Discover the highlights of Liège Bastogne Liège 2024 !
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More Information on:
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SportTranscription
00:00 Welcome to the 110th edition of Liege Bastogne Liege, the oldest of the classics and the
00:09 fourth monument of the year. Defending champion Remco Evenepoel is absent after a crash at
00:14 the Tour of the Basque Country, but the current world champion Mathieu van der Poel is here,
00:19 along with the 2021 winner Taday Pagacic.
00:25 This is a very important race and after Catalonia I've been training hard for this and for the
00:30 Giro, so I think I'm in good shape and it's important to feel good tomorrow, feel good
00:36 sensations and to make a good race. It's going to be a really open race and a lot of attacking
00:41 from far away.
00:43 After conquering the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, van der Poel is looking to
00:46 become just the second man to win three monuments in a single season.
00:50 This is the last one of my classic campaigns, so I'm ready to try and give it all one more
00:56 time. It's more about the legs and tactics on a course like this. I think Poel Rekar
01:01 has shown himself already that he's really hard to beat on a course like this, but we'll
01:07 give it a try.
01:09 Last year's runner-up Tom Pidcock won the Amstel Gold Race last weekend, while his compatriot
01:14 Stevie Williams took the honours at a rain-soaked Fleche Vallon.
01:17 I think last year was a really nice race. I think I came away quite happy with that
01:24 last year's spring. This year, of course, I've won an Amstel already. I'm feeling good.
01:30 I'm confident with the team around me as well and I'm going to give it a good shot.
01:35 We had a great race on Wednesday, obviously, and to come away with that is massive, so
01:40 hopefully we can carry on the momentum and try and go better again on Sunday.
01:45 No major changes to the route this year. 254.5km with some 4,500m of climbing. Ten of the day's
01:52 11 climbs come on the way back to Liège and it's relentless in the final, with the Côte
01:58 de la Redoute, the Côte de Forge and the Côte de la Rochefoucauld coming in quick
02:02 succession before sweeping back into Liège.
02:06 The weather will be cold again with a headwind forecast in the final, but crucially it should
02:11 be much drier than Fleche Vallon on Wednesday.
02:13 There were a few spots of rain as the flag was dropped and a group of nine riders went
02:20 up the road. Four of them have been in the breakaway at this race in recent years. Paul
02:31 Orsolan and Fabian Dube from Total Energies, Loic Fliegen from Bingoel and Lilian Calmagian
02:37 from Atomarché Wonti.
02:40 Enzo Leinzer was also in there for DSM Fermanic PostNL with Remy Rocha of Groupama FDJ, Christian
02:46 Scaroni of Astana Kazakhstan, Ivan Romao from Movistar and finally Gil Gelders from Sudal
02:52 Quickstep making his monument debut.
02:56 They had a maximum gap of around four and a half minutes, but the advantage began to
03:00 shrink at the halfway point of the race with UAE Team Emirates increasing the pace in the
03:05 peloton. The average speed around 41km/h for the first two hours.
03:12 UAE getting a helping hand from a few other teams, notably Israel Premier Tech as the
03:23 gap tumbled to a minute and twenty, but a couple of crashes would then split the race
03:27 apart.
03:28 Oh, crash! And almost coming down. Van Der Poel was held up. Almost. He just managed
03:35 to miss it. And another massive crash. Huge crash of riders.
03:42 Well luckily everybody was able to get up and keep going, but quite a few riders got
03:46 held up, including Van Der Poel.
03:50 And the peloton weren't hanging around, with UAE and Israel still setting a high tempo.
03:54 By the third climb, the Cote de Mont-Le-Soix, they were closing on the breakaway, who were
03:59 down to just five riders. The Van Der Poel group now trailing by around a minute.
04:06 Eighty-eight kilometres remaining and breakaway over at the start of the Cote d'Ivoire,
04:13 with UAE soon reasserting control of the bunch and looking to put their rivals in the red.
04:19 Van Der Poel was now over a minute back with another pre-race favourite, Pidcock. The British
04:24 rider decided that the chase wasn't going quickly enough for his liking, so he attacked
04:28 from that second group, pulling away with Mauri van Severnens.
04:35 Well little by little, these chasing groups managed to close the gap on the main peloton.
04:43 And they finally made the junction with 70 kilometres to go.
04:51 All of the favourites back in at the front then, with Dom and Novak continuing to set
04:55 a high tempo for UAE. The riders heading for the famous Cote de la Redoute, where Evan
05:00 de Poel launched his winning move in the last two editions, Pogacar deciding to take a leaf
05:05 out of the Belgian's book.
05:07 Here goes the attack. Taddej Pogacar now starts to up the tempo.
05:17 Richard Carapaz trying desperately to hold Pogacar's wheel, but no luck. The Slovenian
05:22 superstar was soon leading solo and he reached the summit of La Redoute with nearly 20 seconds
05:27 in hand. And that gap would only grow as his rivals struggled to get organised.
05:32 Ben Healy, Romain Bardet, Benoit Cosnefoy and Romain Gregoire leading the chase. They
05:37 wouldn't get anywhere near Pogacar though. He was flying away to another sensational
05:41 victory, gaining time on the two final climbs.
05:45 Bardet would win the battle for second place as everybody else was caught by a bigger group
05:49 containing van der Poel and Pidcock. Pogacar with time to savour his victory.
05:56 He's just ridden away from everyone. The Slovenian superstar Pogacar wins his sixth monument of
06:03 his career and his second. Liege, Bastogne Liege. Pogacar has destroyed the opposition
06:13 today. Now he gets set to bring in the second and third place.
06:20 Romain Bardet is best ever finishing Liege, Bastogne Liege. Second place in a monument
06:26 for Bardet. Mathieu van der Poel looking to at least try and get the podium finish he's
06:32 been looking for. It's going to be the world champion in third place.
06:39 Another demonstration from Pogacar who joins van der Poel on six monument wins and now
06:44 has 70 career victories at the age of just 25. The Slovenian has had some tough times
06:49 at this race in recent years and dedicated this win to the late mother of his partner
06:54 Oskar Ziggarts.
06:58 It was quite emotional for me all day riding on the bike and thinking of Urska's mother
07:04 from two years ago when we had to go home and last year when I broke my hand. The last
07:11 two years was really difficult anyway. I was riding for Urska's mother today and I'm really
07:21 happy that finally I can again win in this race, win this beautiful race.
07:32 That is now seven wins in ten race days for Pogacar this season ahead of Bardet who took
07:37 his best result at a monument in his 22nd appearance. Van der Poel winning the sprint
07:42 for third place ahead of Maxime van Gils and Aurelien Paripantra.
07:46 And so the curtain closes on a spectacular classics campaign and we look ahead to the
07:51 Grand Tour season where that man Pogacar will no doubt be making more headlines. Do join
07:56 us again soon and thanks for watching.
07:58 Thanks.
07:59 Thanks.
08:01 Thanks.
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08:09 Thanks.
08:10 (whooshing)