Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2026 Preview: Pogacar Hunts Third Consecutive Win at La Doyenne
The 112th edition of Liège-Bastogne-Liège closes out Ardennes week on April 26, and it arrives with the most compelling storyline the oldest Monument can offer: Tadej Pogacar bidding for a third consecutive title at La Doyenne. The Slovenian won the past two editions in dominant fashion, and his 2026 spring — Strade Bianche, Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders — has been nothing short of extraordinary. A third Liège would make him one of only a handful of riders in history to win La Doyenne three times in succession, cementing a spring legacy for the ages.
The 259.5km route from Liège to Bastogne and back is unchanged in its essential character: a long and grinding war of attrition over 10 classified climbs that rewards endurance, explosive uphill pace, and tactical intelligence in equal measure. The Côte de Saint-Roch, Wanne, Stockeu, and the iconic La Redoute all feature before the Côte de la Roche-Aux-Faucons, the final classified climb with 13.3km to go, launches the race's decisive phase. By the time the survivors of the Roche-Aux-Faucons arrive back in Liège, they will have covered more altitude than almost any other one-day race on the calendar.
The main threat to Pogacar's hat-trick ambitions could well come from Remco Evenepoel. The Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider is a natural fit for Liège's punchy, repeated climbs — he won the race in 2023 — and his spring form after his Tour of Flanders debut and return to racing suggests he is building towards a peak at exactly the right moment. If Pogacar has any fatigue after a relentless Classics campaign, Evenepoel may be the rider best placed to exploit it.
Isaac del Toro of UAE Team Emirates-XRG represents an X-factor. The young Mexican, who won Tirreno-Adriatico in March, is beginning to show that his Grand Tour skills translate to one-day racing in a way that even his most optimistic supporters had not fully anticipated. Liège suits a rider who can sustain climbing at very high intensity across repeated efforts, and del Toro is precisely that kind of rider. He would not be the first young UAE rider to announce himself at La Doyenne.
Jonas Vingegaard may also line up, though his participation depends on how he manages his workload before the Giro d'Italia in May. If he does start, his ability to follow explosive accelerations on the longer climbs makes him dangerous. Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep) and Ben O'Connor (Team Jayco-AlUla) are experienced riders at this race who know its rhythms and could take advantage if the headline acts neutralise each other.
The women's Liège-Bastogne-Liège, which runs the day before the men's race, will feature its own battle between Demi Vollering in the colours of FDJ-SUEZ, Lotte Kopecky, and a resurgent Kasia Niewiadoma looking to bounce back after her crash-interrupted Milan-San Remo. With Vollering already posting strong results across the Spring Classics and the hilly Ardennes terrain suiting her profile better than the cobbled Flemish races, the Frenchwoman's new team signing could be heading for a statement win in the oldest of all the Monuments.
The 2026 Ardennes week could yet be where Pogacar's extraordinary spring finally runs into the limits of the human body — or it could be where he completes the most dominant single-season Classics haul in living memory. Either way, La Doyenne will deliver answers on April 26.