picked his way through the stragglers from the break on the subsequent, unclassified Sprimont as he zoomed his way across to the lone leader Armirail. By the time he joined Armirail at the head of the race with 21km remaining, he had 30 seconds in hand on a reduced peloton, where Ineos, Movistar, Jumbo-Visma and Bahrain Victorious were leading the pursuit.

Evenpoel – with Armirail just about holding his wheel – hit the foot of the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons with 15km to go with 38 seconds in hand on the pursuers, and the Belgian dropped his companion almost as soon as the gradient stiffened. Despite the severity of the gradient, he was able to remain seated all the way to the summit. From there, his victory was never in doubt.