Remco Evenepoel left his only true rival Tadej Pogacar just 80 kilometers into Liege-Bastogne-Liege. He dropped the rest of the peloton with 33 kilometers remaining.
Pogacar never got a chance at winning all three Ardennes classics or the opportunity to go head to head with Evenepoel as he crashed out early, fracturing the left scaphoid and lunate bones in his wrist. He’s already headed to surgery.
With the Slovenian gone, Evenepoel’s Soudal-Quickstep squad set about wearing down the rest of the pretenders over the course of 15,000 feet of climbing. Kudos in particular to his teammate Julian Alaphilippe who spent plenty of time making life miserable for those in his wheel.
On the Cote de la Redoute Evenpoel launched his attack with Tom Pidock the only man capable of latching on. The Belgian asked for help but the INEOS Grenadiers captain shook his head no. You wear the rainbow stripes, you do all the work.
Evenepoel then quickly decided he didn’t much care for Pidock’s company and dropped him straightaway. That would be the last anyone would see of the World Champion, who soloed to his second victory in Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
“It was great to get two out of two. I’m so proud above to win here in Belgium in the World Champion’s jersey, I really wanted a photo of me doing that, and here it is,” said Evenepoel. “It was a difficult race, with the rain, the roads were quite slippy, and my back wheel went a bit like it did last year [on a corner]. But what a race my team did, with colossal support, and it wasn’t easy either with those early attacks from Jumbo-Visma,” he said.
Once Evenepoel was free and clear, he made it look easy even if it wasn’t. “It was a difficult race, with the rain, the roads were quite slippy, and my back wheel went a bit like it did last year [on a corner]. But what a race my team did, with colossal support, and it wasn’t easy either with those early attacks from Jumbo-Visma,” said Evenepoel.
As for the mere mortals, it was left to Ben Healy (EF Education-Easy Post), Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Nearly Victorious) and Pidock to cat and mouse their way to the podium. Pidcock took the sprint over the Colombian with Healy, the man with the fewest fast twich fibers, chugging to fourth.
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