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Pogacar has outstripped his rivals but met a man of incredible stamina at Evenepoel on Sunday
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Slovenian Tadej Pogacar of Team Emirates celebrates as he crosses the finish line in ‘La Fleche Wallonne’. – Agence France-Presse
Fierce form has Emirates Emirates’ Tadej Pogacar as the favorite for Sunday’s Liege-Bastogne-Liege cycling classic, but he faces a showdown with local hero, world champion and Vuelta a Espana winner Remco Evenepoel.
With Evenepoel the defending champion and Pogacar to win in 2021, the mouth-watering duel was the first real head-to-head between the two on 258km of rolling roads in the Ardennes Forest with pollen in the air Confrontation.
Thousands of amateurs compete in the secondary race, while more than half a million roadside fans may attend what is known as “La Doyenne” because of the long, extremely difficult stretch known as the Cycling Monument. The oldest game of the day.
Two-time Tour de France winner Pogacar has recently beaten the spirit of rivals such as Matthew van der Poel in victories at the Tour of Flanders, Amstel Gold and Fleche Wallonne.
The 24-year-old Slovenian has outgrown and mentally outpaced his opponents, but faces a man of prodigious stamina at Evenepoel on Sunday and fans will be looking to him for a relentless long-distance drive.
Evenepoel will line up for the six-and-a-half-hour run wearing the world champion’s rainbow jersey.
“It was the best game of the day, I’m the defending champion and my goal is simple, to win,” the 23-year-old Evenepoel said Friday.
“I have a lot of respect for what Tadej has achieved in recent weeks. My main focus this season is the Giro d’Italia, but Liege will be the test for that.”
In the forest it is difficult to keep track of who is where and how far ahead or behind they might be, whereas Evenepoel has enough knowledge of the local terrain to choose which hill to execute his plan on.
“As a team we have a plan in place and are confident that we will see it through,” said Evenepoel, who has Julian Alaphilippe as caretaker, as was the case in his victorious Vuelta campaign.
The race moves from the Ardennes into the red-brick Italian quarter above Liege, where downhill riders such as Ineos’ Brit Tom Pidcock can cross the standard Liège football stadium across the river Meuse as the 10km city for the spring classics The final climax.
There are many other serious contenders, with 25 teams participating.
2018 winner Bob Jungels is tied with Bora-Hansgrohe, whose second contender is Aleksandr Vlasov.
Dutch climber Wout Poels won in unseasonable snow in 2016 and started backing Mikel Landa and Matej Mohoric’s strong bid for Bahrain Victorious.
The Belgian has won 59 of the 108 editions so far, with Eddy Merckx holding the record for five victories between 1969 and 1975.
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