As has been customary throughout the 2024 season, Tadej Pogacar once again excelled to comfortably win Liège-Bastogne-Liège for the second time in his career. The UAE Team Emirates leader attacked in La Redoute and reached the streets of Liège with a gap of almost two minutes over his nearest rival after 254.5 kilometers.
The places of honor of the ‘Dean’ were completed by the French Romain Bardet (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL), who came second 1:39 of Pogacar and the Dutch Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin – Deceuninck), who took third place after winning the packing in a very reduced peloton.
As for the Colombians, Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) had an outstanding performance, arriving in the group of the best, placing 21st. He was followed by Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain – Victorious) at 4:46 and then came Santiago Umba (Astana Qazaqstan Team) in 76th place and Brandon Rivera (Ineos Grenadiers) 87th, both more than 17 minutes behind Pogacar.
The breakaway of the day was led by Enzo Leijnse (dsm-firmenich POST NL), Gil Gelders (Soudal Quick-Step), Loïc Vliegen (Bingoal WB), Rémy Rochas (Groupama-FDJ), Christian Scaroni (Astana Qazaqstan), Lilian Calmejane (Intermaché-Wanty), Ivan Romeo (Movistar), Fabien Doubey (TotalEnergies) and Paul Ourselin (TotalEnergies), but on the climb to the Côte de Wanne they were caught by the peloton.
In the initial phase, Van der Poel and some other favorites like Tom Pidcock, Aleksandr Vlasov and Mauri Vansevenant, were left behind in a second group. After a hard fight they all managed to make the connection with the big peloton, which in the following mountainous area with the Col du Rosier as protagonist, where not much happened, the most remarkable thing was the soft winter shower that accompanied the caravan.
Entering the mountainous phase, Domen Novak, who was controlling the bunch, was the first to start climbing La Redoute. The Slovenian was in charge of doing the dirty work for his compatriot Pogacar, who didn’t take long to make his expected attack.
The top favorite made his move one kilometer from the top and immediately opened a big gap. Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz and Colombia’s Egan Bernal tried to chase him down, but to no avail. No one was able to follow the Slovenian ‘extraterrestrial’.
Pogacar soloed to the summit of La Redoute with an eighteen-second lead over a chasing group that included Maxim Van Gils, Ben Healy, Egan Bernal, Alexey Lutsenko and Mauri Vansevenant. Shortly after the summit, a merge between groups two and three occurred. Mattias Skjelmose, Romain Bardet and Tiesj Benoot, among others, returned. While Van der Poel couldn’t keep up the pace and fell behind the first chasing group by about fifteen seconds.
The gap between groups two and three remained quite small, so the chasers fought a great battle on the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons. Bardet was the best on that climb (if we forget about Pogacar for a moment) and left his breakaway companions behind. They were joined by Bernal, Carapaz, Lutsenko, Benoot, Van Gils, Vansevenant, Pello Bilbao and Paul Lapeira, however, they didn’t work well together, so Van der Poel, along with Pidcock, managed to rejoin.
Ahead, Pogacar rode calmly into the final kilometer in Liège, where he had plenty of time to greet the fans and prepare for his celebration. For the Slovenian, who won ‘The Dean’ for the second time in his career, it was his seventh victory of the season.
Bardet, crossed the finish line in second place after a strong attack on the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons. Behind them we could see a big bunch sprint for third place. Van der Poel organized that sprint very cleverly and the world champion ended up taking the last place on the podium.
Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2024 (1.UWT)
Results (254,5 km)
| 1 | Tadej Pogačar | UAE Team Emirates | 6:13:48 |
| 2 | Romain Bardet | Team dsm-firmenich PostNL | 1:39 |
| 3 | Mathieu van der Poel | Alpecin – Deceuninck | 2:02 |
| 4 | Maxim Van Gils | Lotto Dstny | ,, |
| 5 | Aurélien Paret-Peintre | Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team | ,, |
| 6 | Mauri Vansevenant | Soudal Quick-Step | ,, |
| 7 | Valentin Madouas | Groupama – FDJ | ,, |
| 8 | Alexey Lutsenko | Astana Qazaqstan Team | ,, |
| 9 | Pello Bilbao | Bahrain – Victorious | ,, |
| 10 | Thomas Pidcock | INEOS Grenadiers | ,, |
Source: Revista Mundo Ciclístico