Rounding off the week of Ardennes Classics is Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the oldest of the Monuments. And like the four other most important one-day races, it is one of the most gruelling — yet prestigious — races of the year. La Doyenne signals the end of the spring Classics and so for many riders, it’s the final chance for one-day glory ahead of a period predominantly comprised of stage races, but most importantly, it is the opportunity to add one of cycling’s oldest and most illustrious races to a rider’s palmarès.
The man with the most impressive palmarès in the sport’s history, Eddy Merckx, holds the record with five Liège wins in his career — an achievement no rider has come close to matching except the now-retired Alejandro Valverde, who won the race four times, the last being in 2017. However, there are two riders who could make it a hat-trick of victories at this year’s race; Tadej Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel have shared the last four editions, and it is likely that one of them could narrow the gap to Merckx.
The two have been the principal actors of the Ardennes Classics this week. At the Amstel Gold Race Pogačar attacked but was caught by Evenepoel and Mattias Skjelmose in a thrilling race won by the Lidl-Trek man, but on Wednesday at La Flèche Wallonne he made amends, comfortably winning with an unmatchable kick on the finish up the Mur de Huy. Evenepoel, who perhaps looked the better of the two at Amstel, was certainly outclassed on the steep final climb at Flèche, where he had to settle for ninth while Pogačar disappeared up the road. They may be the two favourites but there are a number of riders who could challenge, and there is always scope for an upset as proved by Skjelmose’s victory at Amstel.
Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2025 Route
As per tradition the 2025 race starts in Liège and heads south to Bastogne on relatively flat parcours before looping back to the start city taking in a number of Ardennes climbs — nine challenging ascents in total in the last 100km. The most pivotal climbs are the final trio: the Côte de la Redoute and its gruelling 20% max gradient, the Côte des Forges and the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons — a brutal 1.3km-long climb with an ascent of 11% — before a short ascent and false flat that leads the riders to the descent into Liège, where the last 2km of the race is flat to the finish line.
Liège-Bastogne-Liège route 2025 (ASO)
Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2025 contenders
Tadej Pogačar
It’ll be no surprise that Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) enters the final spring Classic as the favourite. The Liège route almost seems like it was designed for the reigning champion, who also won in 2021. That said, there are not many races that don’t suit the world champion. The sheer quantity of climbs and their frequency play into his hands, as does the length at 252km, and while at the some of the other Monuments, like Milan-Sanremo and Paris-Roubaix, where Pogačar meets his match in Mathieu van der Poel, one of the best Classics riders ever, Liège is perfect for him and on his day there is no one who can match him over its demanding parcours.
In his two previous wins, he has triumphed in different manners; in 2021 he won the sprint from a small group, beating strong finishers like Julian Alaphilippe and David Gaudu in the process; in 2024 he went solo 34km out on the Côte de la Redoute in typical Pogačar style. The latter tactic may be his best chance, given Evenepoel has proved his finishing sprint to be on form, although Pogačar will not want to make the same mistake as he did at Amstel Gold.
Tadej Pogačar at the finish of La Flèche Wallonne 2025 (Image: Zac Williams / SWpix.com)
Remco Evenepoel
Pogačar’s main rival is another generational talent, Remco Evenepoel, who has also won Liège twice. Evenepoel will have been disappointed with his race at Flèche, where he was unable to match the seated acceleration from Pogačar, but at the same time, it was not a race that suited him as much as the road world champion, both in its parcours and the day’s rainy conditions. However, unlike for the midweek Classic, the forecast for Liège suggests it will be dry on Sunday, which will help Evenepoel, and as a two-time winner, he has the pedigree to challenge again.
At Amstel Gold, he showed that on the flat, he is quicker than Pogačar; aerodynamically, he is the best in the world on both a road and time trial bike. If he were to get away from the clutches of the Slovenian, he would be a hard man to catch. However, what is more likely is that Evenepoel will have his work cut out to hold onto Pogačar on the climbs, but if he can do so he could rely on his sprint, which brought him his first win of his delayed season at De Brabantse Pijl last Friday.
Remco Evenepoel at the start of La Flèche Wallonne 2025 (Image: Zac Williams / SWpix.com)
Mattias Skjelmose
The Amstel Gold winner, Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) may have dropped out of Flèche, but the neutrals will hope that this was just a precaution after his previous experience at the race, which he had to drop out of last year due to hypothermia in similar rainy conditions to Wednesday. Like Evenepoel, Skjelmose will benefit from the dry and warm weather forecast at Liège on Sunday.
Skjelmose, who has had success at stage races, including winning the Tour de Suisse in 2023, has one top 10 at Liège on his palmarès also from 2023 and will be supported by a strong Lidl-Trek squad, who have consistently been one of the impressive teams at the Classics so far this season. One week on from the biggest one-day win of his career, Skjelmose will be hoping to cause another upset and get the better of the two main favourites, Pogačar and Evenepoel.
Mattias Skjelmose leading Remco Evenepoel at the Amstel Gold Race 2025 (Image: Zac Williams)
Tom Pidcock
Tom Pidcock’s (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) second place at Liège 2023 is his best result at a Monument. The Brit has scored some significant victories in the last few years, including a Tour de France stage in 2022, a win at Amstel Gold last year and the Strade Bianche title in 2023. So far this season, he’s yet to get a big win that matches these triumphs, but that isn’t to say 2025 hasn’t already been a success for the 25-year-old at his new team. He bided his time on the Mur de Huy at Wednesday’s Flèche Wallonne, choosing not to try and follow the other moves, until he kicked on himself to claim a third-place finish behind Pogačar and Kévin Vauquelin.
Liège will be a different kind of challenge to Flèche’s watts-per-kilo test on the final kilometre, so Pidcock will have to be well-positioned and have the legs to hang onto the likes of Pogačar and Evenepoel to win on Sunday. If not, he will likely still be able to challenge for another podium spot at the race.
Tom Pidcock at the finish of La Flèche Wallonne 2025 (Image: Zac Williams / SWpix.com)
Ben Healy
Ben Healy and his EF Education-EasyPost squad are a match made in heaven, where both rider and team are intent on pursuing an aggressive style of racing. It’s an approach that has paid off with some significant results for the Irishman, including a Giro d'Italia stage in 2023, second at Amstel Gold in the same year and most recently an astonishing stage win at the Itzulia Basque Country earlier in April. The synergy is not only apparent between the rider and the team but also in his characteristics that are perfectly suited to the Ardennes Classics — Healy is powerful on the climbs, has considerable endurance and an astute race sense, which are all important assets over the challenging parcours of Liège. So far this week, at Amstel and Flèche, the Irishman has finished 10th and fifth and will be hoping to continue this consistency at the most important of the three, La Doyenne, on Sunday.
Ben Healy during La Flèche Wallonne 2025 (Image: Zac Williams / SWpix.com)
Kévin Vauquelin
The best of the rest at Flèche was Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), who, although was unable to match the punch of Pogačar, showed some seriously impressive form to take a standout second-place. Another Tour stage winner (from last year) who has been racking up a number of wins so far in 2025, including three stages and two GC wins at some of the French 2.1 races, at the Etoile de Bessèges in February and the Pays de la Loire Tour earlier in April. Flèche was his biggest result all season and will have given his Arkéa-B&B Hotels a valuable haul of UCI points in the scrap to remain in the WorldTour. Sitting in 24th in the rankings, the team may be struggling, but Vauquelin himself is thriving and is delivering on his promise shown at that breakout Tour stage win last year in Bologna. He could bring more points for the struggling team on Sunday with a big result at the Monument.
Kévin Vauquelin during La Flèche Wallonne 2025 (Image: Zac Williams / SWpix.com)
Other contenders
Healy’s EF Education-EasyPost team will start with a strong squad, including Neilson Powless and Richard Carapaz, who on their day would be capable of finishing inside the top 10. An impressive 2024 saw Ben O’Connor (Team Jayco Alula) come second at the World Championships road race, prompting calls for him to target more one-day races, but he hasn’t quite got into his stride yet in 2025. Michael Matthews looks like a better option for the Australian team with a strong fifth at Sunday’s Amstel Gold and fourth at Milan-Sanremo.
Visma-Lease a Bike’s Tiesj Benoot finished eighth at Amstel Gold and he can rely on the support from another strong outsider Ben Tulett as the squad look to secure their first Classic of the year. Thibau Nys and Giulio Ciccone will be supporting their Lidl-Trek teammate Skjelmose, but if the Dane were to come into difficulty, both will hope to make it far enough into the race to play a role in the finale.
Thibau Nys at the finish of La Flèche Wallonne 2025 (Image Zac Williams / SWpix.com)
Guillaume Martin and Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) will be dual leaders for their squad and could feature in the top 10. Likewise, the impressive Louis Barré (Intermarché-Wanty) will want to continue his fine form, which resulted in a sixth-place finish at Amstel Gold. Climbers Enric Mas (Movistar Team), Romain Bardet (Team Picnic PostNL) and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious) are all capable of transferring their GC potential into one-day races and have all finished on the podium of a Monument (Mas at Il Lombardia 2022, Bardet and Buitrago at Liège in 2024 and 2023, respectively).
Prediction
The way Pogačar rode away on the final climb at Flèche is an ominous sign for his opponents, and we believe he will claim his second consecutive, and third career, Liège title.
