Tadej Pogacar has won the Liege-Bastogne-Liege for the fourth time. The world champion triumphed in a battle with Paul Seixas to claim his third-straight Liege-Bastogne-Liege title in Belgium.
Pogacar Breaks Away From Seixas
Slovenia’s Pogacar broke free from Frenchman Seixas with 14km to go, on the final climb of the 260km race. The 27-year-old finished in five hours, 50 minutes and nine seconds as he defended his crown to win the event for the fourth time. Seixas, 19, finished 45 seconds behind. Remco Evenepoel of Belgium finished third, one minute and 42 seconds further back.
“It means a lot to win again one of the biggest races of the year,” said Pogacar.
A New Rival Emerges
Pogacar’s triumph was his fourth win in five races this year, with three of them in Monuments. The outlier was a second-placed finish at Paris-Roubaix last month. Despite this dominance, in Seixas he has a new rival who seems capable of challenging him.
Competing in his first Liege and only his second ever Monument race, Seixas challenged Pogacar throughout as other riders faded away. He kept up with the four-time Tour de France winner for nearly 20km on the climb at the Cote de la Redoute. The winning move had been made by cyclists in each of the previous four years there.
“On the Redoute climb I was really going deep but on the top, he came next to me and I was like, ‘OK, really impressed’,” said Pogacar. “Maybe back in my head, I was already preparing to do a duel sprint because he was so strong.”
The Decisive Attack
It was not until the final attack on the Cote de la Roche-aux-Faucons that Pogacar left the young challenger behind, 600m from the top. “I tried on Roche-aux-Faucons, I tried to keep my pace… It suits me super well and luckily he dropped.”
Closing In On A Record
Pogacar is now one short of Belgian Eddy Merckx’s record five Liege victories.
- Tadej Pogacar (Svn/UAE Team Emirates) 5hrs 50mins 28secs
- Paul Seixas (Fra/Decathlon) +45secs
- Remco Evenepoel (Bel/Red Bull) +1min 42secs
Emiel Verstrynge, Egan Bernal, and Pello Bilbao all finished with the same time. Romain Gregoire, Christian Scaroni, Tobias Johannessen, and Filippo Zana also finished with the same time.