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- Primoz Roglic won the classic Liège-Bastogne-Liège cycle race.
- In the five-man sprint, the Slovenian benefited from applause from Julian Alaphilippe too early.
- Alaphilippe blocked Marc Hirschi with a blow. The Bernese briefly released the pedal and lost a decisive step.
In reality, the victory on the oldest classic motorcycle would have been for Marc Hirschi. The Swiss team Sunweb had the rear wheel of world champion Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step) in the final sprint and would have passed the Frenchman.
But Alaphilippe briefly pulled to the left, causing Hirschi to lose his balance and slide off the pedal. Alaphilippe straightened up to cheer but didn’t notice Tour de France runner-up Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) approaching from the right. The destination film showed that the Slovenian crossed the finish line first.
The jury punishes Alaphilippe
Hirschi crossed the finish line in third place, but inherited second place because the jury moved Alaphilippe back to fifth place. Tour winner Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates) had 3.
Thanks to Alaphilippe, Hirschi had already missed a great victory in the second stage of the Tour de France. At that point, however, the French won the sprint fairly ahead of the 22-year-old from Bern.
The world champion initiates the decision
The preliminary decision in Liege-Bastoña-Liege fell on the last climb of the day 14 km from the finish line. Alaphilippe blew up a leading group of about 40 men in an attack. Only a few pilots were able to follow the French into the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons, including Hirschi, Roglic, and Pogacar.
Schär and Mäder active
In the first phase, an escape group with the two Swiss Michael Schär (CCC) and Gino Mäder (NTT) got a lead of up to 6 minutes. As the last of the escape group, Schär positioned himself almost 40 kilometers from the destination.
Albasini briefly above
Thurgau’s Michael Albasini played the last “dean” of his career. It is not yet clear whether it was the 39-year-old future coach of the national team’s last professional career. He staged an attack 27 km from the target, but was soon caught again.
