Grace Brown (FDJ-SUEZ) won Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes after spending half of the race in a breakaway. In a group of six that formed in the downhill towards Liège, the Australian came from behind to outsprint Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) and Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime).
Brown was part of a group of eight that formed just after the Côte de Stockeu, chasing solo escapee Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) and catching her on the Col du Rosier. On the Côte de La Redoute, Brown, Élise Chabbey (Canyon-SRAM), and Kim Cadzow (EF Education-Cannondale) emerged as the strongest three, still two minutes ahead of the peloton.
A furious chase brought the gap down to under a minute before the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons, where Longo Borghini attacked, taking Vollering and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) with her.
In a gripping final in which Brown almost crashed in a roundabout, the two groups came together. Niewiadoma and Chabbey took turns attacking, and Niewiadoma came onto the finishing straight with a tiny gap. Longo Borghini closed this and launched her sprint, but Brown came from behind and passed the Italian champion on the final metres to win.
“It’s an amazing day. I wanted to be in the break, we always know that a strong break can go in the middle section of the race, and we worked really well together. I felt like I’m at my limit on the climbs towards the end, but once I survived Roche-aux-Faucons, I thought ‘it’s on’,” said Brown.
“I was a little bit stressed. I locked up and almost crashed, but thankfully, I saved it and caught back on to the group. Then I just had to try to calm myself and be patient for the final,” she said, describing the roundabout with 6.8km to go that almost spelled the end of her chances.
“It’s been a tough spring for me, and then this week, finally, I started feeling like my old self. I said to the team that I feel good for Liège, it’s a race that I had good memories from already, so I’m really happy that we could pull it off today,” Brown finished.
How it unfolded
A first breakaway of Špela Kern (Cofidis) and Titia Ryo (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) was caught on the Côte de Saint-Roch, and Gigante attacked over the top of the climb to go solo, holding an advantage of up to 3:25 minutes.
Stina Kagevi (Team Coop-Repsol) went on the chase and was later joined by Sara Martín (Movistar Team) and Cadzow, but none of them made it to the front, and they were reeled in with 79km to go, just before the Côte de Stockeu. Gigante was now only 55 seconds ahead.
Chabbey attacked on the Côte de Stockeu, initiating a strong group of eight that also included Brown, Cadzow, Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime), Lucinda Brand (Lidl-Trek), Eva van Agt (Team Visma-Lease a Bike), Mikayla Harvey (UAE Team ADQ), and Flora Perkins (Fenix-Deceuninck).
The eight chasers caught Gigante on the Col du Rosier, where Julie Bego (Cofidis) launched a solo chase from the peloton. The former junior world champion never got closer than 30 seconds but was only caught with 24km to go.
As most of the big teams were represented in the break, the peloton didn’t really chase, and the front group of nine was over three minutes away 40km from the finish and still 2:25 ahead at the start of the Côte de La Redoute.
Brown led the group most of the way up the climb, dropping Van Agt, Harvey, Bredewold, Brand, and Perkins. Chabbey took over on the last part, shaking off Gigante as well. Only Cadzow could hang on over the top, and a chase group of Brand, Bredewold, Perkins, and Gigante formed on the descent, with Van Agt also returning after a while.
There were no attacks from the peloton on the most famous climb of the race as first Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek), then Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) and Niamh Fisher-Black (SD Worx-Protime) and finally Niewiadoma set the pace.
With the peloton whittled down, the advantage of Chabbey, Brown, and Cadzow went up to 2:50 minutes again, and with 25km to go, Perkins and Gigante left Brand, Bredewold, and Van Agt behind in a quest for a top-five finish.
When the three riders were caught, Lidl-Trek and SD Worx-Protime finally began to chase in earnest, reeling in Gigante and Perkins and reducing the gap to the front three to 55 seconds. An acceleration by Chabbey dropped Cadzow and had Brown struggling, but Cadzow made her way back.
Further back, Longo Borghini put in an all-or-nothing attack. Vollering jumped after her and closed the gap with Marianne Vos (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) and Niewiadoma on her wheel, though Vos couldn’t follow the pace and had to let go.
The two trios were 34 seconds apart at the top, and Vollering and Longo Borghini worked hard to reduce this gap on the unclassified climb and false flat that followed. At the ten-kilometre mark, they were only five seconds behind but still couldn’t quite close the gap. This led Longo Borghini to jump across on her own 8km from the line and immediately take the front, dropping Brown and Cadzow.
With Niewiadoma on her wheel, Vollering closed the gap to Cadzow who then led the chase as Brown made it back to the front. In a roundabout with just under 7km to go, Brown locked up her rear wheel and only narrowly avoided a crash. Cadzow went off-road and across the grass to go around Brown.
Vollering and Niewiadoma stayed on the asphalt and bridged the gap to Longo Borghini and Chabbey with 5.8km to go. Niewiadoma attacked right away but was closed down by Longo Borghini, while Brown caught up with Cadzow and took the lead in the chase, making it to the front just after the five-kilometre mark.
Longo Borghini shut down an attack by Chabbey, then Vollering set a high pace until the penultimate kilometre, where Chabbey went again, and Longo Borghini shut her down again. When Niewiadoma attacked just before the flamme rouge, Cadzow went after her but could not close the gap. 550 metres from the finish, Longo Borghini went around the New Zealander and made it to Niewiadoma’s wheel while Cadzow still left a little gap behind the Italian champion.
Niewiadoma started to sprint at the 200-metre mark. Longo Borghini easily came around her and looked like the winner, but Brown had powered up her sprint from behind and passed Longo Borghini in the last 25 metres to win.
Results
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