Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2024

April 21, 2024 Another very cold race start this season had the riders bundled up. Fortunately the rain that was forecasted for later in the race did not really have an impact. Nine riders took on the breakaway for La Doyenne including Gil Gelders of Soudal Quickstep, Rémy Rochas of Groupama-FDJ, Fabien Doubey and Paul Ourselin of TotalEnergies, Loïc Vliegen of Bingoal WB, Lilian Calmejane of Intermarché-Wanty, Christian Scaroni of Astana, Iván Romeo of Movistar, and Enzo Leijnse of DSM-Firmenich. They hit the Côte de Saint-Roch with four minutes and fifteen seconds lead on the peloton led by UAE. The gap started to drop and continued down quickly. As they reached 100KM to go, the peloton had the leaders within a single minute. A crash with 97KM to go caused a major split in the peloton, leaving fewer than 60 riders in the front with the rest chasing. Israel-Premier Tech kept the pressure really high after the crash to keep those stuck behind the crash riding hard to get back. The break was caught at 87KM to go, the chase group had a one minute gap to close at this point. UAE kept the pace high up the Côte de Wanne and put over thirty more seconds into the chasers. Tom Pidcock of Ineos, Mauri Vansevenant of Soudal Quickstep, and Romain Grégoire of Groupama-FDJ attacked to bridge to the front on the Côte de Stockeu. Teammates of the three dropped back on the Côte de Haute-Levee to help the three make it to the front group. The Pidcock group and the main chase group both joined the peloton just over the top of the Côte de Haute-Levee. The race seemed to calm and reset for the next phase with 68KM to race. UAE ramped the pace again on Côte de Desnie and continued to the base of Côte de La Redoute. Domen Novak of UAE pulled off with 1KM to the top, launching Tadej Pogačar. Richard Carapaz of EF-Education EasyPost went with him initially but faded with 400M still to climb. Five riders then six more went over the top and down the descent in pursuit of Pogačar, 20 seconds behind. Groups formed behind Pogačar and with 31KM to go, a group of around 20 came together, causing the pace to slow considerably. Ben Healy of EF-Education EasyPost and Romain Bardet of DSM-Firmenich escaped but Pogačar's gap had extended to a minute. Two chase groups formed at 27KM to go behind the Healy group to make around 35 chasers in group three on the road. Grégoire and Benoît Cosnefroy of Decathlon AG2R got up to Healy and Bardet at 25KM but they still were a minute behind Pogačar. Bardet got rid of the three others on the Côte de la Roche aux Faucons. The larger chase group caught Healy, Grégoire and Cosnefroy as Bardet's lead was stable at 15 seconds. The group behind Bardet was constantly changing with riders joining and others being dropped, counting about 15 with 5KM remaining. Pogačar came across the line to finish first for his 6th career Monument victory, after a 34KM solo raid. Bardet was next in, 90 seconds after Pogačar. Third place was contended by the group of 15, it was won by Mathieu van der Poel of Alpecin-Deceuninck to round out the podium of the final Spring Classic of the 2024 season.