(Reuters) - Denmark's Jakob Fuglsang of Astana beat the pre-race favourites to ride solo to victory in the 105th Liege-Bastogne-Liege 'Monument' classic on Sunday.
Fuglsang, who finished 10th last year, nearly crashed with five kilometres to go on a fast descent on wet and slippery roads. He dropped all his rivals with 13 kilometres to go.
In a rain-hit race with temperatures as low as six degrees Celsius (42.8°F), Fuglsang won the 256 kilometres race in six hours 37 minutes and 37 seconds - 27 seconds ahead of Davide Formolo who finished second while Maximilian Schachmann finished third.
Annemiek van Vleuten won the women's race with Floortje Mackaij and Demi Vollering completing an all-Dutch podium.
Liege-Bastogne-Liege is the fourth of five Monument (top) classics after Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, and before the Tour of Lombardy.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
