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Can Michael Woods stand on La Doyenne’s podium again?

Spring Classics season concludes with Liège-Bastogne-Liège

Sunday’s 105th Liège-Bastogne-Liège in Belgium marks the end of the Spring Classics season. Following Sunday both the men’s and women’s WorldTours turn towards stage races as spring changes to summer. Often referred to as La Doyenne (The Old Lady), Liège-Bastogne-Liège is the fourth of the five Monuments. The women’s race is the third edition. Can Bob Jungels and Anna van der Breggen defend their titles? Can Michael Woods replicate his podium performance from last year?

The Men’s Race

La Doyenne is 254 km long and features 11 climbs, with the final three being key. First comes the Cote de la Redoute (2 km of 8.9 percent) with 37 km remaining. The Cote des Forges (1.3 km of 7.8 percent) comes next. Peaking with 12-km to go is the third prong on the trident: Cote de la Roche-aux-Faucons, 1.3 km of 11 percent. The race ends on the Boulevard d’Avroy in the centre of Liège.

Alejandro Valverde doesn’t look quite strong enough to win his fifth title. Twice on La Doyenne’s podium and also on the podium of this season’s Milan-San Remo, Michal Kwiatkowski is worth keeping an eye on.

This race will mostly likely result in another round between this season’s greatest sparring partners, title holder Jungels‘ French teammate Julian Alaphilippe and Astana’s in-form Dane Jakob Fuglsang, third in Amstel Gold and runner-up to Alaphilippe at La Fleche Wallonne.

Alaphilippe and Fuglsang have been the great sparring partners of 2019. Photo: Sirotti

Michael Matthews (Australia/Trek-Segafredo) was eighth in La Fleche Wallonne, fourth in De Brabantse Pijl and sixth in the Tour of Flanders. Vincenzo Nibali (Italy/Bahrain-Merida) finishes up a strong Tour of the Alps on Friday before his 14th La Doyenne.

Peter Sagan, his Spring Classics season without a podium visit, will skip La Doyenne and prepare for the Tour of California.

Woods hasn’t had a great Ardennes campaign, climbing off the bike in Amstel Gold after being part of a high powered chase group in the final 50 km and coming 55th in La Fleche Wallonne.

Woods’ runner-up spot at La Doyenne was the first of three great results in 2019, with his Vuelta a España stage win and Worlds podium the others. Photo: Sirotti


The Women’s Race

The women’s peloton faces five climbs over 138.5 km, including the Cote de la Redoute (2 km of 8.9 percent) cresting with 31 km to go and Cote de la Roche-aux-Faucons (1.3 km of 11 percent) the last climb with 15 km remaining.

Winner of the first two editions, Anna van der Breggen looked very strong on the Mur in winning La Fleche Wallonne on Wednesday and is the favourite to repeat on Sunday. Look for her compatriot/rival Annemiek van Vleuten to try to break van der Breggen’s stranglehold on the race. After winning Strade Bianche, van Vleuten has been runner-up in her last three WorldTour races. Another Dutch rider not to be ignored is Marianne Vos.

Although the start list isn’t complete, Leah Kirchmann is the sole Canadian entrant.