Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the oldest Monument on the calendar. For the first time since 1991, the race will finish in Liège rather than Ans, with a downhill-flat finish rather than the uphill finish we're used to. Still, at 256km long and with 11 climbs – plus various 'hidden' climbs –on the menu, mean it should remain as tough a challenge as ever.
It's a cold and damp one in Liège this morning, around 10 degrees centigrade and raining according to our reporters on the ground.
Here are live shots of Michael Matthews and Dan Martin at the start this morning, wrapped up as they sign on.
The race kicks off in around 15 minutes as the riders depart for the neutralised zone.
The weather isn't expected to improve much today, though the forecasts look to be mostly for cloud rather than more rain. Still, it'll remain chilly throughout.
Dan Martin might have 121 on his back, indicating he's the UAE Team Emirates leader today, but the 2013 winner is down on his chances of success today. The Irishman suggested he will play a support role in the finale this afternoon. Read the full story here.
Team Sky race their last Monument under their current sponsorship today. Ineos will be taking over at next weekend's Tour de Yorkshire. Here's the team lined up on the stage this morning, in front of the rainclouds in Liège, from @teamsky.
And here's four-time race winner Alejandro Valverde at the start. The world champion is another rider whose condition is in doubt today, having said he wasn't at his best at Amstel Gold Race and Flèche Wallonne. Read the full story here.
The peloton have rolled out for the neutralised section now.
The neutralised section is 6.8km long. After that, the real racing gets underway.
256km remaining from 256km
And now the flag drops and the racing gets underway. The attacks come straight away.
Five riders have gone on the attack, though it's unlikely that the very first attack will form the break of the day. More on their identities as we get it.
Julien Bernard (Trek-Segafredo), Tobias Ludvigsson (Groupama-FDJ), Andrea Pasqualon (Wanty-Gobert), Lilian Calmejane (Total Direct Énergie) and Jérémy Maison (Arkéa-Samsic) are the five men on the attack.
Manuele Mori (UAE Team Emirates) and Baptiste Planckaert (Wallonie Bruxelles) also attempted a move but were caught by the peloton.
It's Dries Van Gestel (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise) up front, not Lilian Calmejane.
The group are reportedly 30 seconds up the road at the moment.
Van Gestel has now been dropped by the lead group and is chasing 15 seconds back, along with teammates Kevin Deltombe and Mathijs Paaschens. They lie 15 seconds up on the peloton.
248km remaining from 256km
Attackers continue to jump away from the peloton during these early stages. The break is 45 seconds up the road.
Kevin Deltombe (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Mathijs Paasschens (Wallonie-Bruxelles) and Jérôme Baugnies (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) are among the counter-attackers.
243km remaining from 256km
Deltombe and Paasschens are trailing the leaders by 20 seconds, while Lilian Calmejane (Total Direct Énergie) is with Kenny Molly (Wallonie Bruxelles) chase a further 20 seconds back. The peloton is a minute down on the four leaders.
Deltombe and Paasschens join the four up front.
Fabio Felline (Trek-Segafredo) is the first rider to abandon the race.
The peloton has let the break go now. The six men are 3:20 up on the main pack. Calmejane and Molly still chase.
Calmejane is riding his fourth Liège-Bastogne-Liège today. Here's what he had to say ahead of the race:
"It’s the end of a long run since the beginning of the season and it’s been quite intense. I discovered the cobble classics and didn’t have a proper rest then. But I think the shape is here and I have the endurance for this although I might lack a bit of freshness.
"I think lots of things will happen in Côte de la Redoute. On other years, we would see riders dropped off the back but this time favorites will have to show themselves. It’s up to me to make the most of riders looking at each other to try and surprise them. That’s not a bad situation for me."
Calmejane and Molly have joined up with the break now, making it eight up front. They're over six minutes up on the peloton.
229km remaining from 256km
The gap between peloton and break is up to 8:35 now.
Michał Kwiatkowski is among the favourites today, in Team Sky's final race as sponsors. The Pole, who has twice finished on the podium at Liège, has said he's been "waiting for all winter" for the race, and that he's excited to compete in "Liège-Bastogne-Liège, not Liège-Bastogne-Ans."
The first hour of racing saw the break cover 38 kilometres.
216km remaining from 256km
The break's advantage is now up to nine minutes.
We have some quotes coming in from our reporters on the ground in Liège.
First up, Simon Clarke, who took second at last weekend's Amstel Gold Race.
"The shape is good but today’s a completely different ball game. It’s a much more vertically challenging parcours [compared to Amstel Gold] and much more challenging conditions. We’re going to see a vastly different race from last Sunday, definitely it helps to have good condition but there are going to be a lot of other factors that go into getting a good result today.
"On top of the conditions is a new parcours, so it’s going to be very interesting to see what happens and how it plays out. I think we’re going to see a very different Liege to what we’ve seen in other years.
"The team is really clicking this year. It’s going really well. We have to thank a lot of the management, they’re doing everything they can supporting us in every way possible. We’re really feeling that as riders and I think that’s showing in our results."
202km remaining from 256km
Deceuninck-Quick Step and Lotto-Soudal are setting the pace at the head of the peloton at the moment. The gap is around 8:20 as the break head towards the 200km to go mark.
Here's what Greg Van Avermaet (CCC Team) had to say at the start:
"The condition is good. I am certainly not a favorite, but I am very motivated to close my spring classics well.
"I have managed to maintain the condition from the Cobbled classics and with the new arrival in Liège I think I have a chance of a good result.
"The middle of the course is very hard, the same for the final with the sequence of the climbs and the Roche-aux-Faucons last, before diving on Liege for about 10 kilometers. I think that the attacks are going open earlier, unlike previous editions where we often had a race of waiting. This time, the options are more numerous on the course. Alaphilippe and Fuglsang are the favorites but there are also other riders like Schachmann who we saw Wednesday with its fifth place at the Flèche Wallonne. Also you must consider Valverde on this type of course."
Here's our reporter Alasdair Fotheringham on the new finish.
"The ‘new’ Liege finish is set on the Boulevard d’Avroy, a wide avenue that runs through the centre of Liege. The finishing straight rises very gently but steadily on a slope with a gradient of a couple of per cent at most for the last 500 metres.
"As the road rises the last part curves slightly to the right on what is - although the avenue itself is large - a fairly narrow finish, just two traffic lanes wide for the last 300 metres. The road surface is good, but these are city centre roads, so there could be a lot of dirt on them and in the rain, it may well be slippy."
The break are heading towards the Côte de La Roche-en-Ardenne, which is 2.8km long with an average gradient of 6.2%.
It's the first major climb of the day, as the break edges towards Bastogne before heading north back to Liège.
Here's what Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) had to say at the start today.
"It’s my favourite race, and I’m really waiting to see how things work out, of course even with the change of route it’ll still be a very hard race,” Bardet told reporters on Saturday afternoon at the team presentation. “I don’t think we’ll necessarily see different riders up there.”
The break has crested the climb now, and they're 6:45 up on the peloton.
More quotes, this time from Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) at yesterday's presentation. It's the first race since Milan-San Remo for the Dutchman.
“I’ll tell you tomorrow night [how my form is]. I’m hoping to win, but I don’t think that’s realistic, I’ve just come back from altitude one and a half days ago so I’m here specially with the Giro in my mind, but I hope to do well tomorrow.
“I haven’t done any Ardennes Classics so I’m curious to see how the race will evolve.” As a team, “we have several cards to play, Michael [Matthews] being our most important card, together with me, maybe but it all depends on the legs. Maybe I can go with the moves and Michael can wait for a sprint.
”I like [the new route], we’ll see what it gives, but I think it’s a good change, so we’ll see what happens. It could be a more open final but it’s more risky to say that. Maybe we’ll get a close finish as always.”
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More quotes, this time from Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) at yesterday's presentation. It's the first race since Milan-San Remo for the Dutchman.
“I’ll tell you tomorrow night [how my form is]. I’m hoping to win, but I don’t think that’s realistic, I’ve just come back from altitude one and a half days ago so I’m here specially with the Giro in my mind, but I hope to do well tomorrow.
“I haven’t done any Ardennes Classics so I’m curious to see how the race will evolve.” As a team, “we have several cards to play, Michael [Matthews] being our most important card, together with me, maybe but it all depends on the legs. Maybe I can go with the moves and Michael can wait for a sprint.
”I like [the new route], we’ll see what it gives, but I think it’s a good change, so we’ll see what happens. It could be a more open final but it’s more risky to say that. Maybe we’ll get a close finish as always.”
170km remaining from 256km
We have 170km to race in the men's race, while over in Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes – which isn't televised at all – there's just under 80km remaining.
The gap between the break and peloton is now down to 6:30.
Over in the women's race, the lead group is down to around 40 riders with 75km to go.
The break reaches Bastogne. That's the easy part out of the way; there are ten climbs on the way back to Liège.
Ashleigh Moolman Pasio (CCC-Liv) abandons the women's race. There's 74km to go there, with three climbs, including the Redoute and Roche-aux-Faucons, remaining.
More quotes from the start, this time from Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin).
"I had a week of rest after Roubaix and had a small vacation with my wife and now I start here in Liège but more as help for Ilnur Zakarin and I will feel the legs for sure in the end.
"I was in really top shape in the Classics. Now, with one week of rest for sure the shape is not gone. I’m still in good shape.
"I think with the weather it will be an open race for sure. I expect a small group to sprint for the victory today."
152km remaining from 256km
6:30 for the break now. The race situation is quite stable at the moment.
The break heads through the feed zone and the gap goes up again. They're just over seven minutes down on the break now.
52km to go for the women. Maria Novolodskaya (Cogeas Mettler) and Leah Kirchman (Team Sunweb) are up front there, with an advantage of a minute over the peloton.
The Côte de Saint-Roch is next on the menu for the break.
Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) abandoned the race at the feed zone. He had been recovering from a bug at the Vuelta al País Vasco, and said yesterday that he was pessimistic about his chances today.
It's still wet and cold (reportedly five degrees centigrade) as the break crest the Côte de Saint-Roch.
36km to race for the women. A peloton of around 80 riders chase the two breakaway riders.
A couple of shots from the race. Here's Alejandro Valverde wrapped up warm and Julian Bernard leading the break.
119km remaining from 256km
We're into the final 120km of the race now, and the peloton trails the break by 6:50.
There's around 25km to go until the next climb of the day, the Côte de Mont-le-Soie.
Anna Van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) attacked over the Côte de la Redoute. She's 45 seconds up on a nine-rider chase group at the moment, with 26km to race.
Here's Alasdair Fotheringham with a bit of local newspaper analysis. Johan Museeuw gave his thoughts on the race contenders in a column for Brussels newspaper La Dernière Heure.
Museeuw warns that Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), a previous podium finisher at Liège, could pose a serious threat on Sunday. “I’ve seen how he’s been racing in the Tour des Alpes and he’s clearly got good form.” Nibali finished third in the Tour des Alpes before flying over to Belgium and was due to check out the last part of the new Liège course on Saturday afternoon.
However, despite his singling out Nibali, Museeuw says that Jakob Fuglsang (Astana Pro Team) and Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step) are clearly “one level above the rest of the field right now.” Museeuw also warns that Alaphilippe’s team-mate Philippe Gilbert, a former Liège winner could well try a long distance move.
Meanwhile, Deceuninck-Quick Step have pulled so hard that the peloton has split! Around 25 riders are in the front group, who are 4:50 behind the break now.
Over in the women's race, attacks are flying in the chase group behind Van Vleuten. Elizabeth Deignan (Trek-Segafredo) has gone on the offensive, leaving Van der Breggen, Spratt, Langvad, Longo Borghini, Brand, Niewiadoma, Paladin, Uttrup Ludwig and Vollering behind.
Van Dijk, Mackaij and Novolodskaya are also in that chase group.
In the men's race, Alejandro Valverde is in trouble. He's struggling to keep up with the peloton.
And Valverde abandons the race.
Van Vleuten is 55 seconds up on Deignan with 17km to go. The chasers lie a further 25 seconds back.
Meanwhile, into the final 100km at the men's race, and the peloton are three minutes down on the break.
Van Vleuten is on the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons now, the final climb of the race. It's 1.3km long at an average of 11%.
Around 80 riders remain in the men's peloton.
It looks like Van Vleuten has this one in the bag, barring disaster. She has extended her lead over Deignan to 1:20 now. Langvad and Longo Borghini are attacking behind.
Langvad and Longo Borghini catch Deignan. 14km to go for the women.
The Deignan, Longo Borghini, Langvad chase group is 1:20 down on Van Vleuten and around 30 seconds up on the other chasers.
Van Vleuten's advantage is only increasing as the kilometres tick by. 10km to go now and the rain is falling heavily.
Just 1:35 for the break in the men's race. 95km to go there.
Julien Bernard attacks the break.
Van Vleuten is riding to victory here. She's 1:50 up on the chasing trio, who are now just ten seconds ahead of the next chasing group. It'll be an interesting fight for the remaining podium places.
Here are the pictures of Valverde abandoning. Meanwhile, Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), Gorka Izagirre (Astana) and Carlos Betancur (Movistar) attack to try and get back to the Quick Step-led main peloton. They're 30 seconds down.
5km to go for Van Vleuten now. She finished second at the Tour of Flanders, Amstel Gold Race and Flèche Wallonne, but she's on her way to a first win since Strade Bianche, barring disaster.
Two minutes now for Van Vleuten. She has two kilometres left to race and the groups behind have merged. It'll be a thrilling final kilometres for the podium fight, if only we could see it...
The men are tackling the Wanne - Stockeu - Haute-Levée trilogy now. They're over the top of the Côte de Wanne.
Here are the profiles for the latter duo.
Annemiek Van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) wins Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes with a brilliant solo attack.
Floortje Mackaij (Team Sunweb) attacked the chase group and takes second place. Demi Vollering (Parkhotel Valkenburg) wins the group sprint for third.
83km remaining from 256km
Bernard is still solo out front in the men's race. He's 1:20 up on the peloton and around 20 seconds up on the rest of the break.
Robert Gesink (Jumbo-Visma) is out of the race. He crashed on a descent and is off to hospital, according to his team.
Here's the top ten for Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes.
1 Annemiek van Vleuten (Ned) Mitchelton-Scott Women 3:42:10 2 Floortje Mackaij (Ned) Team Sunweb Women 0:01:39 3 Demi Vollering (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg 0:01:43 4 Soraya Paladin (Ita) Ale Cipollini 5 Lucinda Brand (Ned) Team Sunweb Women 6 Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM 7 Elizabeth Deignan (GBr) Trek-Segafredo Women 8 Alena Amialiusik (Blr) Canyon-SRAM 9 Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Trek-Segafredo Women 10 Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Den) Bigla Pro Cycling Team
80km remaining from 256km
Bernard tackles the Côte de Stockeu.
Calmejane is almost caught by the peloton.
Dimension Data reports that Enrico Gasparotto and Jay Robert Thomson have abandoned the race.
76km remaining from 256km
Some moves going at the front of the peloton now. Gilbert is up there, as is Mohoric. It's tougher to pick riders out in their rain gear.
Mathijs Paasschens is caught by the attack group, which is pretty large now. They're not far from the front of the peloton, though.
Van Avemaet and Daryl Impey put in a dig over the top of the Haute-Levée.
Meanwhile, Romain Bardet gets a quick bike change.
Attacks keep flying from the peloton.
69km remaining from 256km
It's over for Bernard. An attack from Van Avermaet brings the Trek-Segafredo man back for good.
Van Avermaet, Gilbert, Mas, Henao are all in this lead group now. It looks like there's around 30 riders there, most of whom are unidentified at the moment.
Lotto-Soudal are pulling the chasing peloton.
The gap between the two groups is only around ten seconds now.
Here's the makeup of the lead group, though they might not be out there for much longer now.
Philippe Gilbert and Enric Mas (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Simon Clarke, Lawson Craddock and Tanel Kangert (Astana), Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R-La Mondiale), Vincenzo Nibali, Damiano Caruso and Antonio Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), Max Schachmann and Cesare Benedetti (Bora-Hansgrohe), Michael Albasini and Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott), David De La Cruz (Team Sky), Omar Fraile and Gorka Izagirre (Astana), Winer Anacona and Carlos Verona (Movistar), Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis), Sergio Heano and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), Greg Van Avermaet and Alessandro De Marchi (CCC Team), Dmitrii Strakhov and Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha Alpecin), Laurens De Plus (Jumbo Visma), Toms Skujins and Nicola Conci (Trek-Segafredo) have caught Julien Bernard (Trek-Segafredo)
64km remaining from 256km
The groups are back together on the Col du Rosier.
Tanel Kangert (EF Education First) and Omar Fraile (Astana) have gone on the attack.
Kangert's breath is visible as he climbs. Still very cold out there.
More riders attack from the peloton.
61km remaining from 256km
There's a group of around seven men with the two leaders now. Winner Anacona and Carlos Verona (Movistar) are there.
56km remaining from 256km
Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R-La Mondiale), Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Merida), Michael Albasini (Mitchelton-Scott), David De La Cruz (Team Sky), Omar Fraile (Astana), Bjorg Lambrecht (Lotto Soudal) and Alessandro De Marchi (CCC Team) are also up in that lead group. They're 30 seconds up on the peloton.
50km remaining from 256km
De La Cruz has a mechanical problem and drops back from the break. That could change things in the peloton if Sky come to the front. Currently it's just Dececuninck-Quick Step up there.
De La Cruz gets a speedy bike change and makes his way back to the leaders.
The advantage for the leaders has suddenly jumped from 30 seconds to 50 seconds. Not sure which is the more accurate of the two.
Riders are taking off their rain jackets now and handing them to domestiques and team cars. We're heading towards the finale of the race.
45km remaining from 256km
We're around 8km from La Redoute now. 55 seconds for the attackers.
Here's the profile of the Côte de la Redoute, which is coming up soon.
40km remaining from 256km
The advantage for the break is down to 40 seconds as they hit the bottom of La Redoute.
Kangert pushes on.
Quick Step still lead the peloton. Alaphilippe lurks.
38km remaining from 256km
Mas takes over at the front of the peloton.
Kangert is a few seconds up on the rest of that attack group. The peloton are 30 seconds back.
Gilbert is at the rear of the peloton. He was active earlier on.
The Movistar duo of Anacona and Verona are caught by the peloton.
35km remaining from 256km
La Redoute passed without any attacks, save for Kangert from the attack group.
Kangert has 30 seconds on the peloton.
The Côte des Forges is up next.
27km remaining from 256km
Just Kangert up front now. The rest of that attack group has been brought back.
A few attackers jump out of the peloton on the Côte des Forges.
25km remaining from 256km
The roads are dry now, by the way, and it's not raining either. The peloton is still quite large, around ten seconds down on Kangert. Meanwhile, Gilbert drops from the peloton.
Alaphilippe is pretty far down in the peloton. It looks like this race is coming down to the final climb. New route, same tactics? No attacks from the favourites on the Forges, though Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe) has bridged up to Kangert.
Just the Roche-aux-Faucons left now. Here's a profile of that climb and a map/profile of the final run-in.
20km remaining from 256km
Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal) and Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) make it across to the two leaders on the descent.
A rider from Astana, who are working at the head of the peloton, missed a corner and headed off-road. He stayed upright but won't play a part in the rest of the race. It looked like Ion Izagirre.
16km remaining from 256km
The attackers hit the Roche-aux-Faucons. Wellens goes for it.
Kangert, Konrad and Impey are caught by the Astana-led peloton.
Wellens caught too, as Michael Woods pushes the pace.
Fuglsang goes at the front of the peloton. Alaphilippe is nowhere – he won't win today.
15km remaining from 256km
Woods and Formolo are with Fuglsang.
Greg Van Avermaet is dropping, along with Michael Matthews. They're not too far back, though.
Dylan Teuns and David Gaudu have attacked too. They're chasing the Fuglsang group.
13km remaining from 256km
Michael Woods is dropped. He has one legwarmer on, one off. It's a look.
Formolo is dropped by Fuglsang too.
11km remaining from 256km
Fuglsang is solo now, as another attack group emerges from the peloton. The gaps are still pretty small; it could all come together before the finish.
Fuglsang is 18 seconds up on Formolo. No time check to the rest just yet.
Nibali, Landa and Adam Yates have attacked from the peloton. They're 35 seconds down on Fuglsang.
Schachmann is also in the Nibali group.
Gaudu and Teuns are in the Nibali group too. They catch Woods.
7km remaining from 256km
All downhill or flat for Fuglsang now. The final 4km are flat.
The Nibali group is some 50 seconds down on Fuglsang. Formolo is 25 down.
Fuglsang nearly comes a cropper on the descent. He keeps it upright through. Big rear wheel slide and some great bike handling to keep it going.
3km remaining from 256km
Fuglsang didn't lose any time there. Inside the final 3km now for him, and there are no more dodgy descents.
1km remaining from 256km
The final kilometre should be a victory parade for Fuglsang now. He's 30 seconds up on Formolo and will finally get his big classics win very soon.
Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) wins Liège-Bastogne-Liège!
Davide Formolo (Bora-Hansgrohe) takes second.
There's a sprint for third place. Nibali leads it out, but it's Schachmann who takes third ahead of Yates and Woods.
Here's Fuglsang on the attack on the Roche-aux-Faucons.
Here's Fuglsang on the attack on the Roche-aux-Faucons.
Here's the top ten:
1 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 6:37:37 2 Davide Formolo (Ita) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:27 3 Maximilian Schachmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:57 4 Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott 5 Michael Woods (Can) EF Education First 6 David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 7 Mikel Landa (Spa) Movistar Team 8 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:01:00 9 Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrain-Merida 0:01:05 10 Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky 0:01:26
Here's Fuglsang's post-race interview:
"On the last climb I had the team leaving me in perfect position. Before the climb, they were a little bit everywhere most of the day but in the important moment they were there and they did an amazing job.
"Gorka led me into Roche-aux-Faucons in a perfect way and when Woods launched his attack it was a perfect way for me to jump with him. Then it was like ‘ok, my finish line is on top.’ I knew it from Friday when we saw the parcours that I could not wait, so I said ‘ok, on the first part of the Roche-aux-Faucons I have to do a selection if I cannot go alone’ and then in the second part I saw that Woods was sitting over.
"I was like ‘ok there can be two possibilities – he’s a little on the limit or he wants to save himself. I was like ‘ok, you have to try.’ I tried and then in the moment I looked back and saw that he was gone. Formolo also let me get 2-3 metres and then I knew that now I had to leave everything out, now I have to die before the top and try to keep going.
"Just a small one [scare on the last descent]. It was a scary moment but a bit of adrenaline for the last part.
"Yeah it’s an amazing feeling and I’m happy that my wife is right [about being able to win] and I will always listen to her from now on, I promise."
Here's a shot of Fuglsang celebrating his win
Stay tuned for the full race report, full results, and even more photos of the race here.
Some sad news from the race, via Jumbo-Visma. Robert Gesink broke his collarbone and pelvis in the crash earlier today.
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