11th at debut Liège-Bastogne-Liège completes breakthrough spring for Maxim van Gils - "It really was a battle of the dying swans"

Maxim van Gils turned pro in 2021 and in 2022 he won the Saudi Tour in surprising fashion. It was no surprise that the Belgian could ride well in the hilly terrain but his debut in the Ardennes classics was only this spring, where he came agonizingly close to be one of the very few riders to finish on the Top10 in all three - as was the case with Mattias Skjelmose only.

“I really suffered on the Redoute and just couldn't go. After that I couldn't handle water bottles anymore, but I really had to keep going until the finish. The competition was really tough. When Remco went I couldn't keep up the pace and I was done for the effort," the Belgian said in a post-race interview. After finishing seventh at the Amstel Gold Race and eighth at Flèche Wallone van Gils was an outsider for his Liège-Bastogne-Liège debut, and he successfully answered to the expectations.

He rode strongly up the Côte de la Redoute when the race broke apart and found himself with Michael Woods, eventually connecting with other groups on the road to form a larger chasing group. "With Woods I was then able to join a chasing group. It really was a battle of the dying swans,” he explained.

He couldn't launch an attack at the decisive moments out of the chasing group in the end but resisted the high pace and was present in the final straight in contention for a Top10. It would've been a great achievement to finish in the Top10 of all three of the classics but he could only manage 11th, however at 23 years of age showing great signs of quality in the hilly races which he will be targeting in the future.