Pogacar Vs Evenepoel - A Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2023 Preview
Pogacar Vs Evenepoel - A Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2023 Preview
It would be a history-making ride if Tadej Pogacar won the 2023 Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday, but Remco Evenepoel may stand in his way.
It would be a history-making ride if Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) won Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday. He's the hot favorite coming into the race, and would make for a magical 2023 on the heels of one-day wins in the Tour of Flanders, the Amstel Gold Race, and the Flèche Wallonne.
Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step), however, is expected to put up a fight. The World Champion, and 2022 winner in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, now will look to try to stop Tornado Tadej after Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) were unable in the Tour of Flanders.
The race is live and on demand for viewers in Canada with highlights and extended content available to all FloBikes viewers.
The Belgian race is one of five monuments in cycling, it's a big one, 258.1 kilometers long from Liège down south to Bastogne and back up to Liège taking in every climb or Côte in Wallonia. The big ones and the ones of note are the Côte de Rosier, 4.5km long, and where teams will position their captains.
And the famous exposed Côte de la Redoute with its long plateau at top. Last year, Remco went from here to win with a 26km attack. In previous years, it was the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons, this year coming at 14km out and leaving a technical run to Liège's city center.
Tadej Pogacar went with 175 meters remaining in Flèche Wallonne, saving himself wisely for the last punch to the line. But he went long previously to earn his wins, 18km in the Tour of Flanders and 28km in the Amstel Gold Race. Remco Evenepoel likes to do the same, so we could see a true head to head fight between the two in the Walloon countryside Sunday.
Others to watch are Canadian Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech), who placed fourth in Flèche Wallonne and counts six top 10s in Liège, but never a winner.
Bahrain's riders Mikel Landa and Pello Bilbao. And Trek-Segafredo, who pulled off a solid performance in Flèche Wallonne with Mattias Skjelmose and Giulio Ciccone.
EF Education has Ben Healy and American Neilson Powless, who unfortunately crashed in the last two races. Ineos will be trying again with Tom Pidcock with support from his strong American teammate Magnus Sheffield, celebrating his 21sth birthday.
It's a lot of action, a lot of racing, from Liège to Bastogne and back – and all eyes are going to be on the return of Remco Evenepoel and the potential historical ride by Tadej Pogacar.