Three Quick Thoughts: Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2025

A few quick post-race thoughts from today's Liège-Bastogne-Liège

Tadej Pogačar rode clear on the brutal La Redoute climb to solo to his third career victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège as Giulio Ciccone and Ben Healy chased on behind to salvage two well-earned podium spots. Below are my quick thoughts about the day before the full race breakdown on Monday.

Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2025 Top Five
1) Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +0
2) Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) +1’03
3) Ben Healy (Education First) +1’03
4) Simone Velasco (XDS Astana) +1’10
5) Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) +1’10

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1) Tadej Pogačar Has His Winning Formula on Difficult One-Day Courses Down to Science, Making Him Possibly the Best One-Day Rider in the History of the Sport: The 26-year-old World Champion won his third career Liège with a simple, yet effective, formula: Having his UAE team (in particular Domen Novak) sit on the front of the peloton setting an all-day hard pace that kept potential attackers from getting ideas and softened the legs of his rivals, so that when he launched his race-winning attack on La Redoute, even with teammates still remaining in the group, before soloing to the finish line to collect yet another Monument victory.

• This might sound simple enough, and, as such, something other teams could account for, but when Pogačar is able to expend less energy by positioning himself perfectly throughout the race, and come into the most difficult climbs near the front, with multiple teammates on his wheel, it makes it incredibly challenging to respond, because of the raw power of the move, the difficulty in latching onto his wheel in the first place, and his ability to continue to push the hard pace over the top of the climb.