The best Liège-Bastogne-Liège editions of the 21st century

Liège-Bastogne-Liège's 112th edition is on Sunday, and with Pogačar, Evenepoel and Seixas on the start line, there's every chance we're about to see another edition worth writing home about. Ahead of that, here are five from the past 25 years that already are.

Alejandro Valverde had already won Liège twice, in 2006 and 2008. At 35, he won it again, and in the middle of the best Ardennes week of his career.

Four days after taking his third Flèche Wallonne, the Spaniard arrived in Liège as the clear favourite. Movistar controlled the race from Bastogne onwards, Vincenzo Nibali and reigning world champion Michał Kwiatkowski were distanced on the Côte de Saint-Nicolas, and Valverde out-sprinted Julian Alaphilippe and Joaquim Rodríguez in Ans for his third La Doyenne title.

He would add a fourth in 2017 to equal Moreno Argentin on the all-time list, behind only Eddy Merckx's five.

Result:

1st | Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) - 6:14:20

2nd | Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx Quick-Step) - +0:00

3rd | Joaquim Rodríguez (Team Katusha) - +0:00

A year on from crashing out of Liège with fractures to his scaphoid and lunate bones, Pogačar came back and won La Doyenne by over a minute.

His attack on the lower slopes of La Redoute, 34 kilometres from the finish, left the field for dead. Romain Bardet chased solo all the way to Liège and still finished 1:39 down. Mathieu van der Poel took third in the reduced group sprint behind.

Pogačar had already won Strade Bianche earlier in the spring. He would go on to win the Giro, the Tour and the World Championships in the same calendar year, the first man since Stephen Roche in 1987 to complete the triple.

Result:

1st | Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) - 6:13:48

2nd | Romain Bardet (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) - +1:39

3rd | Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) - +2:02

Evenepoel's first Monument had been talked about for years. When it arrived, it was at La Doyenne, and it was delivered with one of the longest winning moves the race has seen.

Twenty-nine kilometres out, at the top of the Côte de la Redoute, the 22-year-old attacked. Nobody followed. The chase group, led by Alexander Vlasov, got to within 20 seconds before Evenepoel pulled the gap back out and held them off all the way to the Quai des Ardennes.

He crossed the line 48 seconds clear of Quinten Hermans and Wout van Aert in an all-Belgian podium. His winning time of 6h 12' 38" was the fastest at Liège since 1963, and he was the first Belgian winner since Philippe Gilbert in 2011.

Result:

1st | Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team) - 6:12:38

2nd | Quinten Hermans (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert) - +0:48

3rd | Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) - +0:48

Gilbert arrived in Liège with three wins in the previous ten days: Brabantse Pijl, Amstel Gold and Flèche Wallonne. He left it with a fourth and the Ardennes treble.

Leopard-Trek had the numbers with the Schleck brothers, and for a while on the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons, it looked as if they might use them. Andy Schleck attacked, Fränk went with him, and Gilbert had to close the gap alone. He did. On the Côte de Saint-Nicolas, Gilbert went again hard enough to drop Andy, who just managed to get back on over the top.

In the sprint into Ans, Gilbert went from 250 metres out, and neither Schleck could hold his wheel. He became the second rider in history to complete the Ardennes treble after Davide Rebellin in 2004, and the first Belgian to win La Doyenne since Frank Vandenbroucke in 1999.

Result:

1st | Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) - 6:13:18

2nd | Fränk Schleck (Leopard Trek) - +0:00

3rd | Andy Schleck (Leopard Trek) - +0:00

The race was already odd before the start. Held in October because of COVID-19, it came three weeks after Pogačar had taken the yellow jersey off Roglič in the final time trial to La Planche des Belles Filles to win the Tour de France.

Roglič got some of it back, but only just. A five-man group contested the finish: Alaphilippe, Pogačar, Marc Hirschi, Matej Mohorič and Roglič. Alaphilippe opened the sprint from distance, looked to have a winning gap, and sat up with both arms in the air inside the final 25 metres. Roglič kept pedalling, came past on his right, and took it on the line by centimetres.

Then the commissaires intervened. Alaphilippe, in the rainbow jersey of world champion, was relegated from second to fifth for veering into Hirschi's path in the sprint. Hirschi moved up to second, Pogačar to third.

Result:

1st | Primož Roglič (Team Jumbo-Visma) - 6:32:02

2nd | Marc Hirschi (Team Sunweb) - +0:00

3rd | Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) - +0:00

*Julian Alaphilippe relegated from 2nd to 5th