Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2026 preview, profiles, favourites & predictions - Can Paul Seixas and Remco Evenepoel win over Tadej Pogacar?

On the weekend of the 26th of April, the riders will be on the roads of western Belgium for the fourth monument of the year, which is also the last of the Ardennes and the spring classics entirely. It is Liège-Bastogne-Liège, a race designed for the puncheurs and climbers to fight for a highly prestigious victory. We preview the race ahead.

The race was created in 1892, hence why it's called La Doyenne - The oldest. Léon Houa won its first three editions, and then the race took two extensive break periods - the second of which due to World War I. It is a race that has also been won by some of Belgium's very best, such as Rik van Looy, Eddy Merckx, Roger de Vlaeminck, Philippe Gilbert and Remco Evenepoel.

Within this century, others such as Alejandro Valverde, Andy Schleck and Primoz Roglic have also won. It used to be an open race, currently less so. The past two editions have been won by Tadej Pogacar, taking uncontested solo wins with attacks on La Redoute.

The race features a whole 259 kilometers making it one of the longest in the calendar. Through the Belgian Ardennes, it's a full day of climbing, although they are short hills. The action gets more intense towards the end, and the race should be decided in the final kilometers that, as always, features several difficult climbs that will split the race before reaching Liège. There will be 4000 meters of climbing, and this includes climbs where the classics specialists can actually struggle and the climbers can make the difference.

A lot of it comes in the final 100 kilometers. There will begin a long sequence of climbs, with virtually no flat roads in between. With 82 kilometers to go, you have the steepest climb of the day the Côte du Stockeau (1km at 12.8%) and the longest, which is the Col du Rosier (4km at 5.7%) with 63 kilometers to go.

With 47Km to go, there’s the Côte de Desnié (1.6Km at 7.5%), and the third-to-last climb is the Côte de la Redoute, which summits with 34 kilometers to go. It's not being climbed to the top, featuring 1.6 kilometers at 8.7% and right after the summit, following a short descent and hilltop, where the race can be decided as it has in the past. The Côte des Forges comes after, featuring 1.6Km at 6.9%, ending with 23Km to go.

The decisive point of the race may be the Côte de la Roche Aux Faucons. It is the final climb of the day, and the small hilltop afterwards (which I consider part of it) can be just as crucial. It is 1.3Km long at 10.5%, essentially the same data as the Mur de Huy but without such gruesome gradients.

It summits with 13 kilometers to go, will it, however, see decisive attacks? It may not, as there are only some seconds of rest before a small second hilltop which has 1,2Km at 6.3% (10Km to the finish). This is a weird combination of climbs, where riders risk cracking on the second if they go all-out to make up the differences in the first climb. If they save up for the last hilltop, they risk carrying a big group in the wheel; the tactics can be very interesting.

The descent into Liège is fast and only the final two kilometers are flat, if a rider makes it over the climbs alone it'll be near impossible to close gaps.

Tadej Pogacar - The man to beat. We can put it in any way you want, and taking into consideration peak Evenepoel and Seixas, but we cannot pretend that all of a sudden the World Champion is any less dominant on the bike. He's got the climbing aspect, the sprinting aspect, and the endurance aspect. Three key factors and in at least one of them he is still superior to his rivals. UAE's tactic has become clear, go as hard as possible until La Redoute, and attack then. It worked the past two years comfortably.

This time around the competition is bigger, and that may not be as easy to execute. He may be followed there, but that would also open up a race situation which we haven't seen before, which may still favour him on Roche-aux-Faucons. He's raced very little this spring but looked at his best every time, so form shouldn't be an issue, and he should be quite fresh even after Paris-Roubaix a couple weeks ago. The Slovenian has Benoît Cosnefroy to potentially launch him up La Redoute whilst the rest of the team only really have to control the race until then.

Paul Seixas - The Frenchman has the climbing ability, there is no doubt to that, and I don't dare to draw a limit to what he can do. But at the same time, we can put the logical pieces together. Liège is a climber's race nowadays and that will suit him better than Flèche, where he already won based on explosivity. He can sprint too. But it's easy to forget he is still 19, and last fall at the World Championships and Il Lombardia he did still lack a little something in terms of endurance, which he hasn't been able to prove still this season. Perhaps that can make the difference after a 6-hour hilly race with Pogacar in it. But in any way, he will be above the wide list of the favourites.

Remco Evenepoel - Then we have Remco Evenepoel, also with strong support as the two above, but it's the positioning for La Redoute that he really needs. Endurance favours him and I believe if he can match Pogacar on the climbs, he can legitimately win in a sprint. Hence he is the biggest danger, but can he really climb with the World Champion?

It won't be easy, it certainly is possible as the climbs are shorter and better adapted to him, but he can't get any detail wrong. Furthermore, I argue he should not work with Pogacar much, if at all, until after the summit of Roche-aux-Faucons. Because if he does so earlier, he will be playing into his rival's specialty.

But it's Liège still, the field is so strong, and although we're focusing on three riders - which may, if logic plays out, fill out the podium spots - there's so much depth and riders at the top of their game. From the Tour of the Alps we have Egan Bernal, Ben O'Connor and Tom Pidcock coming in. The latter has won a stage but his form is not the best following the Catalunya crash, expectations have to be low, as his own coach said recently.

There are some men in serious form, such as Romain Grégoire who is perhaps the strongest out of all the pure puncheurs going into Liège, together with Mauro Schmid who has just come off second place at Fléche Wallonne - where his positioning was bad at the base. There Ben Tulett finished third and he leads Visma in the pursuit of a strong result as well.

We have INEOS Grenadiers who besides Egan Benal have a Kévin Vauquelin who is very well adapted to this type of race; A Bahrain - Victorious that has Lenny Martínez, Antonio Tiberi, Santiago Buitrago and Pello Bilbao all coming in as strong contenders; last year's runner-up Giulio Ciccone and Amstel Gold Race's runner-up Mattias Skjelmose leading Lidl-Trek... All of them on paper podium contenders, depending on how the race develops.

On the more climber side we have the likes of Tobias Johannessen, Alessandro Pinarello, Alex Baudin, Lennert van Eetvelt, Ion Izagirre and Cian Uijtdebroeks as men to consider; Whilst on the classics specialists side we should also mention Andreas Kron, Quinten Hermans, Christian Scaroni, Clément Champoussin, Alex Aranburu and Mathieu Burgaudeau.

*** Tadej Pogacar

** Paul Seixas, Remco Evenepoel

* Kévin Vauquelin, Lenny Martínez, Giulio Ciccone, Mattias Skjelmose, Mauro Schmid, Ben Tulett, Romain Grégoire

Pick: Tadej Pogacar

How: Victory with a second attack on Roche-aux-Faucons that will drop the competition.