"Those are the moments you do it all for": Wout Poels looks back at his historic Liège-Bastogne-Liège win a decade later

Exactly ten years ago, Wout Poels pulled off a massive surprise by winning the 2016 Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The Dutch rider, who was usually a support rider for Team Sky, found himself stepping up as the team leader late in the race when his teammate struggled with the cold. Taking advantage of a newly added cobbled climb, Poels broke away with a small group and managed to out-sprint his rivals. Looking back on the victory, the Dutch rider still considers that win as the absolute highlight of his career.

The late April race is usually held in decent spring weather, but the 2016 edition was completely different. "It was just like a survival trip with changing clothes, cold, and snow," Poels said about the difficult conditions on the bike that day in an interview to Wieler Revue.

At the time, Poels was a domestique and rarely got to ride for his own chances. However, his real chance came when the team's designated leader, Michal Kwiatkowski, started to suffer badly from the freezing temperatures. "Kwiatkowski indicated twenty kilometers before the end that he wasn't feeling so good. Then he rode me to the front well a few times."

As if the weather wasn't hard enough, the race organizers had added a new obstacle to the finale that year: the Côte de la Rue Naniot. Sitting between the famous Côte de Saint-Nicolas and the finish line in Ans, it was a short but incredibly steep cobbled climb. "For me, it was good that the cobbled climb was in there. I had felt good all day," he said afterward.

It was on that exact sector that Poels managed to break away alongside Michael Albasini, Rui Costa, and Samuel Sanchez. "Then we rode away there and got a nice gap, but actually I didn't completely believe in it yet there," he admitted.

The four riders managed to hold off the chasers, setting up a nervous sprint to the line. By that point, the freezing weather and the heavy climbing had completely drained everyone in the lead group. "It's such a hard race... After 250 kilometers, no sprint is the same. Everyone was completely exhausted," Poels explained.

When the sprint finally started, Poels didn't wait around to see what the others would do. He launched his effort from the front and kept his head down the entire time, crossing the line first without ever checking his shoulder.

"I went from the front and I didn't see anyone anymore. That's the best thing, right?" he said immediately after the finish. His initial reaction was just pure disbelief. "I didn't expect this. But hey, what does it matter?"

Even ten years later, that final sprint remains incredibly clear in his mind. Poels says he still gets physical reactions when he thinks about crossing the finish line that day in the snow. "When I think back to it, I can completely replay that movie. The goosebumps then show on my arms again. Those are the moments you do it all for."