Tadej Pogačar all set to chase third Liège-Bastogne-Liège title

Three weeks after the last of his eight Monument victories to date, Tadej Pogačar will lead UAE Team Emirates-XRG at this weekend’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège in Belgium. The grand old race will round out this year’s spring Classics and see the world’s best go head to head once more before attention turns to the Grand Tour season.

With a second-place finish at the Amstel Gold Race on Sunday, Pogačar showed himself up for the fight in the Ardennes, with some of the region’s toughest climbs to come over the double-header of La Flèche Wallonne and the Monument known as La Doyenne. In Spain, meanwhile, UAE Team Emirates-XRG will head to the Vuelta Asturias Julio Alvarez Mendo, with an eye on retaining the title won through Isaac del Toro last season.

Although sitting as the final race of the week, Liège-Bastogne-Liège is likely to be the most hotly anticipated, with the 133-year-old race proving the oldest of cycling’s five Monuments. Over the years, Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates-XRG have won two editions, with victories in 2021 and 2024 serving as revenge for a third place in 2020 and the season-altering crash in 2023.

This time around, the Slovenian has enjoyed an uninterrupted Classics campaign that has seen him win Strade Bianche and the Tour of Flanders, adding to podium finishes at Milano-Sanremo, Paris-Roubaix and the Amstel Gold Race. The world champion took the cycling world by storm in finishing second at Paris-Roubaix on debut, but he will be on more familiar terrain in La Doyenne.

Taking in 4,400m of climbing across 251.8km, the route for Liège-Bastogne-Liège remains the same from recent years, with nine of the eleven categorised climbs falling within the final 100km of racing. In days gone by, it was the Côte de Stockeu which would be most feared by all, with Eddy Merckx making this particular climb his playground in his heyday.

However, there has been a shift towards using La Redoute as a launchpad for solo victories over the past three editions, with Remco Evenepoel using the 1.6km climb to full effect in 2022 and 2023, before Pogačar followed suit last season. With an average gradient of 9.4%, La Redoute is more than hard enough to create a race-winning move, with only 34km to ride from its summit to the finish in Liège.

Should the preceding climbs not prove decisive, there will no doubt be attacks flying from all angles on the final categorised ascent, the Roche-aux-Faucons. Extending for 1.3km at 11%, the Roche-aux-Faucons is where Pogačar went clear along with four other riders in 2021, before winning a five-up sprint to take what was his first Monument win.

Now sitting on eight Monument victories, the world champion is looking forward to another couple of one-day showdowns before all attention turns to this summer’s Tour de France preparation.

Pogačar : “I’ve enjoyed this Classics campaign a lot so far. I came into this period with a lot of goals and ambitions and there are still two left, with the biggest of them next Sunday. The most suited race for me is probably Liege so I’m really looking forward to it in particular, but every race is important. I’ll aim for a couple of easier days now and open the legs up again in Fleche – Wallonne on the Mur de Huy. I think things are on track for a good race in Liege-Bastogne-Liege which is the main goal for this part of the season in the Ardennes.”

The full UAE Team Emirates-XRG lineup for Liège-Bastogne-Liège is as follows:
– Felix Großschartner (AUT)
– Vegard Stake Laengen (Nor)
– Brandon McNulty (USA)
– Domen Novak (Slo)
– Tadej Pogačar (Slo)
– Pavel Sivakov (Fra)
– Florian Vermeersch (Bel)

Of course, before a date with La Doyenne in Belgium, the WorldTour peloton will tackle the unofficial hill climb championships at La Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday. Finishing atop the iconic Mur de Huy in the Ardennes, this race almost exclusively comes down to a final uphill sprint amongst the best to decide the day’s honours, with Pogačar coming out on top in 2023.

Last year’s edition brought an upset for the books in that the weather caused an unusually attritional encounter, with only 44 riders crossing the finish line under a barrage of rain, sleet and snow. Despite the inclement conditions, La Flèche Wallonne was still decided on the final ascent of the Mur de Huy, and most will expect more of the same this time round. Standing at 9.6% for 1.3km, the Mur de Huy only relents to less than 10% through the final couple of hundred metres, by which point the strongest climber has often shown face.

Joining the 2023 champion Pogačar on the start line at La Flèche Wallonne will be the following UAE Team Emirates-XRG riders:
– Jan Christen (Swi)
– Felix Großschartner (AUT)
– Vegard Stake Laengen (Nor)
– Brandon McNulty (USA)
– Domen Novak (Slo)
– Tadej Pogačar (Slo)
– Pavel Sivakov (Fra)

As the Ardennes Classics continue in Belgium, UAE Team Emirates-XRG will also contest an important stage race in Spain between Thursday, 24 April and Sunday, 27 April. The Vuelta Asturias Julio Alvarez Mendo is a four-day stage race that brought the Emirati squad much success in 2024.

Proving the strongest on the opening stage, Isaac del Toro claimed his first stage race victory as a neo-pro, whilst his teammates António Morgado and Finn Fisher-Black won stages 2 and 3 to secure a UAE Team Emirates-XRG lockout in Spain. A year on, the 67th edition of the Vuelta Asturias will be held over four stages, beginning and ending in Oviedo.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG return with another strong squad that includes Morgado, Julius Johansen, Marc Soler and recent Giro d’Abruzzo stage winner Alessandro Covi. The four WorldTour riders will be joined by a trio of talents from the Gen Z squad, in Al-Ali Abdulla Jasim, Adrià Pericas and Enea Sambinello.

For Soler, it will be his first outing at the Vuelta Asturias since 2016, with the Spaniard already enjoying plenty of success on home soil in the 2025 campaign. Finishing as the best Catalan rider, the 31-year-old helped Juan Ayuso to a memorable stage win and second overall at the Volta a Catalunya in March, before supporting João Almeida to his victory at Itzulia Basque Country earlier this month.

As they go in search of defending their crown from 2024, the full UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad for four hilly stages at the Vuelta Asturias is as follows:
– Alessandro Covi (Ita)
– Julius Johansen (Den)
– António Morgado (Por)
– Marc Soler (Spa)
– Al-Ali Abdulla Jasim (UAE) (Gen Z)
– Adrià Pericas (Spa) (Gen Z)
– Enea Sambinello (Ita) (Gen Z)