Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2025

April 27, 2025 The last of the Spring Monuments has arrived. It's Liège-Bastogne-Liège, La Doyenne, one of the oldest and hardest bike races on the calendar. The profile is a saw tooth made up of countless 1KM to 3KM climbs and, across 252KM, the riders will have ridden the equivalent elevation gain of a Grand Tour mountain stage at 4,300M. The race usually moves into a more active phase on the Côte de Stockeu with 75KM to go. The hills are relentless after that with the Col du Rosier, Côte de Desnié, and Côte de la Redoute which is an ideal launch pad for attacks with 34KM to go. The pre-race prognostications were all on defending champion Tadej Pogačar of UAE-XRG and Remco Evenepoel of Soudal Quickstep, each two-time winners. With the exception of a crash or a poorly timed mechanical, it is hard to look passed them for any other potential winner. The weather made a turn for the better in the Ardennes from Wednesday's frigid and wet Flèche Wallonne. There were crystal clear skies and beautiful Spring warmth in the center of Liège for the roll-out. After the flag dropped, 12 riders got up the road including Mathis Le Berre of Arkéa-B&B Hotels, Hannes Wilksch of Tudor Pro Cycling, Stan Van Tricht of Alpecin-Deceuninck, Jack Haig of Bahrain Victorious, Sakarias Koller Løland of Uno-X Mobility, Kamiel Bonneu of Intermarché-Wanty, Eduardo Sepúlveda of Lotto, Rayan Boulahoite and Valentin Retailleau of TotalEnergies, and Cériel Desal, Johan Meens, and Henri-François Renard-Haquin of Wagner-Bazin WB. Their lead was over 5 minutes 30 seconds with 174KM to go with Soudal-Quickstep and UAE-XRG controlling the peloton behind. The first move from the peloton came from Bob Jungles of Ineos with 132KM to go on the Col de Haussire. A few kilometers, later, his teammate Tobias Foss bridged up from the peloton and pair were together over the top. They got out to 1 minute 20 seconds on the peloton with 120KM as Vegard Stake Laengen of UAE-XRG, Gil Gelders of Soudal Quickstep, and Julien Bernard of Lidl-Trek increased the speed in the bunch. The peloton were all across the road in the battle for position going into the small town Vielsalm, passed the Lac des Doyards. Foss and Jungles stalled at 1 minute 45 seconds while the peloton kept their momentum and were just 45 seconds behind over the top of the unclassified climb outside of Vielsalm. The race was closing in with 86KM to race on the Côte de Wanne. Jungles and Foss were at 1 minute 10 seconds to the original break but UAE-XRG were riding with more intent and were just 27 seconds further behind. Boulahoite set a hard pace in the breakaway up the Côte de Stockeu which split the group down to just himself, Le Berre, Haig, Koller Løland, and Sepúlveda. They started the wide and straight Côte de la Haute Levée with 1 minute 15 seconds but the favorites were starting to show themselves near the front of the peloton with riders dropping one by one out the back. The race was back together near the top of the Col du Rosier with 60KM to go. Domen Novak of UAE-XRG led the peloton down the Rosier and over the Côte de Desnié with the Côte de la Redoute on the horizon. The race downhill to the Amblève River to the base of la Redoute was frantic. Tudor Pro Cycling, EF-Education EasyPost, and UAE-XRG were best placed over the river through the quick left and right turns to start climbing. The race seemed controlled until Tadej Pogačar of UAE-XRG attacked 800M from the top. There was no reaction but the pace remained high. Giulio Ciccone of Lidl-Trek was the first to respond but it was Julian Alaphilippe of Tudor Pro Cycling who kept the pace high and they, by the top, had Pogačar within 10 seconds. Ben Healy of EF-Education EasyPost and Tom Pidcock of Q36.5went over the top just in front of Alaphilippe and got clear of the rest of the chasers. With 30.5KM to go on the unclassified climb of Cornemont, Pidcock and Healy were 22 seconds behind Pogačar with a larger group of around 25 riders a further 15 seconds back including Ciccone and Alaphilippe. Alaphilippe and Ciccone broke clear of the chase group and joined Pidcock and Healy but the time gaps only went out. With 20KM to go, Pogačar had extended his advantage out to 1 minute to the four chasers and 1 minute 25 seconds to a much larger group of around 40 riders. Pogačar started the final climb of the Côte de la Roche aux Faucons with 14KM to go and a continually expanding gap. Ciccone attacked at the base of the climb in the chase group with the larger peloton in camera shot just down the road. Healy jumped on the wheel but Pidcock and Alaphilippe faded back into the peloton. Pogačar was not going to be caught and he crossed the line for the fastest ever edition of the race with ample time to high-five spectators and embrace the crowds cheering him to his third Liège-Bastogne-Liège title and his second Monument victory of the Spring and the ninth of his career. Behind, the final 10KM was a pursuit between the group of Healy and Ciccone and the peloton. The gap got within around 15 seconds from the peloton to Healy and Ciccone at one point but they had enough of a gap to fight out the podium spots. Healy led through 500M and started his sprint 200M from the line. Ciccone was on him right away and came passed to take second with Healy in third. Simone Velasco of XDS-Astana led the peloton in for fourth place a few seconds after Healy.