Race thread: 🇧🇪 Liège–Bastogne–Liège 2026, Apr 26
The last of the Ardennaises will take place this Sunday, over 250 km.
I noticed that few small changes were made in the course:
- a detour on the way to Bastogne;
- a shortcut on the way back;
- a tiny addition between Spa and the Côte de Desnié: the Maquisard pass (17 km before the Côte de la Redoute).
Outward journey in yellow, inward in red:
Profiles (general and zoom on the last 35 km):
Pogatchar (🇸🇮 UAE) is the favourite for the win, and Evenepoel (🇧🇪 Bora) would be the clear favourite for 2^nd^ place if there wasn't the Seixas🇫🇷 case. It will be a test for Ze Elect (🇫🇷 Decathlon): where does he stand in Spring 2026, compared to those two favourites? He was behind in World & European Chamionships last autumn, but has now reached or exceeded the level of the Belgian on this type of course?
The others? Well, if those 3 don't experience an accident or incident, good luck to Skjelmose🇩🇰 & Ciccone🇮🇹 (Lidl-trek), Vauquelin (🇫🇷 Ineos), Tulett (🇬🇧 Visma) and many other candidates for top-10 to grab a seat on the podium...
https://www.liege-bastogne-liege.be/en/Open linkView original on sh.itjust.works
Apparently a split in the wind has given Remco a big advantage. I had hoped for Mexican standoff between Seixas, Remco and Pogacar but the race can be all over before we get television coverage.
The little 100+ km pursuit seems to have soothed everyone for the following phase, and it didn't look nearly as nervous or dangerous as usual before the expected Pogatchar🇸🇮's attack at the expected location. Then, as expected, he had one rider (Seixas🇫🇷 today) collaborate with him without trying anything, until his expected second attack at the expected location, giving the expected result. And we got the expected podium, even though it wasn't expected than a group of 25 would only provide Bernal🇨🇴 as best sprinter (the Colombian rider who was beaten in this same exercise each time this week in Trentin by the terrifying Tommaso Dati from UKYO).
I would just like to mention Skjelmose (🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek) who wasn't paid at all, for he was very strong but was very unfortunate not to have anyone with him, each time he went away in the climbs. For the rest, the Tour of Asturias offered much more action today (and the other days).
Ah, one more thing! Except for the mile before the last mile, we got some decent coverage of what was going in the group(s) behind the first two guys!!! That's unusual 😆 👍