Well, what is there to say about that? Hyperbole is rife in sports journalism, but there are truly few words sufficient for a performance such as Tadej Pogačar's at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Naturally, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG leader was the stand-out favourite on the start line of the Monument he's won twice already, in a season overflowing with success and bombastic storylines for the generational talent in rainbow bands. After brilliant work from his team, Pogačar made his move early on the iconic Côte de la Redoute, and nobody could respond. With 35 km to go, he was solo and reaching out for a ninth Monument victory – and a history-making eighth-consecutive Monument podium since Il Lombardia 2023.
It became a heated race for second behind, with Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) and Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) fighting over the lower steps of the podium, shaking off fellow chasers Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) and Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor). The Italian snatched silver a little over a minute after Pogačar crossed the line – the world champion had eased up in the finishing straight to enjoy his homecoming – and the bunch was only a few seconds behind them, led by XDS-Astana's Simone Velasco.
[race_result id=11 stage_id=0 count=10 gc=0 year=2025]
How it happened
- A 12-rider group went clear early in the oldest Monument of the year under pleasant conditions – Pogačar was only too happy to show off his all-white skin suit from kilometre zero.
- With the big names expected to light things up on the iconic climbs at the tail end of the race, many were keen to get something going much earlier on. One of those teams was Ineos Grenadiers, whose former winner Bob Jungels launched into the almost six minute gap just after the halfway point, i.e. with 125 km left to race, and was joined within a few kilometres by teammate Tobias Foss.
- Their intention was presumably to act as satellite riders for another teammate later in the race, but with UAE Team Emirates-XRG taking up the pace-setting with ever-greater intent, their days were numbered; Soudal-QuickStep had been all over the front in the early phases, but their subsequent disappearance was a bad omen for Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel.
- The Ineos duo did find almost two minutes over the bunch, but they ultimately managed nothing but to burn some matches for around 50 km.
- The breakaway arrived at the Côte de Stockeu soon after, and with Domen Novak smashing the pace in the bunch, the writing was on the wall for the leaders, whose gap was hovering around a minute, and their number dwindling fast.
Domen Novak, take a bow.
- Jack Haig then took a bit of a lead onto the descent, just four of his fellow breakaway riders left to chase him down, as in the peloton behind, Haig’s teammate Pello Bilbao leapt from the pack with the optimistic goal of getting a head start on the favourites. The amassed UAE jerseys soon seized back control, obliterating Bahrain Victorious’s efforts before they’d even had a chance to catch their breath.
- The last of the breakaway riders were caught on the Col du Rosier with a little over 60 km to go.
- There was stalemate over the next climb – the Côte de Desnié – as the pace remained high, then it was the extremely high-speed run-in to the infamous Côte de la Redoute, where UAE let Lidl-Trek, Tudor, Groupama-FDJ and Ineos Grenadiers experience some time on the front, before taking back control through town.
Next stop, La Redoute.
- Evenepoel was a notable absence at the foot of the key climb, where UAE still led the way with two riders ahead of the world champion, EF Education-EasyPost and Q36.5’s Tom Pidcock close by and marking carefully.
- It made little to no difference though, and Pogačar didn’t even use up his last few riders before making his attack – again, going earlier than is the ‘done thing’ on the key climb, just as he did at La Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday.
After the race, Ben Healy would describe Pogačar's characteristic race-winning move as a "nuclear attack", impossible to follow lest you burn yourself out.
- It was a seated acceleration, and though EF moved to the front, the gap stretched fast. The world champion was solo with 35 km to go, apparently by accident, more or less...
- Pogačar only had about 10 seconds' lead at the top of La Redoute, with Pidcock leading the dismantled chase, Ben Healy on his tail.
Healy and Pidcock began the frantic chase, but the gap was only going in one direction.
- Meanwhile, Evenepoel was deep in the pack, unable to make a difference at the crucial point, and destined to trudge home in 59th place.
An unfortunate day for two-time Liège winner Evenepoel.
- The gap had stretched to 30 seconds within three kilometres as Pidcock and Healy were joined by Giulio Ciccone and Julian Alaphilippe, with the peloton, or Evenepoel group, already over a minute in arrears.
- By the final categorised climb of La Roche-aux-Faucons with 15 km to go, Pogačar’s advantage was creeping ever closer to the 90-second mark; the race was now behind him, the race for second, with Healy and Ciccone proving strongest.
- By the top of the final climb, the podium looked all-but secured, with Pogačar sailing away to a dominant victory, Healy and Ciccone working together to ensure a podium finish, and the bunch chasing 20-30 seconds behind them, hoping at least to take home some silverware.
- The world champion let his massive lead drop slightly as he made his way down the finishing straight. He pointed to the sky in tribute to his fiancée Urška Žigart's mother Darja, then celebrated as he won his third Liège title.
- A minute later, Healy launched his sprint first, but Ciccone had the edge over the Irishman. And only seven seconds after the podium battle ended, the peloton pelted for the line where Velasco took fourth from Thibau Nys, scoring a hugely valuable 440 points for XDS Astana.
Quotes of the day
Pogačar still had a relatively fresh Pavel Sivakov and Brandon McNulty available to him at the foot of the Côte de la Redoute – Felix Großschartner had taken over from Domen Novak on the run-in, before himself clocking off – but he let fly anyway, from a distance he later revealed wasn't exactly intentional.
It wasn't the plan, but it was such a hard pace before that I saw a number of teams didn't have a lot of teammates anymore. I said, 'OK, I'll test my legs a little bit and see if I can get a gap on the top,' and then I'll decide if I continue or not. Then I just committed because I had good legs – also on the second climb after La Redoute. I could go to the finish, so I'm super happy."
Among the absentees Pogačar noted was Remco Evenepoel, another pre-race favourite with two Liège wins under his belt. The world champion noticed, and it spurred him on.
At first, QuickStep were controlling the bunch and racing on the front all day. At one point, they all disappeared from the front. I was thinking maybe they were saving their legs for La Redoute because you can save a lot in the bunch. But then on La Redoute I looked around and [Evenepoel] wasn't close on my wheel, but that was also good motivation to go at that point."
In the hotly contested race for second, Giulio Ciccone triumphed over Ben Healy, clinching the runner-up spot with the peloton breathing down his neck.
I was a bit tired after Tour of Alps [which finished on Friday] but in the last two hours my feeling was much better ... Finishing second behind Pogačar, I don’t want to say it’s like a victory, but it’s definitely a good feeling in the end. I knew I didn’t have the legs to follow him when he went so I just tried to manage my effort in the best way possible."
Brief analysis
- For Remco Evenepoel and Soudal-QuickStep it was a day to forget, but not wholly unexpected for a rider who's been out of competition and even training for so long. The Belgian squad kept busy in the first half of the race, acknowledging their rider's favourite status, but it seemed that his lengthy post-injury lay-off was finally catching up with the two-time Liège winner. The first clear sign of a jour sans came as the team evaporated from the front of the peloton, hindsight indicating that their leader may have declared a lack of legs. Poor positioning as the crucial climbs beckoned confirmed suspicions, and on the Côte de la Redoute, the race left Evenepoel behind. After finally letting go completely on the Roche-aux-Faucons and finishing over three minutes down, the 25-year-old told Het Laatste Nieuws that his less-than-ideal preparation had caught up with him: "I have to accept it – I can't expect miracles. To get in shape, you have to train for a long time, and I haven't been able to train properly yet. That became clear today."
- There was a perhaps more-than-ever notable focus on the race for second at the eleventy-first edition of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, specifically before and after the race. On the eve of 'La Doyenne', Pidcock said that, "everyone's outlook on races has changed a little bit because we're dealing with the next Eddy Merckx." Eventual podium finishers Ciccone and Healy shared similar sentiments after the fact: though of course it doesn't feel quite like a 'win', second (or third) to Pogačar feels more significant than behind almost anyone else. The 'boring' debate is for another day, but one thing's for sure: Pogačar is defining an era of cycling, just as Merckx did half a century before him.
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