An absent favourite:
Winner last year, Tadej Pogacar presented on paper all the arguments to renew his success.
It was without counting on the family mourning which struck the double winner of the Tour de France.
Pogacar returned to Slovenia on Thursday to support his partner Urska Zygart, who has lost her mother.
His package was formalized on Saturday in the middle of the day.
He left behind a UAE team called from then on to change roles and play spoilsport (Hirschi, Soler, Ulissi, G. Bennett).
A world champion on appeal:
"
I have often approached it but I have not yet won victory here
", admitted Julian Alaphilippe, second in his debut (2015) when the race arrived on the heights of Liège and still second last year on the quays of the city, very close to succeeding Bernard Hinault who remains the last French winner (in 1980!).
"
It's one of the most beautiful races, a monument
", underlined "
Alaf
", ready to go all out to avoid a zero point for the Quick-Step team in the classics, yet a favorite area of Belgian training.
Only fourth in the Flèche Wallonne, he feels "
freed from the pressure
" that he had inflicted on himself.
And says to himself "
happy
" with his form in a team which will also count on the Belgian Remco Evenepoel, ambitious for his debut, in the event of an offensive race, before the last climb (La Roche-aux-Faucons) placed at the entrance of the last 15 km.
Read alsoCycling: Van Aert gives himself “a small chance” of winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège
A neophyte to watch:
In the absence of the 2020 winner, the Slovenian Primoz Roglic, the Jumbo formation aligns Wout van Aert who makes his debut in the Doyenne.
"
I give myself a small chance of winning, a bigger chance of getting a good ranking
," said the Belgian champion associated with his compatriot Tiesj Benoot.
His opponents are not mistaken, they place van Aert, second in Paris-Roubaix last Sunday, among the men to beat, even the first favorite despite his inexperience in the race.
Benoît Cosnefroy, one of the French people to follow (just like Warren Barguil, Valentin Madouas and Romain Bardet), smiled: “
For Wout, it's not a problem!
»
A veteran not to be forgotten:
Four times winner of the Doyenne between 2006 and 2017, one step away from Eddy Merckx's record, Alejandro Valverde is still in the game if we are to believe his second place on Wednesday in the Walloon Arrow.
Will the Spaniard give himself the most unexpected gift on the eve of his 42nd birthday?
To achieve his goals, the eternal Valverde - 16th participation - will have to take into account the blocks of two teams in form, the Ineos of the Polish Michal Kwiatkowski (winner of the Amstel Gold Race two weeks ago) and especially the Bahrain of Slovenian Matej Mohoric, Belgian Dylan Teuns and Dutchman Wout Poels, advantaged in the event of deteriorating weather.
Mohoric won Milan-