Liège–Bastogne–Liège 2019

The road

At the start

La Doyenne comes back into the city

For the first time in decades La Doyenne finishes not on the hill at Ans but in the centre of Liège, and the Côte de Stockeu is back in the route. Julian Alaphilippe headlines a Deceuninck-QuickStep missing last year's winner Bob Jungels but carrying a Philippe Gilbert fresh from Roubaix. Alejandro Valverde has won here four times and has just been beaten at both Amstel and Flèche. Peter Sagan has already gone home.

How it was won

1. 1111 km to go

   Quick-Step blow the race apart

   With 110km still to run, Deceuninck-QuickStep drill the front until the peloton shatters. In the carnage Alejandro Valverde is caught out and abandons — the world champion, four times a winner here, out of the race on a bitterly cold, wet Ardennes day.

2. 250 km to go

   Regroup on the Col du Rosier

   The longest climb of the day swallows the escapees and the day's early counters come back together. On its slopes Kangert and Fraile fire off the first serious digs of the finale, dragging a dangerous move clear.

3. 335 km to go

   La Redoute

   The emblematic wall arrives with 35km to go, the breakaway holding forty seconds at its foot. Kangert presses on over the top, but the favourites only watch each other — nobody is willing to light it up yet.

4. 420 km to go

   The gap closes on the Forges

   Over the Côte des Forges the four leaders — Kangert, Wellens, Impey and Konrad — are down to seconds with an Astana-led peloton bearing down on them. Everything is set for the new final climb and the day's decisive move.

5. 513 km to go

   Fuglsang flies away

   On the steep ramps of the Roche-aux-Faucons Michael Woods attacks, the last four are swept up, and Jakob Fuglsang and Davide Formolo bridge across. Then, on the drag over the summit with 13km to go, Fuglsang simply rides away from both of them — solo at last after a spring of near-misses.

6. 68 km to go

   A heart-stopping descent

   On the plunge back toward Liège Fuglsang loses his rear wheel on some damp road paint, the bike skittering beneath him — but he catches it masterfully, stays upright, and keeps his now-inevitable victory rolling.

7. 7At the line

   Fuglsang wins La Doyenne

   Onto the flat final kilometres in the heart of Liège, Fuglsang holds every second of his lead to take the biggest win of his career, Formolo second and Schachmann sprinting to third from the chase.

The result