Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2025 unfolded according to a classic scenario, similar to that seen in recent years and almost identical to that of last year. A large breakaway group dominated the first part of this 111th edition of the Doyenne, but with around 60 km to go, everyone had been caught. It was then waiting until the Côte de la Redoute where World Champion and outgoing Liège-Bastogne-Liège winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates XRG) went on the attack ... and won Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2025 solo!

Summary of Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2025

While the 111th edition of Liège-Bastogne-Liège saw a flurry of attacks from the very start, it wasn't until the 25th kilometer that the day's breakaway took off. It consisted of 10 riders, Hannes Wilkisch (Tudor Pro Cycling Team), Stan van Tricht (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious), Sakarias Koller Løland (Uno-X Mobility), Kamiel Bonneu (Intermarché-Wanty), Eduardo Sepulveda (Lotto), Rayan Boulahoite and Valentin Retailleau (TotalEnergies), Ceriel Desal and Henri-François Renard-Haquin (Wagner Bazin WB), who were joined by Mathis Le Berre (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Johan Meens (Wagner Bazin WB). The best-placed rider historically on Liège-Bastogne-Liège in this group was Jack Haig, 11th in 2022.

While last year's 4th-placed rider, Maxim van Gils (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) left the race, suffering from pain following his crash at the Amstel Gold Race, this group of 12 riders widened their gap to 5'40" as they approached the first difficulty of the day, the Côte de Saint-Roch. At first, it was the Tudor (for Julian Alaphilippe) and Bahrain Victorious (for Santiago Buitrago and Pello Bilbao, despite the presence of Jack Haig in the leading group) teams who led the peloton, but it was Bob Jungels (INEOS Grenadiers) who went on the counter-attack with around 130 kilometers to go, joined a little further on by his teammate Tobias Foss.

While Henri-François Renard-Haquin took the lead at the top of the various climbs, undoubtedly aiming for the race's mountain classification prize, this duo gradually caught up with the large lead group. After forty kilometers of counter-attacking, their gap to the leading group was 1'15", with the peloton 1'50" behind, but they were finally caught by the peloton on the descent of Côte de Wanne.
At about the same time, with just under 80 kilometers to go, on the climb up Côte de Stockeu, Rayan Boulahoite went on the attack in the lead group, followed only by Jack Haig, Sakarias Koller Løland, Eduardo Sepulveda and Mathis Le Berre. The other 7 riders in the morning breakaway were then caught by the peloton. The initiator of this last-ditch attempt at survival then saw the quartet who had accompanied him slip away, and these 4 riders were only 40 seconds ahead by the time they set off up the Col du Rosier, and by the time they reached the summit of the latter, the peloton had already caught up with the breakaway, for a general regrouping (at least of the main contenders).

After the Côte de Desnié, the race already arrived at the Côte de la Redoute, which, along with the Côte des Forges and the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons, forms the triptych of the final part of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and ... it's almost no surprise that Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates XRG) takes advantage of this climb to suddenly accelerate and drop the rest of the peloton. Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) and Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) countered, followed by Giulio Ciccone, Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) and Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost). At the summit of the Côte de la Redoute, the Slovenian rider had already built up a 10-second lead, while Pidcock and Healy tried to counterattack behind. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), who had been a long way back when Pogačar was attacking, now tried to catch up with the counter group, which was now behind the duo. With Pogačar 20 seconds ahead of the duo and 30 seconds ahead of this group, Ciccone and Alaphilippe set off in pursuit of Pidcock and Healy, whom they caught a little later. By then, the World Champion was well away, and nothing could stop him from taking victory on the Doyenne. With 10 km to go, his gap was now 1'27", while the only riders left in pursuit were the duo of Ben Healy and Giulio Ciccone, who had taken off on the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons, some 15 seconds ahead of the 30-strong peloton, which went up a little bit from there.

Pogačar didn't see his rivals again, unlike in the Amstel Gold Race, and the chasing duo also managed to stay ahead of the pack. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) won Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2025, and of the chasing duo it was Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) - recent stage winner at the Tour des Alpes - who proved the strongest, finishing second ahead of Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost). Tadej Pogačar's second consecutive victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège marks his 9th Monument victory: 3 times at Liège-Bastogne-Liège (2021, 2024 and 2025), 4 times at the Tour of Lombardy and 2 times at the Tour of Flanders!

>> Find the top 10 of the classification of Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2025 in the UCI cycling calendar





📷 © A.S.O./Billy Ceusters

door Thomas Vergouwen
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