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Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Belgium

23 April, 262K

The Ardennes Classic

Overall Map, Profile
Startlist
Photos
Report and Results
2005 Results

There's a reason Liège-Bastogne-Liège is often referred to as "The Old Woman" ("La Doyenne" in French). Its first edition was back in 1894 making it the oldest of the 'Monuments' in professional cycling.

Liège-Bastogne-Liège is an interesting race in that it is one of the few one-day races on the calendar that favors the Grand Tour riders. The Giro d'Italia comes a mere two weeks after the conclusion of Liège making its hilly parcours a good primer for the big climbs to come in the month of May. It lacks the brutal cobblestones of races like Paris-Roubaix and Tour of Flanders, but it more than makes up for it with a dozen punishing climbs, culminating with the 11% Côte de Saint-Nicolas at kilometer 255. There are far more climbs than we have listed below, but for the sake of brevity we've listed the major Côtes:

•  Côte de la Redoute, 2.3K at kilometer 225 at 7.4%
•  Côte de Sprimont, 1.5K at kilometer 231 at 5%
•  Côte de Sart-Tilman, 3.7K at kilometer 246 at 5.9%
•  Côte de Saint-Nicolas, .9K at kilometer 255 at 11%

Every climb in Liège is known as a "côte", which according to the BiciRace.com knowledge of French translates to a slope or hillside. So in other words, they are power climbs. Most riders usually hammer over these hills in their big rings. Most of these côtes by themselves would not be enough to split the field, but the fact that there are so many climbs in rapid succession is more than enough to weed out all but the absolute strongest riders.

This year's 92nd Liège, perhaps more than previous years in recent history, there are literally a dozen riders that can lay claim to being a favorite for overall glory. Danilo Di Luca was maybe a little cooked by his rampaging rides in Amstel and Flèche Wallonne last year, but this year with his lighter racing schedule he will certainly take the start line as a heavy favorite. There's also Andrey Kashechkin, Samuel Sánchez, Stefano Garzelli, Cadel Evans, Michael Boogerd, Ivan Basso, Alejandro Valverde...

The relentless steep climbs of the recently completed Vuelta al País Vasco in Spain should prove to be ideal training for La Doyenne. While discussing this topic over caffè, the BiciRace.com crew has a hunch that the winner will be someone who sparkled in Spain. This is bike racing at its absolute finest, so keep your browser on BiciRace.com for all the Ardennes race results.
- Paco

Past Winners (from 1960):