This article is part of a series called ‘A love letter to…’, where Cycling Weekly writers pour praise on their favourite aspects of cycling. The below content is unfiltered, authentic and has not been paid for.
What's your favourite Classic? In a quick survey of a peloton's worth of cycling fans, I'd wager if I had a pound for everyone who said the Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix, I'd be able to buy the plane ticket to go and watch next year.
They're very watchable races, no denying it. The attraction of seeing powerful bike riders beat the stuffing out of each other over terrain that would make even a UK road inspector blanche will never grow old – but for many they are where the Classics season ends.
Am I really alone in thinking Liège-Bastogne-Liège deserves a little more love?
'LBL' has all the ingredients, after all. A massive day – 170 miles / 270km – in the big hills, with the vertical ascent of a Tour de France mountain stage. It's even nicknamed 'La Doyenne' by virtue of being the oldest Classic on the calendar. It was first run in 1892, a full four years before Paris-Roubaix and beaten only by, ahem, Cycling Weekly itself, which came into being the year before.
What's not to love?
There's none of this wiggling around in the same area like Flanders. No fighting shy of almost any gradient like Roubaix. LBL goes all-in and it goes in hard. And in case you thought Flanders and Roubaix had a monopoly on such things, this is still Belgium, where brain-meltingly strong beer and triple-cooked chips with mayo are still available.
And yet, after mid-April with the big cobbled events finished with, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the Classics are over. Liège becomes – a bit like the overcooked broccoli on the table at Sunday lunch, or that rock concert bass solo – an afterthought.
To be fair, it wasn't until I took part in the Liege-Bastogne-Liège challenge ride 10 years ago that my eyes were truly opened to exactly how awesome this race is.
Having seen all 170 miles of it at road level, which always offers a more visceral perspective than the TV images, I realised how much beauty there was in the scenery, and how steep – and long – many of the climbs are.
Even the grimy, industrial face of the finale in the Liège suburbs – in a bleak juxtaposition with much of the rest of the race – is somehow all the more special for it.
On race day, the world's best turn up. Because of its terrain, it suits the Grand Tour contenders and as such the men's event has been passed around between Tadej Pogačar, Remco Evenepoel and Primož Roglič over the past five years.
The women's winners tell the same story – Demi Vollering, Annemiek van Vleuten, Grace Brown and Lizzie Deignan… and now that another former winner, Anna van der Breggen, has emerged from retirement and returned to the fray, her presence on the start list offers another tantalising possibility for a win.
Held this Sunday (April 27), both races should be well worth a watch. I'll be watching nostalgically, remembering the day I rode the course, and fell in love with the world's oldest Monument. Pour yourself a trappist beer and get involved!
