General · EdgepediaSeptember 17, 20267 min read

Liège–Bastogne–Liège

Liège–Bastogne–Liège is a one-day professional road cycling race held each April in the Ardennes region of Wallonia, Belgium, run over roughly 260 km from Liège south to Bastogne and back. First held in 1892, it is the oldest of cycling's five Monument classics and of the whole UCI WorldTour calendar, which has earned it the nickname La Doyenne ("The Old Lady").¹^•² It closes the spring Classics season and, with its sequence of short, steep climbs, favors puncheurs and climbers rather than the cobbled-classics specialists who dominate the earlier races.³

Key fact	Detail
First edition	1892, won by Léon Houa in almost 11 hours; the oldest Monument and oldest UCI WorldTour classic¹^•⁴
Route	Liège to Bastogne and back, about 260 km through the Belgian Ardennes; 10 classified climbs, nine of them on the return leg¹
2026 edition	112th edition, 26 April 2026, 259.5 km; won by Tadej Pogačar in 5:50:28⁵^•⁶
Record winners	Eddy Merckx, five victories; Alejandro Valverde and Moreno Argentin, four each; Pogačar joined them on four in 2026⁷^•⁸
Decisive climb	Côte de la Redoute, 2 km at 8.9%, reached around km 220, where the main attacks traditionally begin¹
Women's race	Introduced in 2017 by ASO; Demi Vollering won a third title in 2026, the first woman to do so⁷^•⁹
Organiser	Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), which also runs the Tour de France and Paris-Roubaix¹⁰

Character of the race

The route is an out-and-back through the rolling hills of eastern Belgium. Bastogne, near the Luxembourg border, is the traditional turning point; in the early editions officials took a train south to run a checkpoint there, while today the town hosts a special sprint prize after about 100 km, intended to encourage attacks.¹ Nine of the ten classified climbs fall on the return to Liège, and dozens of unclassified rises combine to make the final 100 km an extremely demanding finish.¹ The 2026 edition carried riders over more than 4,000 m of climbing in 260 km.⁸

Among the classified climbs, the Côte de la Haute-Levée is the longest at 3.6 km but averages only 5.6%, while the Côte de Stockeu that precedes it is just 1 km at 12.4%. The Côte de la Redoute, 2 km at 8.9% at around km 220, is where the race traditionally comes alive, and the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons (1.5 km at 9.3%) and Côte de Saint-Nicolas (1.2 km at 8.6%) shape the finale.¹ Race director Christian Prudhomme has called the Redoute "a Monument within a Monument".¹¹ Of the five Monuments, Liège-Bastogne-Liège is also the slowest on average, a reflection of its relentless gradient profile.¹²

History

The first edition in 1892 was an amateur event won by the Belgian pioneer Léon Houa, who needed almost 11 hours to finish ahead of a scattered field of local riders; he won again in 1893 and 1894.⁴^•¹³

Weather as a decisive factor. Snow has turned the race into a fight for survival in 1919, 1957, and 1980.¹ The 1980 edition is the most famous: at the start in Liège it was already 0 °C, and snow fell for most of the way to Bastogne. Within two hours the peloton had shrunk by two thirds through abandonments, and legend has it that some of the 174 starters collected their race numbers and went straight back to their hotels. Bernard Hinault, who had already won in 1977, attacked solo with less than 100 km to go after Rudy Pevenage and Ludo Peeters had opened a two-minute lead on the Stockeu, and rode alone to the finish. He later described it as his greatest classic victory, and the frostbite he suffered left a permanent reminder of the day.⁴^•¹⁴

The finish. From 1992 until 2019 the race finished in the industrial suburb of Ans above Liège, with the Côte de Saint-Nicolas 5.5 km from an uphill run-in. Because that finale had become too predictable, organizers moved the finish back into Liège itself.⁵

Recent editions

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) has dominated the modern race, winning in 2021, 2024, 2025, and 2026.¹³^•¹⁵ In 2024 he attacked on the Redoute about 35 km from the finish and won solo, with Romain Bardet second after Mathieu van der Poel, hampered by rain, wind, and a crash, could not follow the pace.¹⁶ He repeated the pattern in 2025, dropping all his rivals with his first attack on La Redoute 34 km from the line.¹⁷ Remco Evenepoel won the 2022 and 2023 editions, the latter when Pogačar crashed and fractured his scaphoid.¹³^•¹⁸

The 2026 edition, the 112th, produced one of the race's more memorable duels. A 54-rider breakaway including Evenepoel escaped in the opening 5 km and built a lead of nearly four minutes before UAE and Decathlon chased it down over more than 150 km. Pogačar attacked on the Redoute with 35 km to go; only the 19-year-old Frenchman Paul Seixas could follow. Pogačar finally dropped him on the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons with 13.9 km remaining and won solo by 45 seconds, with Evenepoel taking the sprint for third at 1:42.⁸^•⁶ The win drew Pogačar level with Valverde and Argentin on four titles, leaving only Merckx, on five, ahead.⁸

The women's race

A women's Liège-Bastogne-Liège was added to the calendar in 2017, organized by ASO, completing the trio of Ardennes Classics for the women's peloton.⁷ Anna van der Breggen won the first edition and, with victories in the Amstel Gold Race and La Flèche Wallonne the same week, became the first woman to win all three Ardennes races in one season; Demi Vollering matched that triple in 2023.⁷ The women's race now runs more than 150 km from Bastogne to Liège over the same iconic climbs.⁷ In 2026, over 156 km, Vollering attacked on the Redoute 33 km from the finish and rode solo to Liège, winning in 4:10'22" and becoming the first woman to win La Doyenne three times.⁹ Since 2024 the women's race has finished after the men's, giving it a later start and a better broadcast slot than the early-morning scheduling used previously.¹⁹

The Ardennes week and records

Liège-Bastogne-Liège closes the Ardennes week that also includes the Amstel Gold Race and La Flèche Wallonne, and it is regarded as the toughest of the three.⁵ Only two men have won all three Ardennes races in a single season: Davide Rebellin in 2004 and Philippe Gilbert in 2011.⁷ Across the five Monuments as a whole, only three riders in history have won them all: Eddy Merckx, with 19 Monument wins in total, Roger De Vlaeminck with 11, and Rik Van Looy with 8.²⁰ A sportive, the Liège-Bastogne-Liège Challenge, lets amateur riders tackle the same climbs, including La Redoute and La Roche-aux-Faucons, on the weekend of the professional race.²¹

References

Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026