Liège-Bastogne-Liège

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2004: The climb of St.-Nicolas near the finish line in Liège. Rebellin leads Boogerd and Vinokourov.
Liège-Bastogne-Liège
Local name:	Lüttich-Bastogne-Lüttich (DE) Liège-Bastogne-Liège (FR) Luik-Bastenaken-Luik (NL) Lieja-Bastoña-Lieja (SP)
Region:	Ardennes, Belgium
Date:	Late April
Type:	One-day race
History
First Edition:	1892
Editions:	91
First Winner:	Léon Houa ( Belgium)
Most Recent:	Alejandro Valverde ( Spain)
Most Wins:	Eddy Merckx ( Belgium), 5 times

Liège-Bastogne-Liège, often called La Doyenne ("the oldest woman"), is one of the five 'Monuments' of the European professional road cycling calendar, and the oldest. The first edition was run in 1892, but this was just for amateur riders, the first race for professionals took place in 1894 when Leon Houa (who had won that 1892 race as an amateur) triumphed. It is run in the Ardennes region in Belgium, from the city of Liège to Bastogne and back.

1 History
2 Route
3 Winners
4 External link

[edit] History

The Liège-Bastogne-Liège race was part of the Union Cycliste Internationale World Cup race series, and now part of the new UCI ProTour. It is also part of the Belgian Ardennes Classics series of races, which include La Flèche Wallonne (both are organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation). At one time, La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège were run on successive days as "Le Weekend Ardennais". Only six riders have achieved the "Ardennes double" by winning both races in the same year: the Swiss Fredi Kubler twice (in 1951 and 1952), Belgians Stan Ockers (1955) and Eddy Merckx (1972), Italians Moreno Argentin (1991) and Davide Rebellin (2004), and the Spaniard Alejandro Valverde (2006).

[edit] Route

The race follows a fairly straightforward 95 km route from Liège to Bastogne, and a winding 163 route back to Liège. The second half contains most of the climbs in the race, such as the Stockeu, Haute-Levee, La Redoute, Saint-Nicolas and the Col de Forges before finishing in the northern Liège suburb of Ans. The many hills in the later part of this race gives many opportunities for riders to attack, and the race often rewards the more aggressive riders such as Michele Bartoli and Paolo Bettini.

The parcours includes several well-known climbs.

at Km 57.7, Côte de Ny', 1.8-km climb at 6°
at Km 82.5, Côte de la Roche-en-Ardenne, 2.9-km climb at 5.9°
at Km 128.5, Côte de Saint-Roch, 1-km climb at 11.2°
at Km 171, Côte de Wanne, 2.2-km climb at 7.7°
at Km 177.5, Côte de Stockeu, 1.1-km climb at 11.6°
at Km 183, Côte de la Haute-Levée, 3.4-km climb at 6°
at Km 195.5, Côte du Rosier, 3.9-km climb at 6.3°
at Km 208, Côte de la Vecquée, 3.2-km climb at 6.2°
at Km 225, Côte de la Redoute, 2.3-km climb at 7.4°
at Km 231, Côte de Sprimont, 1.5-km climb at 5°
at Km 246, Côte du Sart-Tilman-Tilff, 3.7-km climb at 5.9°
at Km 254.5, Côte de Saint-Nicolas, 0.9-km climb at 11°

The race course passes a statue of Eddy Merckx at the top of the Stockeu, on which he once commented, "Don't they build statues only of dead heroes?"

[edit] Winners

Notable winners include 5-time winner Merckx, 4-time winner Argentin, twice winners Italian Paolo Bettini and Ireland's Seán Kelly, and first-time American Tyler Hamilton in 2003.