Tim Wellens: "I will try to get the best result possible"

Lotto Soudal are on a dash to rack up UCI points to stay afloat at the World Tour, and today's Liège-Bastogne-Liège will be an important race for that matter. The final day of the spring classics, it will be the final time local legend Philippe Gilbert will race on these roads, with a team headlined by Tim Wellens.

“Liège-Bastogne-Liège is a very different race from Wednesday’s Flèche Wallonne. Just like Phil I think the final can be a bit more open because it’s becoming a trend that races are starting more early. I hope to be there in the final. For that, I might have to anticipate the final ascent of La Roche-aux-Faucons," Wellens said in a press release.

Having won the Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana and a stage at the Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var, Wellens is no stranger to triumphs this year, and he will be seeking a big one in the hilly route that's to be faced today: "Liège-Bastogne-Liège is one of the hardest courses of the year where the best riders automatically come out on top. I did already a recon of the slightly renewed course a while ago but I don’t expect it to have a big impact on how the race will unfold."

"La Doyenne is a race I really love and I will try to get the best result possible. Expressing specific ambitions is difficult but the healthy ambition is to finish within the first ten riders on the Quai des Ardennes," he concluded.

Lotto Soudal for Liège-Bastogne-Liège: Tim Wellens, Philippe Gilbert, Harm Vanhoucke, Sébastien Grignard, Matthew Holmes, Sylvain Moniquet and Viktor Verschaeve.