Articles

The last of the spring classics is Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The 108th edition of the Ardennes classic -nicknames La Doyenne (the old lady)- is a clash between the riders from the Flemmish 'cobbled' classics and the climbers that will also compete for general classifications in hilly/mountainous stage races.

Winners

'La Doyenne' has been won most by the best rider of all time: Eddy Merckx. The Cannibal has won the race no less than five times. There is one participant in this years edition that can equal the performance of the great Belgian rider. That is 'El Imbatido' Alejandro Valverde, who has four wins up to now.

Table 1. Most wins

Next to Valverde there are a couple of previous winners on the starting line: Jakob Fuglsang (2019), Bob Jungels (2018) and Wout Poels (2016). Will they be able to show their best form and win a second 'LBL'?

Table 2. Last winners

When it comes to countries winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège, it is hardly surprising that Belgium is leading this list. A whopping 59 victories have been claimed by the Belgians. The only problem is that it has been since 2011 that they have won the last race.

Table 3. Most wins, 2nd, 3rd + last win

who is taking the start

There are 175 riders on the start line, but they all know there can only be one winner. Regional favorite' Philippe Gilbert is the rider with the most starts in his hometown classic. Good old Alejandro Valverde trails by 16 starts, followed by Vicenzo Nibali with 15 starts.

Table 4. Most starts in this race

Talking about the teams, which team brought the best riders to Liège? This close battle has been won by Bahrain - Victorious, closely trailed by Jumbo-Visma.

Table 5. Startlist quality

The youngest team on the starting line is the team of Sport Vlaanderen - Baloise. With an average age of 22y 309d, they are more than 11 years younger than the oldest team in the race: Israel - Premier Tech.

Table 6. Average age

Going the Distance

There will be a lot of climbing to do today. Obviously, in a race of over 250 kilometers through the hilly Ardennes with 'only' ten categorized climbs.

Table 7. Climbs with highest profile score

Looking at all of the Monuments, LBL might be considered the heaviest when it comes to climbing. In the last ten editions, only 2013 had less than 4k of climbing (altitude meters) to do.

Table 8. Vertical meters per year

This year the riders will have to cover 'only' 257.2 kilometers. That is 11.3 kilometers less than in it's longest edition in 1994.

Table 9. Route | Longest races