Almost a month on from his dominant victory on the Volta a Catalunya, Tadej Pogačar will return to racing at Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday as he seeks so as to add a sixth Monument title to his palmarès.
The Slovenian heads up a UAE Team Emirates squad constructed to tackle different favourites together with Mathieu van der Poel and Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), with the likes of João Almeida, Marc Hirschi, and Diego Ulissi all within the seven-rider UAE Team Emirates line-up.
Pogačar received Liège-Bastogne-Liège three years in the past, profitable a dash from a small group on the finish of biking’s oldest Monument, having taken third the yr earlier than.
He was a non-finisher final yr, crashing out and fracturing his wrist and ruining a big a part of his season within the course of.
This time round he will likely be aiming to attract stage with Van der Poel because the energetic rider with essentially the most Monument wins on six apiece.
Finn Fisher-Black, Sjoerd Bax, and Domen Novak are set to spherical out the squad supporting Pogačar, who heads to the Ardennes from a pre-Giro d’Italia altitude coaching camp.
“Liège is certainly one of my favorite races and likewise one of many hardest, so it is all the time good to return there,” Pogačar mentioned as he makes his last preparations for his last Classic of a restricted racing spring.
“Since Catalunya, I’ve spent a while at altitude with some teammates and we have been build up nicely collectively in direction of the Giro.
“For these Ardennes races, we’ve got a really dynamic staff. The type is sweet, and I feel I can do nicely however on [the] entire, the staff could be very sturdy and we’ll have choices which is all the time a bonus. I’m excited to pin on a race quantity once more on Sunday.”
Before taking up La Doyenne, UAE Team Emirates will ship most of the identical riders to Wednesday’s La Flèche Wallonne, minus Pogačar, in fact.
Juan Ayuso, João Almeida, and 2020 race winner Marc Hirschi are set to steer the staff into the battle up the leg-breakingly steep Mur de Huy.
Fisher-Black, Novak, Ulissi and Brandon McNulty full the squad for the 199km race, which can see the peloton deal with 4 ascents of the well-known ending climb for the primary time.
