Unstoppable! Tadej Pogacar decimates rivals for dominant solo win at Liege-Bastogne-Liege 2025
CyclingSunday, 27 April 2025 at 16:15
Tadej Pogacar has taken a dominant win at Liege-Bastogne-Liege 2025, absolutely decimating all of his predicted pre-race rivals to claim a landmark 3rd success in Liege and a 9th career Monument victory.
In total, 12 riders managed to get themselves up the road and into the early breakaway. Those included notable names such as Jack Haig (Bahrain - Victorious), Eduardo Sepúlveda (Lotto), Mathis Le Berre (Arkéa - B&B Hotels) and Stan Van Tricht (Alpecin - Deceuninck) among others. By the time the day's climbing began in earnest, the break had extended their advantage to up around the six minute mark.
Behind the leaders, it was still relatively calm in the bunch. With 132km to go though, and still over five minutes separating the peloton and the break, INEOS Grenadiers' Bob Jungels, winner of Liege-Bastogne-Liege in 2018, attacked from the bunch. Shortly after, Jungles was joined by teammate Tobias Foss, sparking the first real reaction from the peloton. The INEOS duo were flying though and at 120km to go, they'd closed to 3:00 off the break, with the peloton over a minute behind them.
With 100km to go, Foss and Jungels had got within 1:48 of the lead. The peloton was also closing on them though, with the bunch now just 2:37 away from the front of the race. At just over 85km to go, Domen Novak took to the front of the bunch for UAE and almost immediately things were decimated in the peloton in preparation for the Côte de Stockeu, with Foss and Jungels caught as a result.
As the Stockeu began just inside 80km to go, the break still held 1:08 over the peloton. Despite a continually heavy pace from the UAE train though, an Eddy Merckx-esque attack by Pogacar wasn't forthcoming. At the front of the race however, Jack Haig was threatening to ride away from his breakaway companions, although Sepulveda, Mathis Le Berre, Rayan Boulahoite and Sakarias Koller Løland managed to get across to the experienced Aussie.
With 60km to go however, all of the breakaway had been swallowed up the rampant peloton, still led by UAE's Slovenian national champion Domen Novak. As things calmed down again slightly following the catch, a number of dropped riders managed to get back in contact at the back of the peloton, swelling the size of the group.
Inside the final 50km and with La Redoute looming, Tadej Pogacar started to lurk ominously in around 3rd/4th wheel of the peloton. The pace of the peloton was soon properly rapid however, as UAE were swamped at the front by Lidl-Trek and the INEOS Grenadiers. Notably though, Remco Evenepoel was all alone and in a far from ideal position towards the latter half of the bunch.
With 35km to go, Pogacar made a seated acceleration to the front and nobody could live with him, allowing the world champion to breeze clear. Although closer to the top, Tom Pidcock and Ben Healy started chasing, Pogacar summited solo. Despite Pidcock and Healy being joined by Giulio Ciccone and Julian Alaphilippe in the main chase group, the gap was only going one way to Pogacar - already out to 37 seconds with 27 km still to go.
By 20km to go, the Slovenian's advantage was up over the one minute mark and still extending. Evenepoel meanwhile, was now even being dropped from the peloton behind. In the chase, it was Ciccone and Healy who were proving strongest. There seemed to be no chasing down Pogacar however, who had extended his advantage to around 1:30 at 10km to go.
With Pogacar's victory secured, the only real drama left was whether or not Ciccone and Healy could hold off the chase and secure the last two spots on the podium.
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- He's just not the same after the crash at La Vuelta. I hope the knee injury does not "Chris Froome" his career.
KerisVroom11-05-2025 - Well, I didn’t hear any strict instructions from management so why shouldn’t it be like Visma’s infamous Vuelta unless things heat up? Am sure they don’t regret sweeping the podium which was only possible because internal rivalry was at least as strong as external.Mistermaumau11-05-2025
- In principle, but he’ll always have that Planche des Belles Filles TdF loss in his mind nowadays so not sure he’ll be so keen on giving away anything anymoreif he doesn’t really have to. It’s a matter of weighing (dis)advantages and I’m not so sure the media obligations always outweigh the psychological effects that a win or domination bring, unless you’re bad at dealing with pressure which I doubt is the case with Primoz.Mistermaumau11-05-2025
- so sad...
maria2024202410-05-2025 - ahahahha.. but I think Roglic will be very happy to give you back the pink jersey (less interviews, less ceremonies, more time to rest).maria2024202410-05-2025
- Bummed for Wout. I hope he bounces back big tomorrowmij10-05-2025
- His manner of speech is that of someone who's totally laid back, not the nervous kind.KerisVroom10-05-2025
- wow, Isaac Del Torro can TT. I am betting that he can surpass Ayuso in the future.KerisVroom10-05-2025
- van Aert will be happy if he can stay with the front group in that last climb. Pedersen will win stage 3 :-)
DareDevil10-05-2025 - Not good for Landa. Whole season gone already.DareDevil10-05-2025
Well, now he’s tied with Coppi, Girardengo, and Kelly at 3rd on the list of monument winners. He’s been on the podium for the last 6, winning 4 of them. And for the third year in a row, he and van der Poel have each won two - something no two riders had managed before 2023. Anyone placing bets against him in Il Lombardia?
Such a privilege to watch Tadej race. Time will tell just how great he is but it's nice watching such a great athlete race in our time.
It's super-cool.
Sometimes it can be a very fine line between a race that's exciting and entertaining, and one that's monotonous and predictable.