The fourth of the five sacred monuments of cycling, Liege-Bastogne-Liege (April 26) brings the curtain down on not only the Ardennes classics, but the spring classics as a whole.
With that in mind there will be a huge fight amongst teams to end the campaign with bragging rights as the in-form climbers contest one of the hardest races on the calendar.
The 253-kilometre route is trimmed by 10km from last year's centenary edition. That doesn’t make "La Doyenne" any less difficult, with a more compact cluster of climbs in the closing stages meaning recovery time will be less ahead of the famous run-in.
Team Sky send a strong squad to Belgium, hoping to improve on a best finish of fifth in the famous race (Rigoberto Uran, 2011). Philip Deignan, Nathan Earle, Sergio Henao, Vasil Kiryienka, Lars Petter Nordhaug, Danny Pate, Nicolas Roche and Kanstantsin Siutsou will line up at the start in Liege.
The team will be without Wout Poels who crashed in Fleche Wallonne. "Shoulder is not good, unfortunately. Monday I will go to a specialist to see how and what. Big downer," he tweeted earlier today.
15.04 - 19.04: Tour of the Alps |
20.04: EPZ Omloop van Borsele |
17.04 - 21.04: Tour de Tunisie |
18.04 - 21.04: Eroica Juniores |
19.04 - 21.04: EPZ Omloop van Borsele |
20.04 - 21.04: Gipuzkoa Klasika |
21.04: Giro della Romagna |
21.04: EPZ Omloop van Borsele |
21.04: Liège-Bastogne-Liège |
21.04: Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes |
Edward ANDERSON 26 years | today |
Wen Chan HSIEH 32 years | today |
Joon Yeong PARK 32 years | today |
Nikolaj SVENNINGSEN 35 years | today |
Michael MUCK 40 years | today |
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