Ardennes Week reaches its conclusion on Sunday as the peloton takes on Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the oldest of cycling's Monuments and, more generally, the last of the big Spring Classics before stage racing grabs hold of our attention for the months ahead.
Fittingly, the two riders that have split the men's race between them the last four years will start as the two clear favorites once again on Sunday. Can defending champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) claim a third Liège win to make it nine career Monuments? Can Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) deny Pogačar that achievement and take his own third win in the process?
Georgie Howe previewed the women's race in this week's Wheel Talk newsletter. For everything you need to know about the men's race Liège-Bastogne-Liège, read on ...
The favorites
We'll break down the contenders more thoroughly below, but as a sneak-peek, here are our top favorites for Sunday's race.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: Tadej Pogačar
⭐⭐⭐⭐: Remco Evenepoel
⭐⭐⭐: Tom Pidcock, Ben Healy
⭐⭐: Mattias Skjelmose, Thibau Nys, Kévin Vauquelin
⭐: Marc Hirschi, Julian Alaphilippe, Maxim Van Gils, Lennert Van Eetvelt, Romain Gregoire, Santiago Buitrago, Romain Bardet, Tiesj Benoot, Neilson Powless, Enric Mas, Michael Matthews
How to watch
When: The men's Liège-Bastogne-Liège starts on Sunday at 10:10 CET local time (04:10 EDT / 18:10 pm AEST). The race is set to finish shortly after 16:00 CET (10:00 EDT / 00:00 (Monday) AEST).
Streaming: TNT Sports (UK); Peacock (US); FloBikes (CAN); SBS On Demand (AUS).
As always, our how to watch guide has the details on the full WorldTour calendar.
Weather forecast: After a miserable Flèche Wallonne, the Ardennes contenders should enjoy much better conditions on Sunday. The current forecast calls for a high temperature of around 17°C / 63°F and partly cloudy skies with very little risk of rain.
Riders will face mild winds coming out of the northeast in the afternoon, which will make for slight crosswinds as the peloton tackles the last few climbs and then a bit of a headwind for most of the last 10 km.
The route
Organizers have made a few changes to the early stretches of the race route for 2025 but the familiar spots likely to decide the outcome are all the same as they were last year.
The race makes a relatively straightforward journey south from Liège to Bastogne and then heads back to Liège via a more circuitous route tackling a succession of climbs. All told, the men's Liège-Bastogne-Liège will total 252 km in length with a total elevation gain over 4,000 meters, which is similar to the amount of climbing in a major mountain stage of a Grand Tour. The majority of the climbs come in the second half of the race; that's not to say that it will be an easy first few hours, but things really heat up after the midway point.
The Còte de Mont-le-Soie, which starts a little less than 100 km from the finish, is the first of a quartet of punchy climbs in a 20 km stretch that will soften the legs. Tensions will rise on the Col du Rosier and the Côte de Desnié, and then it's onto the Côte de la Redoute, which has proven decisive over and over again in recent years. With its 9.4% average gradient over 1.6 km, that probably should not be a surprise.
The fun doesn't end after La Redoute, however, with the (somewhat) milder Côte des Forges (1.3 km at 7.8%) to follow and then the brutal Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons (1.4 km at 11.4%) serving as the final major challenge of the race and of the Spring Classics as a whole. After summiting that climb, riders will tackle an uncategorized ascent, a stretch of mostly flat roads, and then a fast descent to Liège and a flat final 2 km.
The stars and the storylines
We go into Liège with a few questions on our mind, starting with ...
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