The pinnacle of the Ardennes Classics is Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the oldest of cycling’s five Monuments. La Doyenne signals the end of the spring Classics and so for many riders, it’s the last chance for one-day glory ahead of the summer of stage racing. Most importantly, it is an opportunity to add one of cycling’s oldest and most illustrious races to a rider’s palmarès.
Liège-Bastogne-Liège men’s 2026 route
The 2026 route follows the familiar template to previous years: out of Liège, south to Bastogne, and back again, with the Côte de Saint-Roch the only interruption in an otherwise forgiving opening 119km. It is on the return that La Doyenne earns its reputation. The Col de Haussire begins the attrition, followed by a relentless sequence – Mont-le-Soie, Wanne, Stockeu, Haute-Levée, and the 4.4km Col du Rosier – before the race enters its decisive phase.
The Côte de Desnié at 9.4% and the Côte de la Redoute, with its 20% maximum, arrive inside the final 34km to shatter whatever remains of a tired peloton. After the Côte des Forges and a 7km descent, the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons – 1.3km at 11% – is the last real climb, and the place where the Monument is most often won and lost. At the summit, just under 13km remains – most of which is descending – into the city of Liège.
Liège-Bastogne-Liège men's 2026 route (credit: ASO)
Contenders
Tadej Pogačar
A three-time winner of this race, Pogačar arrives as the favourite and it is hard to make a compelling case against him. His spring has been characteristically imperious: starting from when he won Strade Bianche in March and as always he has been the benchmark against which every other rider has been measured. After a win at the Tour of Flanders and a second-place at Paris-Roubaix, he skipped The Amstel Gold Race and La Flèche Wallonne – his team judging that there was no need to expose him to unnecessary fatigue ahead of Sunday. The hallmark of Pogačar's Liège victories has been patience; he does not panic when others attack, and he reserves his most devastating accelerations for the moments that matter. On the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons he is extraordinarily difficult to match.
(Image credit: SWpix.com)
Paul Seixas
On Wednesday, Paul Seixas became the youngest winner in La Flèche Wallonne's 90-year history. He is nineteen years old and he had never raced on the Mur de Huy – but, naturally, he won it anyway, jumping clear of Mauro Schmid and Ben Tulett with 200 metres to go with a power and timing that left the field with nothing to offer in response. It was not a surprise to those who had been watching his spring closely. He had already won the Faun-Ardèche Classic with a solo move of more than 40 kilometres, finished second at Strade Bianche, and dominated the Itzulia Basque Country, winning three stages including the opening time trial. His team planned the entire first half of his season around this weekend, and the question now is not whether he belongs on the same road as Pogačar, but whether he can beat him on it.
(Image credit: SWpix.com)
Read more: Paul Seixas' Tour credentials: Was the Basque Country the evidence we needed?
Remco Evenepoel
A two-time winner of this race, Remco Evenepoel knows Liège intimately. His move to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe has been one of the defining stories of the spring: in his cobbled Classics debut at the Tour of Flanders he finished third, and at the Amstel Gold Race on Sunday he was coolly clinical, biding his time before outsprinting Mattias Skjelmose in the closing metres. The Tour de France is his primary objective for 2026, but Evenepoel has never treated Liège as a warm-up. Like at Ronde van Vlaanderen, everyone will be keeping a close eye on the Belgian because if he gets a gap, it’s nearly impossible to pull him back.
(Image credit: SWpix.com)
Tom Pidcock
Liège is Tom Pidcock’s primary target this spring. He has achieved a lot in his career so far, claiming Olympic titles, winning a stage at the Tour de France, the Amstel Gold Race, and last year finishing on the podium of a Grand Tour, but the Pinarello-Q36.5 rider has never won a Monument (he was close at Milan-Sanremo in March). His climbing on steep gradients is not in question, and the repeated short efforts of the Ardennes finale suit his profile well. But whether he has the endurance to stay in contention with the likes of Pogačar and Seixas after 250km and still produce something decisive on the Roche-aux-Faucons is the question. Pidcock has come back from a crash at the Volta a Catalunya and has already won again, claiming stage three of the the Tour of the Alps on Wednesday.
(Image credit: Getty)
Other contenders
Ben Tulett (Visma–Lease a Bike) finished third on the Mur de Huy on Wednesday – unable to live with Seixas's late jump – so arrives in fine form. Benoît Cosnefroy (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) was third at the Amstel Gold Race and, while nominally in support of Pogačar, is a rider capable of capitalising if the race opens up around him.
Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) has been knocking on the door all spring without quite breaking through, finishing fourth at both Strade Bianche and the Amstel Gold Race. The rider who was second at Amstel Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) is also racing on Sunday and will line up with his teammate Giulio Ciccone, who is a pure climber who tends to thrive when the race is hard from a long way out.
Kévin Vauquelin (Ineos Grenadiers) has twice finished second at Flèche Wallonne and hasn’t quite managed to replicate that form at Liège. Another in-form rider is Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla), who was second at Flèche and sixth at the Amstel Gold Race and has the punch for a big result on a day like this.
Other riders to watch out for include Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious) Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) and Christian Scaroni (XDS Astana Team).
Prediction
We think Tadej Pogačar will win his fourth Liège-Bastogne-Liège title, but will be pushed hard by Paul Seixas.
