Terrific Tadej Pogacar blows away rivals with sensational solo victory at Liege-Bastogne-Liege 2024

Once again, the incredible Tadej Pogacar has lived up to all the hype with another stunning solo victory. This time the UAE Team Emirates superstar took victory after attacking with 35km out at Liege-Bastogne-Liege 2024.

Nine riders attacked early on to form the day's breakaway. Gil Gelders (Soudal Quick-Step), Rémy Rochas (Groupama - FDJ), Enzo Leijnse (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL), Christian Scaroni (Astana Qazaqstan Team), Lilian Calmejane (Intermarché - Wanty), Iván Romeo (Movistar Team), Fabien Doubey and Paul Ourselin (TotalEnergies), plus Loïc Vliegen (Bingoal WB).

With around 100km to go, the peloton was picking up the pace ahead of the first climbs when a mass crash in the bunch brought half the riders to a complete halt. Among those caught out was Mathieu van der Poel. With 88km to go, the break were already caught by an Israel - Premier Tech led bunch, with van der Poel's group still around a minute behind.

As more details emerged, alongside van der Poel in the group behind were the likes of Tom Pidcock, Aleksandr Vlasov, Pello Bilbao, and Valentin Madouas. Realising this was a real chance, the pace was on at the front and with 80km to go, the gap between groups had been extended to 1:20. Fed up of letting his team mates do the chasing for him, Pidcock attacked clear of group 2. Although Mauri Vansevenant and Romain Gregoire were able to follow, van der Poel was nowhere to be seen.

With 70km to go though, it was all back together and van der Poel's calmness in the chase seemed to have been well-founded. The world champion had certainly used up less effort than Pidcock in getting back to the front. Although the pace remained high, there was a momentary calm in the racing once both groups reformed the peloton. As they reached the infamous La Redoute however, things sparked into life once again as a seemingly inevitable Tadej Pogacar attack was being anticipated.

Among those struggling at the back was La Fleche Wallonne winner, Stephen Williams. With 35km to go, Pogacar made his move with only Richard Carapaz able to react initially. Soon though, even the Ecuadorian was dropped and by the summit of the climb, Pogacar was already 20 seconds clear of the chasers. Whilst the chase behind started to stall, Ben Healy attacked, soon joined by Gregoire, Romain Bardet and Benoit Cosnefroy.

As the rain began to fall with just over 20km to go, Pogacar had 1:16 over the nearest quartet of chasers, whilst the main bunch including van der Poel was at over a minute and a half. Whilst there was no catching the runaway Slovenian, things were lighting up behind on the final climb of the day as Bardet attacked the lead chase group and Egan Bernal attacked to try and bridge across from group 3.

Heading into the final 5km, Pogacar's lead was up to around two minutes from Bardet, who in turn was around 15 seconds clear of a chasing group that van der Poel and Pidcock were fighting hard to get back to.

After Pogacar's victory celebration, Bardet managed to hold on to a very impressive second place and in the sprint for third from the reduced bunch behind Mathieu van der Poel secured a place on the podium.

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