(Reuters) – Remco Evenepoel claimed back-to-back wins in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege one-day race on Sunday with a stunning solo ride to victory while pre-race favourite Tadej Pogacar was forced to abandon the race after fracturing his wrist in a crash.
Soudal Quick-Step’s Evenepoel first attacked with about 34 km left with Ineos Grenadiers’ Tom Pidcock joining him at the front. But Evenepoel attacked again on the next climb to leave the Briton behind with 30 km to go.
Despite the rain and wet roads, Evenepoel looked like he was in his element and he reached the top of Cote de la Roche aux Faucons, the final climb, with a lead of one minute and 18 seconds.
As the 23-year-old finished his final descent, he was already celebrating his win with the Soudal Quick-Step car before he crossed the finish line to become the first rider to win the race in consecutive years since Michele Bartoli in 1998.
Pidcock finished second after beating Santiago Buitrago in a sprint to the finish, more than a minute behind Evenepoel, while Ben Healy was fourth.
Pogacar, who won the event in 2021, was looking to add a second Monuments classic to his list of victories this season after winning the Tour of Flanders but he was involved in a crash with EF Education–EasyPost’s Mikkel Honore 84.5 km in.
Pogacar’s team mates initially stopped and waited for the two-times Tour de France winner to resume before rejoining the bunch.
UAE Team Emirates’ medical director Adrian Rotunno later said the Slovenian had suffered a wrist injury, adding that scans at a hospital revealed he had suffered fractures and he would undergo surgery with a specialist hand surgeon in Genk.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; editing by Clare Fallon)
