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Liege - Bastogne - Liege Discussion
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 17-03-2020 10:15
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 Liege - Bastogne - Liege
History
| Year | Winner | Team | | 2018 | Peter Sagan | Moser - Sygic | | 2017 | Simone Ponzi | Hugo Boss | | 2016 | Sven Fritsch | BPost-Vlaanderen | | 2015 | Simone Ponzi | Good Energy | | 2014 | Jan Bakelants | Bouygues Telecom | | 2013 | Yuri Trofimov | Koenigsegg | | 2012 | Frank Schleck | Vesuvio-Accumalux | | 2011 | Frank Schleck | Vesuvio-Accumalux | | 2010 | Frank Schleck | Accumalux-Huez | | 2009 | Riccardo Ricco | Magenta All Stars | | 2008 | Alejandro Valverde | France Televisions | | 2007 | Alejandro Valverde | Cofidis, le credit par telephone |
The third and final leg of the Ardennes triplet, the fourth out of five monuments. Liege - Bastogne - Liege is obviously a big race on the calender and a coveted item on any rider's palmarès. The start list is quite similar to Amstel and Fleche, logically many riders sticking around for the triplet. Ponzi is one win away from joining Frank Schleck as record holder, but the opposition won't hand it to him on a silver plate.
Profile
Nearly 250 kilometer from Liège to Bastogne to Liège, as the name of the race suggests. The riders climb many characteristic Ardennes climbs, short but steep. The final is uphill, but there are other legendary Côtes such as the Redoute and Saint-Nicolas to conquer beforehand.
Startlist
| Favorites | HL | MO | ACC | Outsiders | HL | MO | ACC |  Hagen | 85 | 70 | 79 |  Ginanni | 81 | 68 | 71 |  Ponzi | 84 | 73 | 80 |  McCarthy | 81 | 67 | 74 |  Bakelants | 83 | 74 | 77 |  Buchmann | 80 | 76 | 73 |  Sagan | 83 | 74 | 76 |  Boswell | 80 | 71 | 76 |  Lutsenko | 83 | 73 | 81 |  Vakoc | 80 | 71 | 74 |  Mohoric | 83 | 71 | 77 | Anuar Aziz | 80 | 67 | 69 |  De Bie | 83 | 71 | 75 |  Ulissi | 80 | 66 | 75 |  Skujins | 83 | 70 | 76 | Lopez | 79 | 78 | 76 | | Van Garderen | 82 | 72 | 79 |  Chernetskiy | 79 | 71 | 71 |  Gastauer | 82 | 71 | 76 | Preidler | 78 | 80 | 69 | | Spilak | 81 | 84 | 73 | Formolo | 77 | 79 | 71 |  Beltran | 81 | 79 | 76 | Olivier | 76 | 80 | 71 |  Koretzky | 81 | 71 | 79 | Velits | 74 | 81 | 65 |
Defending winner is Sagan, who won his first Liege - Bastogne - Liege. Two in a row is a serious possibility, but he hasn't been victorious this Ardennes week yet.
That would tie him with Ponzi, who won in 2015 and 2017. 2019 fits perfectly in that list. He has the best result from Amstel and Fleche with a win and second place.
Belgian champion Bakelants, fresh from his Fleche win, took the 2014 edition and has five more podium finishes. He likes this race very much.
We actually have another former winner at the start. Fritsch caused a huge upset by winning in 2016 from the breakaway. Unlikely he'll be able to repeat that but a breakaway win is always a minor possibility.
Skujins and Hagen stood on the podium in the previous edition, but neither have taken the top step of the podium. There's a first for everything.
The strongest duo is undoubtedly Mohoric and Spilak. Mohoric the younger of the two and surely in good spirit after his third place in Fleche. Spilak, specifically flown in for this race, finished second in 2017 and 2015, both times behind Ponzi. With a lot of climbing, it's hard to look past him to find a favorite if the race becomes really tough.
De Bie and Lutsenko have a best result of fourth and fifth from the 2017 edition, time for them to improve upon that.
Van Garderen took sixth in the last edition, and is eager to have another great run here with Buchmann as support.
Some riders have not shown their full potential in past editions. Gastauer has never been in the top ten for instance. Ginanni finished fourth all the way back in 2011 but hasn't gotten close since.
Completing the list of favorites and dangerous outsiders are Koretzky, McCarthy, Boswell and Ulissi.
The Pro Continental division is strongly represented by Kulczyk and Swisslion, bringing heavy-hitters Vakoc and Beltran.
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| roturn |
Posted on 17-03-2020 10:18
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De Bie better improves and finally fights for the win/podium in his main goals of the year.
Yet another late top10 or not even inside top10 would be a ridicoulous Ardennes week for a 83 punchuer.
Again the top hill squad with him including Olivier and Velits this time. |
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 17-03-2020 10:19
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Tour de France Champion
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Obviously cheering for Beltran here!
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| matt17br |
Posted on 17-03-2020 10:45
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Ulissi's stamina should hopefully give him somewhat of an edge, but I'm not foolish enough to truly hold any significant hope in his performance.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 06-12-2025 20:45
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 17-03-2020 11:13
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Classics Specialist
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Too many long climbs for Ginanni. I hope Formolo gets named captain of the team like in the Giro. But the puncheur competition is obviously way bigger here, so low expectations.
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 17-03-2020 13:34
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roturn wrote:
De Bie better improves and finally fights for the win/podium in his main goals of the year.
Yet another late top10 or not even inside top10 would be a ridicoulous Ardennes week for a 83 punchuer.
I think honestly that late Top10 would be a good race for him here. It's just too many riders that are slightly better.
This could be ours either way. Spilak for the attack, Mohoric for the hilly sprint. Hopefully PCM handles the AI well for us. Should be a perfect race imo with PCM18 for Spilak. Finally the time to win it for him? 
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| roturn |
Posted on 17-03-2020 13:48
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Croatia14 wrote:
roturn wrote:
De Bie better improves and finally fights for the win/podium in his main goals of the year.
Yet another late top10 or not even inside top10 would be a ridicoulous Ardennes week for a 83 punchuer.
I think honestly that late Top10 would be a good race for him here. It's just too many riders that are slightly better.
This could be ours either way. Spilak for the attack, Mohoric for the hilly sprint. Hopefully PCM handles the AI well for us. Should be a perfect race imo with PCM18 for Spilak. Finally the time to win it for him?
A 9th or 10th is about what all stats combined would be okayish in those fields, I agree. But I wouldn`t say, it`s good tbh as he is 83 and not having the worst backup stats neither(just like all/most other puncheurs of course).
Imo there might be 5 "clear" better riders here. So fighting for at least 6th is imo needed.
After 2 bad showings, LBL with better form now would obviously be nice for the team. |
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| Croatia14 |
Posted on 17-03-2020 16:53
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roturn wrote:
Croatia14 wrote:
roturn wrote:
De Bie better improves and finally fights for the win/podium in his main goals of the year.
Yet another late top10 or not even inside top10 would be a ridicoulous Ardennes week for a 83 punchuer.
I think honestly that late Top10 would be a good race for him here. It's just too many riders that are slightly better.
This could be ours either way. Spilak for the attack, Mohoric for the hilly sprint. Hopefully PCM handles the AI well for us. Should be a perfect race imo with PCM18 for Spilak. Finally the time to win it for him?
A 9th or 10th is about what all stats combined would be okayish in those fields, I agree. But I wouldn`t say, it`s good tbh as he is 83 and not having the worst backup stats neither(just like all/most other puncheurs of course).
Imo there might be 5 "clear" better riders here. So fighting for at least 6th is imo needed.
After 2 bad showings, LBL with better form now would obviously be nice for the team.
I agree with that
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| sgdanny |
Posted on 17-03-2020 16:54
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A win and a second place, seems like this is the race where we will underperform
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| tastasol |
Posted on 17-03-2020 19:37
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Hoping for a guy in the BOTD again, but low expectations otherwise... Will be interesting to follow the battle for the win. Some close races so far in the Ardennes, so I'm expecting another thriller here. EBH for the win!
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| ember |
Posted on 17-03-2020 20:31
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Can it be this year then, for EBH? He has never won any monument, which is a shame considering his part in MG history. Would really enjoy if the win came this time around.
Guess Ponzi must be the favourite but I'm really curious to see what Spilak can do here. |
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| knockout |
Posted on 17-03-2020 21:44
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Ive turmed into a pessimist this season so I expect to be disappointed again
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| roturn |
Posted on 18-03-2020 16:09
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This is just weird.
From Velits doing great in the break and De Bie still protected by Olivier and Hugenhaben behind to basically a shit result in the end.
14th for De bie with a gap even is yet another bad performance by him in classics. 17th by Olivier in comparison is huge.
Only points by the strong team this time compensate with Velits in 25th, Hugenhaben 31st and Thurau 33rd plus Zardini 46th and Dlamini 62nd.
Even more impressive to fail so much in leading when having the big support.
Obviously not the only rider here as Ponzi only in 8th failed even more.
Spilak in 24th is a surprise, then again I think the hill stat had more value but still a surprise really. Not working with Mohoric in leadership obviously.
Congrats to Indosat. Impressive performance in the Ardennes and thanks for the great report.
Just a reminder to myself to let De Bie only race stage races as he clearly is not made for classics. |
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| Tamijo |
Posted on 18-03-2020 16:17
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My team only watching from the sideline looking for cheap riders
Great read Marcovdw exiting seen from outside.
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| knockout |
Posted on 18-03-2020 16:54
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Good performance by Skujins, 6th is okay - especially after trying hard to get a selection by attacking with others. Not stunned by depth results here - Lopez and Moazemi a bit below their abilities.
Thanks for the report. Was a great one.
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 18-03-2020 17:08
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| tastasol |
Posted on 18-03-2020 17:16
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Classics Specialist
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Super-Jan! What a week for him, big congrats to Indosat!
Awful race for us, but that was expected.
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| ember |
Posted on 18-03-2020 17:18
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Indosat waving goodbye to the relegation battle  Congratulations, Eden, what a MG week for you and your team
Very nice to see Siriwardena in another Ardennes breakaway, and also having a lucky reward with 23rd place. I'll happily take that. |
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 18-03-2020 18:36
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Bakelants is on fire!
16, 19, 20, 26 and 28 is a decent result for the team.
Looks like Formolo had a bad day.
Nice report Marco, thanks!
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 18-03-2020 19:38
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Love seeing that typical Velits fighting spirit holding off the peloton for a long while <3
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant."
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