"It Is The Biggest One-Day Startsheet Of 2026 And Not Even Close" — ASO's Saturday Afternoon Liège-Bastogne-Liège Startlist Release Confirms Pogačar Chasing Three In A Row, Evenepoel Chasing A Third La Doyenne, And 19-Year-Old Paul Seixas Handed A UCI-Approved Protected Leadership Spot At Decathlon-AG2R
Saturday 15:00 CET from the ASO office in the Boulevard Frère Orban in Liège. Eight days out from the 26 April flag drop in Place Saint-Lambert and the provisional startlist for the 112th edition of Liège-Bastogne-Liège is released in full. It reads as the deepest La Doyenne startsheet since 2019. Tadej Pogačar headlines. Remco Evenepoel returns as the only man to have beaten Pogačar at La Doyenne in the last four editions. Primož Roglič starts his seventh consecutive Liège-Bastogne-Liège chasing the third La Doyenne that has eluded him for six years. And 19-year-old Paul Seixas — the breakthrough star of the 2026 spring — is confirmed with protected leadership status at Decathlon-CMA-CGM.
The UAE Team Emirates-XRG selection for the world champion's third consecutive Liège-Bastogne-Liège start is the strongest in-depth Monument squad they have fielded in 2026. Adam Yates as climbing lieutenant. João Almeida as the dual-purpose Ardennes-to-Giro bridge rider (with Almeida on the Giro startlist 17 days later). Marc Hirschi as the mid-Ardennes puncheur option if Pogačar is isolated. Brandon McNulty, Igor Arrieta and Pavel Sivakov complete the line-up. Pogačar pursues a third consecutive Liège title on 26 April — a feat achieved only twice in the race's history, by Eddy Merckx in the early 1970s and Moreno Argentin in the 1980s.
Evenepoel's selection at Soudal Quick-Step is the eight-day advance preview of the race plan. The Belgian has won Liège-Bastogne-Liège twice (2022, 2023), finished second to Pogačar in 2024, and skipped the 2025 edition with his pelvic-injury recovery from the Schilde crash. Tom Steels's Saturday team-coach briefing in Valkenburg confirmed Evenepoel is riding the full three-race Ardennes block: Amstel Sunday, Flèche Wednesday, Liège the following Sunday. "We have one plan and one target. We ride Amstel to win. If we win, we ride Flèche smart. Then we put everything into Liège." Evenepoel's Liège squad features Ilan Van Wilder, Louis Vervaeke, Gianni Moscon and Yves Lampaert as the same four-rider climbing core that lines up at Amstel on Sunday.
The Seixas storyline is the one that has captured the imagination of European cycling fans since the teenager's 19-year-old Itzulia Basque Country overall win on 11 April. The French teenager — the youngest winner of a WorldTour stage race in the professional era — arrives at his first career Monument with a Decathlon-CMA-CGM squad that has been rebuilt around his protected leadership. Felix Gall, Aurélien Paret-Peintre, Clément Champoussin, Nicolas Prodhomme, Oliver Naesen, Bastien Tronchon and Valentin Paret-Peintre complete the line-up. DS Stephen Barrett: "Paul is the protected leader at Liège. Simple. Decathlon-CMA-CGM has not had a rider like this since the Jalabert years. We race the race around him."
The UCI provisionally confirmed on Saturday that an application by Decathlon-CMA-CGM for a "protected-youth leadership exemption" — a paragraph-6 waiver introduced in 2025 for teenagers in their first Monument start — has been approved. The waiver allows Seixas to race with a dedicated finishing radio channel and the team's full tactical resources without requiring the 19-year-old to perform the standard mid-race domestique workload that French ProTeam rookies normally undertake at Liège. "We do not hide behind waivers," Barrett added in his Saturday press-briefing line. "We race Paul as a Monument favourite from the flag. The UCI's protected-youth ruling is a secondary safety net, not a tactical plan."
Roglič's Liège campaign at Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe completes the four-rider pre-race favourite list. The 36-year-old Slovenian has three Liège podiums but no win. His 2026 spring has been the strongest of his Monument career with a second-place finish at Paris-Nice and the Itzulia second place at +1'35" behind Seixas. Red Bull's Saturday-afternoon announcement confirms Roglič races Liège without conflict with his Tour of the Alps start on Monday — a six-day pre-Liège hill-stage-racing block is exactly the preparation the 36-year-old has used before his last three La Doyenne podiums. Red Bull's second Liège option: Dan Martínez, freshly signed to the German squad for 2026.
The support-tier favourites pick themselves. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), defending Amstel champion but still searching for his breakthrough Ardennes Monument. Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) riding his third Liège at the top of his form curve. Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor Pro Cycling) chasing his first La Doyenne podium since 2019. Enric Mas (Movistar), Bauke Mollema (Lidl-Trek) and Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech) complete the announced 25-team provisional entry list. Pidcock's Liège start (see Pidcock knee update) is "subject to Sunday's Amstel Gold Race assessment".
The notable Saturday-afternoon absentees. Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) is skipping the Ardennes entirely on the back of his Roubaix victory. Mathieu van der Poel is skipping. Jonas Vingegaard will be finishing the Tour of the Alps on the same Saturday and is not on the Liège startlist. Isaac del Toro, cleared for Liège after his Itzulia thigh MRI, was added to the UAE squad of seven on Saturday afternoon, bringing UAE up to their full eight. ASO's next startlist update is scheduled for Monday 20 April at 14:00 — the same moment Tour of the Alps Stage 1 rolls out of Rovereto.