The curtain call of the 2024 Classics season is upon us. Liège-Bastogne-Liège is the last chance saloon for any riders to take a major one-day win before the peloton’s focus shifts over to stage racing and the Grand Tours next month.
Known by its nickname of La Doyenne – a complimentary French term for an old lady – Liège-Bastogne-Liège is characterised by the short and steep hills of the Ardennes in Wallonia, the French-speaking region in Southern Belgium. As one of cycling’s five great Monuments, the stakes will be high for the last of our Ardennes thrillers.
Liège-Bastogne-Liège is the hardest of the three Ardennes Classics. It’s over 250km in length for the men and often features as much climbing as a hard Tour de France mountain stage, making it worthy end to the spring season. Changed slightly in 2019, the route now fittingly finishes by returning to Liège as opposed to nearby Ans.
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Regrettably, the men’s champion from the previous two seasons, Remco Evenepoel, will be forced to sit this race out following a brutal crash in the Tour of the Basque Country. However, Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogačar will be there to save the day as they eye up a return to La Doyenne. For the women, the defending champion Demi Vollering will be hoping to repeat her win from 12 months ago, but this won’t be easy against the forces within Lidl-Trek and Vollering’s own teammate Lotte Kopecky.
Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2024: Key information
- Date: Sunday 21st April
- Start: Men’s – Liège; Women’s – Bastogne
- Finish: Liège
- Distance: Men’s – 259km; Women’s – 147.6km
- Live TV coverage: Discovery+, Eurosport
- 2023 winners: Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep); Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx)
- Most wins: Five – Eddy Merckx; Two – Annemiek van Vleuten, Anna van der Breggen, Demi Vollering
Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2024: Routes and profiles
Men’s parcours
In its identifiable arrowhead shape route, the men’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège heads south out of Liège. It won’t take long for the climbing to come as with the highest point in the profile after 69km at the summit of the Côte de La Roche-en-Ardenne.
After passing through the race’s namesake of Bastogne with in excess of 100km of racing in the legs, the peloton will head northwards with an eye on a succession of short steep hills. The race will traverse its toughest challenges at the Col du Rosier (5.6km at 5.5%) and the Côte de Desiné (1.6km at 8.1%) before tackling the emblematic Côte de la Redoute (1.9km at 9.6%) as the race brushes past the iconic Spa-Francorchamps Formula 1 track. The scene of Remco Evenepoel’s two previous race-winning digs, the punishing Côte de la Roudoute will take the race into its decisive final chapter.
The final uphill test on the course will come at the Côte de La Roche-aux-Faucons (4.4km at 5.4%). After the crest of the Roche-aux-Faucons at 13.3km to go, the race will dive down into the industrial city of Liège just as the race has since 2019.
Women's parcours
Starting in the morning of Sunday 21st April, the women's Liège-Bastogne-Liège will, in fact, start from Bastogne. In a similar course to last year, the women will head northwards, mirroring the route taken on by the men.
After making their debut on the women's parcours last year, the peloton will scale the Wanne, Stockeu and Haute-Levée triptych before tucking into a familiar smörgåsbord of climbs. The women's race, like the men's, will culminate with a final climb on the aforementioned Côte de La Roche-aux-Faucons after an amuse-bouche on the Redoute a handful of kilometres prior.
If the race has not been broken up over the Ardennes kickers – much like it was last year when we saw a two-up battle between Demi Vollering and Elisa Longo-Borghini – the flat finshing approach is perfectly designed for a tense final dash for the title.
How to watch Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2024 on TV and streaming
The Liège-Bastogne-Liège races will be available to watch in the UK on Eurosport and Discovery+ for £6.99 per month with the basic package, which includes cycling and all other Eurosport programmes. It will also be shown on the TV channel Eurosport 1 in the UK.
If it’s not being shown in your country, you may be able to watch coverage using a VPN – Virtual Private Network – which allows users to mask their IP address and watch geo-blocked content, provided they don’t need to pay for a subscription. This is also helpful for watching paid-for coverage while travelling abroad in countries without access.
One such example is ExpressVPN, which is very well reviewed, helps users to find a way to watch cycling without having to pay for broadcasters services, and costs £5.36 per month, with three months free. Other options include NordVPN, Surfshark and Kapersky.
- Read more: How to watch cycling post-GCN
Liège-Bastogne-Liège: Teams and lineups
Women's startlist
Data powered by FirstCycling.com
Men's startlist
Data powered by FirstCycling.com
Liège-Bastogne-Liège: Previous winners
- 2023: Remco Evenepoel, Demi Vollering
- 2022: Remco Evenepoel, Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar)
- 2021: Tadej Pogačar, Demi Vollering
- 2020: Primož Roglič, Lizzie Deignan
- 2019: Jakob Fuglsang, Annemiek van Vleuten
- 2018: Bob Jungels, Anna van der Breggen
- 2017: Alejandro Valderde, Anna van der Breggen
- 2016: Wout Poels
- 2015: Alejandro Valverde
- 2014: Simon Gerrans
Liège-Bastogne-Liège: History
Despite being overshadowed by its cobble counterparts, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, is technically the oldest Monument, having first been run for amateurs in 1892.
Contrary to the race's current name, the first edition actually went from Spa to Bastogne and back over 250km – of the 33 starters only 17 finished. It was one by Léon Houa in 10 hours 48 minutes but the remaining 16 riders trickled in over the next five hours.
Two years later, in 1894, the race was held for professionals and Maurice Garin, the first winner of the Tour de France, finished fourth. After this the race disappeared for 14 years before returning in 1908 when the start and finish were moved to Liège, giving way to the catchy name Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Liège really began to capture the minds of fans in the late 1960s and 1970s during a period of domination by Eddy Merckx. A Belgian himself, Merckx won Liège five times, three of which were consecutive. Merckx claimed his fifth and final win in 1975, making him the only person to date to win La Doyenne five times.
Due to the April date, the weather can be very changeable and the 1980 edition is perhaps the most well-known due to the heavy snowfall that befell the race, ultimately earning the nickname ‘Neige-Bastogne-Neige’ [neige being snow in French].
In 1990 the management of the race was moved over to ASO, which resulted in a complete revamp of the route. The start/finish was moved out of Liège to Ans and five new climbs were added. Since then, the race has boasted an eclectic list of winners from Grand Tour champions, domestiques and Ardennes specialists.
Liège-Bastogne-Liège: Famous editions
1969 – first Merckx victory
By 1969, Eddy Merckx had been a professional for eight years but had yet to win at Liège. ’69 had been a great year for Merckx as prior to Liège he had won every major classic in the calendar apart from Paris-Roubaix.
With just under 100km to go to the finish, Merckx broke clear on the Stockeu and caught two of his team mates, Roger Swerts and Vic Van Schil, who had been in the early breakaway.
Swerts was eventually dropped, so Merckx and Van Schil rode to the finish together. Merckx wanted to give the win to Van Schil but Van Schil insisted Merckx claim it. This was the first of five victories – a record that still stands.
1980 – Hinault in the snow
The 1980 edition of Liège is perhaps the most well-known thanks to the appalling conditions that the riders had to endure. A blizzard began within minutes of the race starting and after an hour only 60 riders, approximately one-third of the starters, were still left in the race.
Two riders broke away and had a lead of just over two minutes by Le Stockeu but were caught by Hinault and two other chasers on the Haute Levée. With 80km to go Hinault attacked again and, after seven hours of racing, finished in Liège 10 minutes ahead of the second-place finisher Hennie Kuiper. Hinault suffered frostbite in his right hand and he claims it took over three weeks for movement to return.
1985, ’86 and ’87 – the Argentin years
Liège-Bastogne-Liège in the mid-1980s is remembered for the complete domination of Moreno Argentin. Argentin, also known as ‘Il Capo’ [The Boss] was a one-day specialist that had great success in the Ardennes Classics. What makes his wins most special is the calibre of rider he defeated: Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche, Phil Anderson, Guiseppi Sarroni, Greg LeMond, Robert Millar – the list goes on. Argentin ultimately went on to win the race a fourth time in 1991.
2011 – Philippe Gilbert, a modern classic
2011 was Philippe Gilbert’s year and he topped off a storming ‘Ardennes week’ with his win at Liège, making him one of only two people to ever do the triple – Amstel Gold, La Flèche Wallone and Liège (he also won Brabanste Pijl too). The win was especially sweet as he displayed his complete dominance over the race. Gilbert broke away with the two Schleck brothers with approximately 20km to go. Everyone expected the two brothers, who were teammates, to work together to beat Gilbert but he put the power down on the final straight and dropped them both to become the first Belgian winner since 1999.
2020 – A comedy of errors...and Primož Roglič
Moved to October due to COVID, the 2020 edition of Liège-Bastogne-Liège provided a serious dose of schadenfreude. With the Tour de France behind them, its climax saw an in-form group of four, including Tour winner, Tadej Pogačar, second-placed Primož Roglič, plus stage winners Julian Alaphilippe and Marc Hirschi contest the sprint.
Assumed to be the strongest finisher in the bunch, Alaphilippe kicked things off but quickly cut across the road putting both Hirschi and Pogačar out of the running. Assuming the race was sewn up, he then took his hands off the bars to celebrate, unaware his sweep across the road had failed to collect the still pedalling Roglič. A lunge of the bike was all it took for the Slovenian to nab victory, a win few begrudged a man who’d weeks before seen his Tour win slip away. Even more embarrassment followed for Alaphilippe, who found himself demoted to fifth for deviating from his line. Cycling doesn't get as silly as this.
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