Liège-Bastogne-Liège: Tadej Pogacar wins for third successive year after exhilarating battle with Paul Seixas

Tadej Pogacar and Paul Seixas pull clear of the peloton on the Côte de la Redoute BERNARD PAPON/Getty Images Share articleLiège-Bastogne-Liège, La Doyenne, the oldest of cycling’s five Monuments, but a race which has often lacked drama in recent editions. Not so in 2026. At more than 44 kilometres per hour, this was the fastest ever edition of a race first run in 1892, with climbing records shattered not in increments, but giant clumps. An early split in the field saw a group including Remco Evenepoel build a surprise three minute advantage over Pogacar and the peloton before they were reeled in and 19-year-old sensation went Paul Seixas went toe to toe with Tadej Pogacar up the legendary Côte de la Redoute. But at the end of a memorable race, as he now has for the past three editions, the Slovenian stood atop the podium, next to a rider who may prove to be his biggest challenger over the next few seasons. Jacob Whitehead analyses the race. Four days after taking his first major one-day win at La Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday, Seixas was dancing on Pogacar’s wheel — and until the final 15km, the teenager looked as if he may become the first French winner of La Doyenne in 46 years. One of the startling things about Seixas, already, is a maturity that belies any inexperience. After winning Flèche, it was striking when he spoke about how winning races was his “job” — it was the language of a seasoned professional, not a virtual neo-pro for whom the whole world feels fresh and new. And here, as the race approached the expected Pogacar detonation on La Redoute with 35km to go, Seixas was in perfect position, glued behind his rival — and when the world champion attacked with 900m of the climb left, the young Frenchman had the acceleration to keep up. These short climbs are not even Seixas’ forte — he shines on longer, higher efforts, with Flèche an attempt to see how he’d perform on the short and brutally sharp Mur de Huy — but here, he was able to stay with arguably the best rider we’ve ever seen on these kinds of slopes. Though Seixas was in difficulty by the end of the climb, Pogacar had been forced out of his saddle in repeated attempts to distance the younger man. None worked. 🎬 Le top 3 à la sortie de la Côte de la Redoute. The top 3 atop the Côte de la Redoute. 😍 🇸🇮 Tadej Pogacar 🌈🇫🇷 Paul Seixas >>🇩🇰 Mattias Skjelmose #LBL pic.twitter.com/YTabRM04S2 — Liège-Bastogne-Liège (@LiegeBastogneL) April 26, 2026 “Of course, he has never raced here before,” said Evenepoel of Seixas pre-race. “He is only 19, and it is 260 kilometres. Tadej and I already have a bit more stamina for this kind of race. We shouldn’t be surprised if he struggles in the final hour. Racing for 6 hours is something different from racing for 4 hours.” Instead, it was Evenepoel left far behind. Pogacar and Seixas took more than half a minute on the peloton in just under a kilometre. Their time — three minutes and 45 seconds — obliterated Pogacar’s previous record by 13 seconds. In the valley below, Seixas was even strong enough to work alongside Pogacar — he needed to with a large chase group within a minute — the 19-year-old even flicking the four-time Tour de France winner through to take his turns. “On La Redoute I was really going deep and you could see he was a little on the elastic but not gone,” said Pogacar post-race. “He came next to me. Really impressed, and he was pulling quite strong all the way. In my head, I was already preparing to do a sprint.” Ultimately, he would not need to. Seixas’ legs were just a few watts short, with Pogacar shedding him on the Côte de La Roche Aux Faucons, the final major climb before Liège, before soloing the final 15km to victory. “I wasn’t too far away from winning,” said Seixas. “I gave it everything but Tadej was stronger than me. I was already having difficulty on La Redoute, but I held on. I did a few turns after that, but then he went again and I just couldn’t go with him.” Already, he is a man made for the fire. In the biggest races of his career so far — last year’s European Championships, before Strade Bianche, the Tour of the Basque Country, Flèche, and Liège this year — he has been in the fight for the victory. Anonymity is an unknown. This week, his Decathlon CMA CGM team will decide whether to send their young leader to the Tour de France. After four fruitless decades, the French public are ecstatic at seeing the prospect of a home victory — he would already likely start the race as third-favourite, behind Pogacar and two-time winner Jonas Vingegaard. Sunday was yet more evidence that he is not just a rare athlete, but a rare personality, ready to embrace whatever the month of July may bring. Pogacar, alone, crossing the finish line in a rainbow jersey. It is an iconic image, but one which the cycling world has become almost desensitised to seeing in a two year stretch of dominance which rivals Eddy Merckx at his peak. Sometimes, there needs to be a reminder of Pogacar’s achievements — with this his third Monument victory of the season, he is on track to deliver the greatest Classics season in cycling history. These are the facts. An overwhelming favourite at Il Lombardia this autumn — he has been victorious in each of the past five editions — victory there would see him winning four of the season’s five Monuments, whilst finishing second, in a sprint, to Wout Van Aert at Paris-Roubaix. No rider has ever won all five in a year — for that matter, just three others (Merckx, Roger De Vlaeminck, and Rik Van Looy) have won them across an entire career. Pogacar was just a few bike lengths away. 🙌 Beaucoup de monde au bord de la route pour assister au 4ème sacre de Tadej Pogacar ! Huge crowds lining the roads for Tadej Pogacar’s fourth triumph. 👏#LBL pic.twitter.com/0CSsBeE6FF — Liège-Bastogne-Liège (@LiegeBastogneL) April 26, 2026 “I don’t race a lot,” said Pogacar post-race, in a rare unguarded moment. “It’s a lot of pressure on me to deliver on days like today.” Pogacar is not usually so vulnerable. He has little to prove to anybody — Sunday was his 13th Monument victory, to add to five Grand Tours, two world championships, and the European title. And so, perhaps, it was a small window into what motivates him. He has lost something of his old youthful freedom on the bike but seems to have developed a sense of duty. Against expectations, his desperation to win only appears to intensify with each addition to his palmares. It was a chaotic beginning to Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Cofidis’ Ion Izaguirre crashed in the opening kilometres as attacks sprung off the line — and as riders emerged from the maelstrom, a group of some 52 riders, including Evenepoel, had a sizeable gap on the remainder of the peloton. An hour into the race, they had a lead of over three minutes. Cycling has an old and contested code of ethics. Broadly, one rule is this: a rider should not attack in order to take advantage of a crash. In practice, the principle is far harder. What constitutes an attack? What if the leaders are unaware? How long is it until they are allowed to race normally again? It was this rule that was being debated today — as viewers considered the remote possibility that Evenepoel may be able to stay away. At the Tour of Flanders earlier this month, Mathieu van der Poel was criticised for a perceived naivety — working with Pogacar rather than sitting on his wheel — and justified his decision by citing cycling’s traditions, the notion that it is not honourable to win if you not contribute to your share of the work, that it is shameful to be a “wheel-sucker”. Having spent time with Evenepoel earlier in the week, I asked him for his opinion on the relationship between honour and trying to eke out every tactical advantage possible. “I think at some point there’s no real code of honor anymore,” he replied. “Once the race explodes, it’s about trying to get to the finish line first in the best way that you think for yourself.” Here, he had been gifted an advantage — almost inadvertently. In the front group, he continued to ride. With the chasers flying, Tom Pidcock was unable to get back on after suffering a mechanical. The Briton’s race was effectively over. “I don’t actually know what happened,” said Evenepoel after the race. “I was 30th and all of a sudden there was a gap. I didn’t work to create one. It was just an accident.” If UAE Team Emirates were frustrated, they did not show it at the finish — perhaps tempered by Pogacar’s victory. After an initial 20 minutes of panic, UAE’s sporting directors told their riders that they were confident the escapees would not stay away — and would burn their legs in the process. “We realised it wasn’t so bad to let them go,” said Pogacar. “It’s a big group but it’s never a good collaboration. I was still a bit scared, but we kept it under control.” Their coaches were right. Having worked in the wind for much of the race’s first 200km, it was Evenepoel’s energy that ran out. “There was no problem with placement,” he said afterwards. “My legs started to feel heavy. It was too fast for me.” Evenepoel recovered to win the sprint for third — capping off an Ardennes campaign which brought victory at Amstel Gold last weekend. It has been a strange season — he has ridden well in patches, such as at Flanders and Amstel, but his climbing has not stayed with the top contenders. He will be his team’s co-leader with Germany’s Florian Lipowitz at the Tour de France — and right now, a podium finish, something Lipowitz achieved in 2025, would be a surprise for Evenepoel. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms