Liège-Bastogne-Liège

Liège-Bastogne-Liège is a one-day bike race in Belgium, the oldest Monument, first run in 1892, and the final race of the Ardennes classics each April. The route covers 250 to 260 kilometers from Liège to Bastogne and back, over the short, steep climbs of the Ardennes in eastern Belgium.

Liège-Bastogne-Liège, first raced in 1892, is the oldest of cycling’s five Monuments, which is why it is known as La Doyenne. The race runs from Liège south to Bastogne and back over the short, steep climbs of the Belgian Ardennes. Eddy Merckx won it five times, a record that still stands.

What is Liège-Bastogne-Liège?

Liège-Bastogne-Liège is a one-day professional bike race over the hills of the Ardennes in eastern Belgium. It is the fourth of the season’s five Monuments, the one-day races that have each been run for more than a hundred years: Milano-Sanremo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Il Lombardia.

How long is Liège-Bastogne-Liège?

Liège-Bastogne-Liège is nearly 260 kilometers long, about 160 miles. The 2026 route measured 259.5 kilometers, starting and finishing in Liège.

Léon Houa and the first editions from Spa

The first edition, in 1892, was a race for amateurs from Spa to the railway station in Bastogne and back. Léon Houa won in almost 11 hours, and the last finisher arrived five hours after him. Bastogne became the turning point because race officials could travel there by train to run the checkpoint.

Houa also won in 1893 and 1894. The race then vanished until 1908, when it came back under the name Liège-Bastogne-Liège. A year later Victor Fastre, 18 years old, was declared the winner after Eugène Charlier was disqualified, and he is still the youngest winner.

Eddy Merckx’s five victories

Merckx won in 1969, 1971, 1972, 1973 and 1975. In 1971, in snow and freezing cold, he attacked with 92 kilometers to go and built a lead of five minutes, then came close to collapse and was caught by Georges Pintens. He recovered enough to beat Pintens in the sprint. In 1972 the finish moved to Verviers for a single edition, and he won alone by 2 minutes 40 seconds from Wim Schepers.

Illness cost him the spring of 1974, and he took his fifth win in 1975. Three riders have since come within one victory of him. Moreno Argentin won in 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1991, Alejandro Valverde in 2006, 2008, 2015 and 2017, and Tadej Pogačar in 2021, 2024, 2025 and 2026. Valverde was just short of 37 at his last win, and he is the oldest winner.

Snow races: the shared win of 1957 and Hinault in 1980

In 1957 the weather turned to snow overnight, and a third of the field did not start. Germain Derycke finished first by nearly three minutes, but he was one of a group of riders who had jumped a closed railway crossing on the way. The judges let his victory stand and promoted the runner-up, Frans Schoubben, to share it, and they are still the only joint winners.

In 1980 the snow began as soon as the race had climbed out of Liège. Bernard Hinault, the winner in 1977, told Maurice Le Guilloux, his last teammate left in the race, that he was quitting, and Le Guilloux talked him into riding on to the feed zone in Bastogne. His manager, Cyrille Guimard, then told him to take off his waxed cape because the real race was about to start. “I decided the only thing to do was ride as hard as I could to keep myself warm,” Hinault said later.

He rode the last 80 kilometers alone and won by 9 minutes 24 seconds from Hennie Kuiper. Only 21 riders finished. It took three weeks before he could properly move two fingers of his right hand, and they ached in cold weather for years. No winner since the race turned professional has had a bigger margin.

The Ans finish and Gilbert’s win in 2011

Argentin’s fourth win, in 1991, was a four-rider sprint in the center of Liège ahead of Claude Criquielion, Rolf Sørensen and Miguel Indurain. From 1992 the finish was in Ans, a suburb above the city, after the local organizing club went into partnership with ASO, the organizer of the Tour de France. The new finale added the Côte de Saint-Nicolas, about five kilometers from the line, and an uphill finish.

Philippe Gilbert, who was born near the course in Verviers, won in Ans in 2011 against two brothers from one team. Fränk and Andy Schleck of Leopard Trek attacked on the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons with 20 kilometers to go, and Gilbert went with them. Outnumbered two to one, he still took his turns at the front, and he came past Andy Schleck 200 meters from the line, with Fränk second. He had won the Amstel Gold Race and the Flèche Wallonne in the week before.

Why the finish left Ans for Liège in 2019

The finish returned to the center of Liège in 2019 because the race to Ans had become a waiting game, with teams controlling the climbs and the favorites saving themselves for the last rise. The Province of Liège said the change was “essentially dictated by purely sporting criteria”.

The Saint-Nicolas and the climb to Ans left the route after 27 editions, and the Roche-aux-Faucons became the last climb, about 15 kilometers from a flat finish. The Côte de Wanne, the Côte de Stockeu and the Côte de la Haute-Levée, all dropped in the years before, came back at the same time. Jakob Fuglsang won the first edition on the new course alone, after dropping his last companions at the top of the Roche-aux-Faucons.

Evenepoel’s La Redoute attack in 2022

Remco Evenepoel rode Liège for the first time in 2022. He attacked near the top of the Côte de la Redoute with 29 kilometers left, stayed seated all the way up the Roche-aux-Faucons and won his first Monument by 48 seconds. He was the first Belgian winner since Gilbert. A year later, as world champion, he dropped Tom Pidcock about 30 kilometers from the finish and won alone again.

Pogačar’s four wins and the 2026 duel with Seixas

Pogačar’s first win, in 2021, came in a five-rider sprint, by a wheel from Julian Alaphilippe. He crashed out of the 2023 race with a fractured wrist. In 2024 he attacked on La Redoute 34 kilometers from the finish and won by 1 minute 39 seconds from Romain Bardet, and in 2025 he left from the same climb and rode the last 35 kilometers alone.

In 2026 one rider stayed with him on La Redoute: Paul Seixas, 19 years old, who then shared the pace with him as far as the Roche-aux-Faucons. Pogačar dropped him on that climb, about 14 kilometers from the line, and won by 45 seconds, with Evenepoel third. It was his third win in a row, which no rider had managed since Argentin from 1985 to 1987.

From 2022 to 2026 the race was won alone every year, with a move that started on or just after the Côte de la Redoute, 29 to 35 kilometers from the finish. In 2026 Paul Seixas, 19 years old, followed Tadej Pogačar there and stayed with him until the last climb. Eddy Merckx's record of five wins has stood since 1975.