Profile & Route Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2023

Profile. The fourth monument of the season! The final Ardennes classic and the final spring classic of the year is Liège-Bastogne-Liège, which will take place on the 23rd of April and will be a final opportunity for the classics riders and climbers to take a season-changing win.

The race features a whole 258.5 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.

Estimated start and finish time Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2023: 10:30 - 16:53CET.

Liège is the Ardennes classic that suits the climbers the most. It has the most amount of climbing out of them, with over 4300 meters on the menu and although it doesn’t feature any mountain, there are some longer ascents to tackle which can be used to drain the energy of the more explosive riders.

A lot of it comes in the final 100 kilometers. There will begin a long sequence of climbs, with virtually no flat roads inbetween. With 78.5 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 60 kilometers to go.

With 47Km to go there’s the Côte de Desnié (1.6Km at 7.5%), and the penultimate climb is the Côte de la Redoute which summits with 34 kilometers to go. It's not being climbed to the top this year, featuring 1.6 kilometers at 8.7% and right after the summit following a short descent and hilltop where the race can, like last year, see a decisive attack. The Côte des Forges comes after, featuring 1.3Km at 7.9% ending with 23.5Km to go.

The decisive point of the race will 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 for the race. 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 13.5 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 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.