Liège Three Fast Ideas: Spencer Martin provides us his fast evaluation of Sunday’s Ardennes Monument and the way World Champion, Remco Evenepoel and his Soudal Fast-Step group dominated on the highway to Liège. And what we will take from Tadej Pogačar’s crash.

– This text is an excerpt from the Past the Peloton e-newsletter. Enroll right here for full entry. –

Remco Evenepoel laid down a brutal assault that dropped each different contender on the La Redoute climb earlier than soloing to victory at Sunday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The profitable experience each netted him his second consecutive victory on the brutal Monument, and confirmed he’s on monitor for a profitable GC marketing campaign on the upcoming Giro d’Italia.

Under are my fast three ideas:

Liège-Bastogne-Liège High 5:
1) Remco Evenepoel +0
2) Tom Pidcock +1’06
3) Santiago Buitrago +1’06
4) Ben Healy +1’08
5) Valentin Madouas +1’24

Pidcock tried, however no one appeared able to stopping the inevitable

1) Probably the most shocking factor concerning the race wasn’t the way it was gained, however the truth that no one appeared able to stopping the inevitable

• Remco Evenepoel gained his second consecutive Liege title in nearly precisely the identical trend he gained his first again in 2022: Attacking in direction of the highest of the (in)well-known La Redoute climb with roughly 34 kilometers remaining. And identical to 2022, he briefly had firm, earlier than merely using away from his companions to a solo victory. He made Tom Pidcock, the one rider robust sufficient to stay with him for a kilometer or two following La Redoute right this moment, appear like a membership rider as he tapped out a gradual tempo to go away him within the mud.
  • The surprising factor wasn’t that he obtained away clear on La Redoute for a solo win, however that everybody else within the race appeared resigned to their destiny of being dropped by Evenepoel on the climb.
  • Evenepoel’s Quickstep group telegraphed the transfer from over a 100 kilometers remaining, but, outdoors of a quick Jan Tratnik assault, everybody appeared prepared to stay to their wheel and await the climb, regardless of understanding that that they had nearly no likelihood of matching his tempo.

How far can Remco Evenepoel go?

2) Remco Evenepoel is shortly closing the hole to the game’s most prolific riders

• The win begins to construct a palmarès for the 23-year-old Belgian that begins to match the easiest within the sport. For instance, within the final twelve months, Evenepoel has gained two Monuments (2xLiege), a World Championship, and a grand tour (La Vuelta). Not even the mighty Tadej Pogačar can boast of a equally glowing haul over the identical time interval.
  • Maybe probably the most surprising factor about Evenepoel’s report is that with 4 profession Monument begins, he now has two wins, which means he has a staggering 50% win fee. This is able to be absurd for anybody however is much more spectacular contemplating Evenepoel lacks a top-tier dash and has to win each main race solo.
  • And whereas Evenepoel isn’t able to holding the explosive kind he initially exhibits after leaving altitude coaching camps for a full three-week grand tour, judging from what we noticed right this moment, he actually appears to be like on monitor so as to add one other grand tour to his haul at Might’s Giro d’Italia.

Pogačar’s damaged wrist possible robbed us of an all-time nice battle

3) Tadej Pogačar’s damaged wrist possible robbed us of an all-time nice battle & provides uncertainly to his Tour de France marketing campaign

• The one factor that would take away from Evenepoel’s peerless experience was the truth that he didn’t get a chance to face off towards Pogačar on the race’s remaining climbs because of the Slovenian crashing and breaking his wrist early within the race resulting from a tire blowout.
  • After all, Evenepoel couldn’t management this and, at the least in idea, shouldn’t be penalized for it, however it’s going to inevitably take a little bit of shine off what was a really spectacular experience that very nicely might have seen him drop Pogačar and enter himself into the dialog for the very best present rider within the sport.
• • We’ll by no means know what would have occurred had Pogačar not crashed, however for the second time in a month, biking followers have been robbed of traditionally nice one-on-one battles between generational skills.
• Not solely did Pogačar miss out on an opportunity to win his fifth profession Monument and make a press release in a head-to-head battle with Evenepoel, however he now finds himself recovering from surgical procedure with simply over two months remaining earlier than the Tour de France.
  • Evaluate this to his largest GC rival Jonas Vingegaard, who’s constructing towards peak Tour kind with out interruption resulting from his managed coaching camps.
  • This can nearly actually have an effect on every rider’s kind at July’s Tour de France and exhibits the inherent threat concerned with Tour de France contenders multi-tasking and chasing victories throughout totally different disciplines and occasions.

Will we see a Pogačar/Vingegaard Tour battle in 2023?

# You possibly can learn the complete ‘PEZ Race Report’ HERE. #

# Spencer Martin is the creator of the cycling-analysis e-newsletter Past the Peloton that breaks down the nuances of every race and solutions massive image questions surrounding group and rider efficiency. Enroll now to get full entry to all of the out there content material and race breakdowns. #

Mom of Remco Evenepoel, Agna Van Eeckhout with Remco’s spouse, Oumii Rayane and group supervisor Patrick Lefevere

Like PEZ? Why not subscribe to our weekly e-newsletter to obtain updates and reminders on what’s cool in highway biking?