Tadej Pogačar takes another epic Liège-Bastogne-Liège victory

In a battle of the generations at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Tadej Pogačar had the beating of the young sensation, Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM), to win his third Monument of the season on Sunday.

Not only did Liège-Bastogne-Liège mark his third Monument success of the year, but Pogačar’s third victory in a row at the race known as La Doyenne. ‘The Old Lady’ has now seen the Slovenian stand on its top step across 2021, 2024, 2025, and 2026.

Moving to four Liège-Bastogne-Liège titles across his career, Pogačar sits joint-second in the all-time list of winners, alongside Alejandro Valverde and Moreno Argentin. Just Eddy Merckx lies ahead of the trio, with five victories, whilst the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider now takes his overall tally of Monument successes to a whopping 13.

Raced across the Ardennes at lightning speed on Sunday afternoon, Pogačar’s latest Monument victory may well prove to be one of his most impressive. In a two-up encounter with the young Paul Seixas, Pogačar contested a battle that will likely be remembered for years to come. It was from that battle that the world champion emerged victorious and rode alone to the line in Liège.

Five hours before his eventual victory, however, things looked far from usual for Pogačar and his UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates. In fact, just 3km into the day’s racing, a crash engulfed the peloton and caused the group to be ruptured into two. From this chaos emerged a 52-man breakaway that included one of the pre-race favourites, Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe).

The split between Evenepoel’s breakaway and the peloton of Pogačar soon ballooned out to over four minutes, as the likes of Nico Denz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) rallied to take advantage of the situation. With riders such as Evenepoel and Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) up front, there was no shortage of race-winning pedigree amongst their number.

As for a response from the peloton, the onus fell on the shoulders of UAE Team Emirates-XRG, primarily. After all, the Emirati squad was defending the title of Pogačar for the second year in a row.

Accepting their position, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG engine room soon came to the fore, with Rune Herregodts and Vegard Stake Laengen both taking turns at the front of the group. Their work allowed the situation to be brought under control, before teammate Tim Wellens emerged to bite a sizeable chunk out of the breakaway’s advantage.

With the front group brought to heel, all eyes in the peloton turned to the key climbs that would dictate the racing action in its return leg from Bastogne to Liège.

On the Côte de Wanne (2.2km at 7%), Pavel Sivakov was the next UAE Team Emirates-XRG stallion to position himself at the head of the peloton, and at the head he would remain for nigh on the next hour of racing. Over the Côte de Stockeau (1km at 11.7%), the Col du Rosier (4.4km at 5.7%), and the Col de Maquisard (2.5km at 5.3%), the Frenchman tuned up the band.

It was an almighty effort from Sivakov, perhaps the best of the day, and no doubt put Pogačar’s opponents into trouble well before the Slovenian made his opening acceleration.

Between the Côte de Desnié and the bottom of the Côte de La Redoute, Domen Novak carried on the work of Sivakov, until teammate Benoît Cosnefroy served as Pogačar’s final lead-out man on the lower slopes of La Redoute. Stretching out for 1.6km at 9.3%, this climb had been where the Slovenian made his race-winning attack in each of the last two editions of Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Leaping out of the saddle and into attack mode, Cosnefroy sparkled for a breathtaking 600m spell from the foot of La Redoute. This pace-setting was hard enough to see Evenepoel and many others distanced, before Pogačar had even gotten out of the saddle.

With 1km of the climb remaining, it was go-time for Pogačar, who unleashed his assault. Immediately it became clear that only Seixas of Decathlon CMA CGM could stand the onslaught, and the pair opened up a sizeable gap to their rivals. Over the top of the climb, their advantage was well in excess of 20 seconds, with that gap only opening in the kilometres to come.

For a period, it looked as though Pogačar and Seixas may have to contend the day’s victory in a two-up sprint, but the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider ultimately kicked again on the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons (1.3km at 11%), and with 13.9km of the race remaining, Seixas had to cede ground.

A brief gap soon became an advantage, and from here to the finish in Liège, Pogačar produced another solo exhibition. It was a display of the highest order from the reigning world champion, who more than earned a fourth famous victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

In a special moment across the line, Pogačar raised his finger to the sky and ushered a poignant tribute to the former UAE Team Emirates rider, Cristian Camilo Muñoz. The Colombian rider passed away on Friday after a recent crash, and Pogačar paid homage to his former teammate by wearing a black armband throughout Sunday’s race.

Muñoz will always be remembered as a beloved former friend and colleague by all at the Emirati team.

Speaking after the finish, Pogačar gave a detailed account of his race-winning afternoon at the 112th Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Pogačar: “Today, a lot happened. At the beginning, I was at the back. It is always hard at the start so I just followed the wheels, I looked down and I saw we were going fast. In one moment, I looked up and the group was split. But after 20 minutes, we realised it was not so bad to let them go.

“These kinds of breakaways with a big group rarely have good collaboration, but of course we could still be a little scared. Remco can go from far away from that group, so we kept it under control. Vegard and Rune did an amazing job, and later also Decathlon came to help, and the rest of my team did a super job. It was all under control but you never let Remco go away.

“It means a lot to win again one of the biggest races of the year in cycling, and I don’t do many races [as yet], so I don’t have a lot of opportunities to win. So it is a lot of pressure for me for today and for days like today, and I am really really happy that we succeeded. I couldn’t be more proud of the team.

“On La Redoute, I was really going deep and I could see that [Paul Seixas] was a little bit on the elastic, but on the top he came next to me. I was really impressed, and then also he was pulling quite strong all the way. We opened up a big gap which was really good for us, and then in my head I was already preparing to do a dual sprint, because he was so strong.

“I tried on Roche aux Faucons, I did my pace and I know the climb super well. It suits me well, and luckily he dropped. But I was prepared to go head to head in a sprint with him.”

Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2026 results:

1. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 5:50:28

2. Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) +45″

3. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +1:42

Meanwhile, over in Spain, Adrià Pericas ended a brilliant edition of the Vuelta Asturias in second place overall. It was a result built on two runner-up spots in stages by the UAE Team Emirates-XRG youngster, who ended his week with another second-place finish on stage 4.

Securing his spot on the second step of the final podium, Pericas was beaten only by Edgar David Cadena (Team Storck-MRW Bau) on Sunday, with the Mexican taking his second stage win in succession. The Team Storck-MRW Bau rider has seemingly mastered the knack of surprising the peloton to take the honours.

As for Pericas, the stage between Lugones and Oviedo saw the 19-year-old demonstrate his fine climbing form once more. In the general classification, Pericas was only bettered by Nairo Quintana of Movistar, who takes the 53rd win of his storied career.

Still honing his craft, Pericas can be very proud of his efforts across the four days of racing, with the youngster getting better with each passing race for UAE Team Emirates-XRG.

Pericas: “Today was a spectacular stage. I felt really good from the start and the team worked very well. We had cards to play with myself and Filippo Baroncini, and we missed out on the win by very little in the end.

“I’m really happy with the result, and to finish off the week like this is a boost of confidence for the next races.”

Vuelta Asturias stage 4 results:

1. Edgar David Cadena (Team Storck-MRW Bau) 3:37:59

2. Adrià Pericas (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +17″

3. José Manuel Díaz (Burgos Burgellet BH) s.t

Vuelta Asturias final general classification:

1. Nairo Quintana (Movistar) 14:28:46

2. Adrià Pericas (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +25″

3. Samuel Fernández (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) +1:33