After UAE Team Emirates controlled the race throughout the day, Tadej Pogačar took the victory at the 2024 edition of Liège-Bastogne-Liège with a decisive attack on the Côte de la Redoute with 35km to go.
This marked the Slovenian rider’s sixth Monument victory of his career, as he added another win at La Doyenne to his palmarès after previously winning the race in 2021, putting him alongside the likes of Francesco Moser and Johan Museeuw.
Behind him on the road, Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich PostNL) put in an attack in the group behind on the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons to go solo and take his best result at a Monument, finishing second on the day.
A lack of cohesion in the group behind allowed Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) back into contention in the finale, after he was dropped on the Côte de la Redoute. The Dutchman then won the sprint for third place, which means that he has now finished on the podium of four out of the five Monuments.
HOW IT HAPPENED
It did not take long for the breakaway to form at the start of the day, as a four-man attack consisting of Gil Gelders (Soudal Quick-Step), Rémy Rochas (Groupama-FDJ), Lilian Calmejane (Intermarché-Wanty) and Paul Ourselin (TotalEnergies) going off the front after 3km of racing.
A few riders in the peloton then launched a counter-attack a few kilometres later, with Iván Romeo (Movistar), Christian Scaroni (Astana Qazaqstan), Loïc Vliegen (Bingoal WB), Fabien Douby (TotalEnergies) and Enzo Leijnse (dsm-firmenich PostNL) joining the head of the race, making it nine riders at the front.
Although it was not quite the same conditions that we had seen at La Flèche Wallonne a few days prior, it was still cold and damp at the start, with some snow on the course in the earlier part of the race. However, the weather would clear up as the day progressed, with the riders wrapped up warmly in their winter clothing.
With 150km to go, the breakaway’s advantage sat at four and a half minutes, which would be the largest gap that they would be allowed all day. Sjoerd Bax (UAE Team Emirates) was setting the pace in the peloton for his teammate Tadej Pogačar, as they looked to control the race early on.
As more teams came to the front of the peloton to put themselves into a good position for the opening climbs of the finale, the gap to breakaway had dropped to just over a minute with 100km to go.
A crash then caused a split in the peloton, with Mathieu van der Poel caught behind along with several other riders, forcing them to have to chase back on. Israel-Premier Tech came to the front of the main group with Derek Gee, as they hoped to drive home their advantage. This caused the gap to Van der Poel’s group to go out to over a minute as they hit the slopes of the Côte de Wanne.
Meanwhile, the breakaway was caught by the peloton with 88km to go, as they continued to extend their gap to those in the group behind, with UAE Team Emirates taking over the work at the front with Domen Novak.
Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) then suffered an untimely mechanical, which dropped him back to the second group. Fortunately he did have a couple of teammates with him in the form of Brandon Rivera and Ethan Hayter, as they began to organise a chase, with their gap to the peloton going out to over a minute and a half.
With just under 80km to go, the peloton hit the slopes of the steepest climb of the day on the Côte de Stockeu. Behind them, Pidcock had burned through his teammates and launched a desperate move on the climb in an attempt to close the gap to those at the front.
The British rider went away with Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal Quick-Step) and Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ). Rémy Rochas, Omar Fraile (Ineos Grenadiers) and Pieter Serry (Soudal Quick-Step) then dropped back from the peloton to help their teammates, as the gap to their group went to under thirty seconds.
They got back to the front of the race with just over 71km to go, with Van der Poel’s group doing the same shortly afterwards, as they had used the cars between the two groups to pace themselves back on.
With all of the favourites returning to the front and the race coming back together, Alpecin-Deceuninck then joined UAE Team Emirates to pace in the peloton, as they began to increase the tempo ahead of the finale.
On the Côte de Desnié, the winner of La Flèche Wallonne Stephen Williams looked to be struggling, as he was still fully dressed in his winter clothing, whilst other riders had begun to strip down to their racewear.
The Welshman was able to get himself back into the group though, as the teams began to increase their pace once again for the run-in to one of the most iconic climbs in professional cycling, as they neared the Côte de la Redoute.
As they hit the lower slopes of the climb with 35km to go, Williams was dropped once again, before Tadej Pogačar then launched his much-anticipated attack after his team had paced all day for him.
Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) attempted to go with the Slovenian, but was unable to match the pace of Pogačar, as splits began to form behind. Van der Poel was distanced again along with Pidcock, whilst the likes of Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers), Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) and Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) were all in the group behind the lone leader.
Pogačar also had teammates in that group in the form of João Almeida and Marc Hirschi, who disrupted the chase as the time gap to their team leader continued to grow.
Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) then attacked with around 30km, with Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich PostNL) following the move, with Benoît Cosnefroy (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Romain Grégoire then bridging across to create a four-man chasing group in pursuit of the man at the front of the race.
Van der Poel and many of the other riders that were dropped on the Côte de la Redoute then caught onto the third group on the road, which caused the peloton to regroup as they attempted to organise a chase behind.
The rain briefly began to fall once again, with Pogačar producing an exhibition in descending, taking every corner with maximum precision, as he continued to extend his advantage over those behind him as he approached the final climb.
As he hit the slopes of the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons, his gap sat at well over a minute. In the groups behind, Grégoire and Cosnefroy began to lose the wheel, as Healy set an infernal pace in the saddle before Bardet then attacked and dropped the Irishman. An attack by Egan Bernal in the third group allowed him to bridge across to the three riders ahead of him, with Carapaz following the move.
Over the top of the climb, several other riders had also joined that chasing group, but they lacked cohesion with constant stop-start attacks, allowing Bardet to get a sizeable advantage over them. Their inability to work together allowed Van der Poel and Pidcock to rejoin the group, along with Bauke Mollema (Lidl-Trek) and Guillaume Martin (Cofidis).
There was never any doubt as to who the winner would be though, as Tadej Pogačar cruised to the victory with more than enough time to sit up and celebrate at the finish in Liège.
Bardet then came to the line over a minute and half down on Pogačar, whilst in the group behind, Van der Poel led out the sprint for third place, with nobody able to come around him as he took the final spot on the podium and his best result at La Doyenne.
RESULTS - LIÈGE-BASTOGNE-LIÈGE 2024: LIÈGE > LIÈGE (254.5KM)
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, in 6:13:48
2. Romain Bardet (Fra) dsm-firmenich PostNL, +1:39
3. Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) Alpecin-Deceuninck, +2:02
4. Maxim Van Gils (Bel) Lotto Dstny
5. Aurélien Paret-Peintre (Fra) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale
6. Mauri Vansevenant (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step
7. Valentin Madouas (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
8. Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz) Astana Qazaqstan
9. Pello Bilbao (Esp) Bahrain Victorious
10. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, all at same time
