The final race of the 2022 Classics Season, the 108th Liège–Bastogne–Liège, kicked off yesterday (24 April) with the participation of 172 drivers from major teams. Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl's post-00s talent, Remco Evenepoel, won the championship alone and won the Liège race, the first classic victory of his career.
The Liège race is the oldest of the five classic races, with a total length of 257.1 km and a total climb of more than 4,300 metres this year. Liège - Bastohn - Liège, from the name of the race, some people may think of a turn-back race, in fact, the distance of the Liege race is only about 90 kilometers, most of which are main roads, and the remaining mileage is a return journey, which will pass through many country roads and climbing sections.
Of all the teams in this year's Liège Race, the most luxurious is the recently exceptionally strong Bahrain-Victorious team. The team seemed to attach great importance to the last classic of the season, sending an extremely luxurious squad: Dylan Teuns, who had just won the Arrow of Wallonia, Matej Mohori, Milan San Remo champion, Damiano Caruso, the 2016 Lizhnese champion Wout Poels, and Jack Haig and Mike Mikel Landa and Luis Leon Sanchez are all familiar names on the field.
Five kilometres into the race, Sylvain Moniquet of the Lotto-Speed Olympic Team took the lead and brought out his team-mate Harm Vanhoucke, as well as Bruno Armirail of FDJ, Jacob Madsen of Uno-X, and Fabien of Total Energy Doubey), formed an early 5-man breakout group.
Subsequently, around 40 km, Pau Miquel, Baptiste Planckaert, Paul Ourselin, Marco Tizza, Kenny Molly and Luc Wirtgen
Formed a 6-man chase group and tried to catch up with the 5-man breakout group in front. After 17 kilometers, under their catch-up, the two breakout groups merged, and the breakout group of this year's Liege Race was officially formed.
On the main group side, Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl, Jumbo-Visma, Movistar Team and Bahrain-Victory Team take turns to control the time gap with the Breakout Group. When the Breakout Group arrived at Bastogne, the maximum time difference between the Breakout Group and the main group in the 101 km of the event appeared - 6 minutes and 30 seconds.
The race came 70 kilometers before the finish line, and the atmosphere of the main group gradually became tense. 60 kilometers before the finish line, the main group suddenly had a large-scale crash, due to the narrow road, about 30 drivers could not avoid the crash, even the rear drivers who did not fall were affected by this and the front group pulled away, nearly half of the drivers were affected by the crash.
Among the favourite pre-race drivers affected in the crash were Julian Alaphilippe of the Bristles, Romain Bardet of the DSM team, Brandon McNulty of the UAE team and Wilco Kelderman of the Bora team. Among them, the most serious injured was world champion Ala Philippe, who was taken off the field by ambulance due to a back injury.
The history is always strikingly similar, and as in previous Liège races, the La Redoute coast, about 29 kilometers before the finish line, became the key to the race. Efeneapur attacked under the cover of teammates Louis Vervaeke and Mauri Vansevenant, with only Total Energy's Paul Ourselin sticking to him. Unfortunately, due to the huge difference in strength, after only 5 kilometers, Utheran was physically exhausted and was ruthlessly pulled out.
21.5km before the finish line, Bruno Armirail of the FJD team, the last driver of the Breakout Group, was overtaken by Ebenepur here, and the Breakout Group of this year's Liege race has completed all their tasks.
15 km before the finish line, Ebeneple came to the last steep slope of the competition (1.3 km, average gradient of 11%), at which point he had a 38-second difference of seconds with the main group. Teams began to catch up, shortening the second difference by about 10 seconds.
10 kilometers before the finish line, the main players of the major teams saw that the situation was not right, personally went out to accelerate the chase, and after a wave of attack, the second difference was reduced to 18 seconds. Aleksandr Vlasov of the Bora team was even more lonely and continued to fly alone to Ebenepur.
5 kilometers before the finish line, the second difference between Efenneple and the rear group increased again, maintaining at about 50 seconds, and Vlasov's position was between Efenneple and the rear group, and there was a second difference of more than 20 seconds with the rear group. When we thought that Efenerpur and Vlasov had already secured the championship and runner-up, Vlasov was weak, engulfed by the pursuit group 1 km before the finish line, unable to participate in the competition for the podium seat, and finally only finished 14th.
The 22-year-old Efenevere reaped the greatest achievements of his career with the long-distance single-flying attack he was best at, and the fast-paced team that performed poorly in the spring classics finally won the final battle in the classics!
In the race to finish after Efernappe crossed the line, Hermans defeated Van Alte to emerge as the winner, finishing runners-up in the race and adding another spring classic podium spot for the season's best-performing Team Intermarché - Wanty - Gobert Matériaux. Van Alte, who was overtaken by Hermans, narrowly overpowered The Ineos' Daniel Felipe Martinez to take home the final podium of the Competition. Interestingly, the top three of this year's Liège race are all drivers from Belgium.
Ebeneple was very excited after the victory, hugging and crying with his family. In a post-match interview, he expressed his excitement and said: "Today is the best day of my career! ”
2022 Liege- Bastower - Lietowest 10 days ahead
1. Remco Evenepoel – The Bristle Team
2. Quinten Hermans – Vanti Racing Team
3. Wout Van Aert – Jumbo Racing Team
4. Daniel Felipe Martinez – Ineos
5. Sergio Higuita – Bora Team
6. Dylan Teuns – Bahrain - Victory Team
7. Alejandro Valverde – Moving Star
8. Neilson Powless0 – EF Education Team
9. Marc Hirschi – Emirates fleet
10. Michael Woods – Israel's Pateo Team
Edit: Johnny
Image source: Fast-paced state media