Liège - Bastogne - Liège 2026, one-day monument, 26th April

[QueenStagiaire]

How are UAE and Decathlon this slow? Over four minutes to a group with like five strong riders is very weak

 

[Monsi]

Time gaps are a bit wonky. It's now back down to 3:30

 

[memyselfandI]

Remco is hanging himself out to dry with one teammate in a break that contains outside favourites like 'enzo paleni', I worry that this does not end well unfortunately

There is around 15 quality cyclists in front group. If they keep good cohesion with some help from others in that group, it makes big pressure to the Pogi Seixas group.

 

[Poursuivant]

Forza Bernal

 

[Berniece]

I don't think G2 has much to worry about, YET. Depends how they arrive at Cote de Wanne, and how big the gap is then. If it's still 1min, but UAE and Decathlon riders are knackered, well that's an issue.

 

[Coppi-Bartali]

What is UAE and Decathlon doing? No reason to let it go out to 4 minutes when Remco only has 1 dom. The second peloton should have plenty of firepower.

At the front are UNOX, Ineos, Burgos pulling with Denz.

Behind UAE with Laengen and Wellens. Wellens is in a poor shape after his accident.

 

[YavorD]

Very few as in none, but the probability is much higher when being in front with max gap for the majority of the best riders. And you never know if something happens with Remco.

Let's get real, the reality is they are riding for second with an absolutely minimal chance of winning it.
Nothing wrong with this, of course, and some teams can get a top 10 from this situation (Picnic, I'm looking at you), so they should absolutely do a job.

Let's just not pretend they are riding for the win. They are riding for the best possible result, as they should in any race.

 

[topcat]

Pog should pull out and rest up for Romandie.

 

[Salvarani]

I don't think G2 has much to worry about, YET. Depends how they arrive at Cote de Wanne, and how big the gap is then. If it's still 1min, but UAE and Decathlon riders are knackered, well that's an issue.

I think they would be very happy to have gotten it down to a minute by that point.

It makes the gap somewhat bridgeable, but then riders in front group will start to move if things happening behind. So it might not be easy to bridge in the end. Remco solos off.

 

[Netserk]

But Pidcock/Pogacar were never really in a big gambling position either.
At this point, the other teams are in a very decent gambling position . They could stop and see Red Bull's reaction. If Red Bull continue working, they won. If they stop, you start working again and you probably drop 20-30 seconds.
I think that's a gamble you can take.


But then again, either action by the other teams won't be wrong in this situation. Unless they stop totally, regardless of what Red Bull does. That would be stupid.

pidders should never have taken any pulls and he could have started that on cipressa

and this early in the race its not beneficial for the break if only denz and evenepoel work

 

[KoopaCycling]

Remco will just drop everyone and thank them for pulling.

So by everyones logic from previous races or so I have heard, this is moronic riding...

Again Remco is no Pogacar, and capable of doing stupid stuff.
A remco win is far less given than a Pogacar win

 

[Berniece]

I think they would be very happy to have gotten it down to a minute by that point.

It makes the gap somewhat bridgeable, but then riders in front group will start to move if things happening behind. So it might not be easy to bridge in the end. Remco solos off.

Can't imagine they won't. I think they are deliberately keeping it close. Let G1 swim a bit, it's still 165km to go. That's a standard TDF stage length basically

 

[Unterlenkerfahrend]

G1 can't be going that quick if just a while ago a bunch of conti riders managed to attack from their pace. This is mainly uae playing poker.

 

[Salvarani]

Again Remco is no Pogacar, and capable of doing stupid stuff.
A remco win is far less given than a Pogacar win

Doesnt matter here if his brain is stupid, if his legs is just much stronger than those around him.

 

[Coppi-Bartali]

I don't know who's pulling now, but it's the first time the gap has narrowed somewhat. Novak?

 

[KoopaCycling]

Doesnt matter here if his brain is stupid, if his legs is just much stronger that those around him.

well we would need footage to judge wether people are riding smart or dumb. for all we know Hermans is cruising along getting a free ride whereas Remco is pulling like crazy

 

[Red Rick]

I don't think G2 has much to worry about, YET. Depends how they arrive at Cote de Wanne, and how big the gap is then. If it's still 1min, but UAE and Decathlon riders are knackered, well that's an issue.

They're about to hit the turning point in Bastogne, so wind will change direction as well, but that should have a much smaller effect with such large groups.

A decision needs to be made if they want to start going themselves by the time they hit the Stockeu.

I don't see a situation where both gruops just ride to La Redoute.

 

[Salvarani]

Can't imagine they won't. I think they are deliberately keeping it close. Let G1 swim a bit, it's still 165km to go. That's a standard TDF stage length basically

It is not often a +50 rider break gets caught during a hard TDF stage.

 

[Monsi]

G1 can't be going that quick if just a while ago a bunch of conti riders managed to attack from their pace. This is mainly uae playing poker.

Yeahhh if riders are attacking from that front group, it means they aren't going all out, which is why I'm a bit surprised as to how this gap went out to 4 mins max.

 

[Coppi-Bartali]

@KoopaCycling Remco is not Pogacar, but in Liège he is far superior to everyone else who isn't Pogacar.

 

[YavorD]

pidders should never have taken any pulls and he could have started that on cipressa

and this early in the race its not beneficial for the break if only denz and evenepoel work

Again, they SHOULD work.
But they are just riding for 2nd, top 5 or top 10.

So people actually arguing against riding for second should be here, complaining against this. Oddly, they approve it.

 

[Rechtschreibfehler]

So now it jumped from 3:50 to 3:15 rather fast (PCS). Wonder how reliable this gap is.

 

[KoopaCycling]

Down to almost 3 minutes now. Pogacar still main favourite. Then Seixas, then still remco despite the shenanigans.
A crazy upset would be magnificent though

 

[Snake]

3.15, it's over fo remco, congratulations to pogacar and his team

 

[AlfaLum]

Remco has only one domestique and outside that he has to hope that others will continue riding with him.

Pogacar and Seixas combined have 14 domestiques left probably of which a couple should make it until the Redoute.

So this is definitely far from over. But we should be very happy that it is already a very exciting race.