35 victories for the Emirati squad as World Champion takes his third Doyenne trophy
APRIL 27, 2025
World Champion Tadej Pogačar delivered a commanding performance to clinch his third victory at the oldest of the cycling Monuments: Liège-Bastogne-Liège, taking UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s 35th victory of the seasons.
Pogačar launched a decisive solo attack 35 kilometers from the finish on the iconic Côte de la Redoute. He would remain solo for the remainder of the race crossing the line 1’03” ahead of Italy’s Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) and Ireland’s Ben Healy (Education First Easypost), who secured second and third places, respectively.
This victory marks Pogačar’s ninth Monument win, placing him third on the all-time list behind Eddy Merckx and Roger de Vlaeminck. Notably, he becomes the first cyclist to podium in six consecutive Monument races.
Pogačar : “It feels great to finish the first part of the season like this. I’m just happy that the whole season so far went perfect. It wasn’t the plan to attack on La Redoute, but it was such a hard pace before that I saw a number of teams didn’t have a lot of teammates anymore. I said ‘OK, I’ll test my legs a little bit and see if I can get a gap on the top’ and then I’ll decide if I continue or not.
Then I just committed because I had good legs – also on the second climb after La Redoute. I could go to the finish, so I’m super happy.
At first, Soudal were controlling the bunch and racing on the front all day. At one point they all disappeared from the front. I was thinking maybe they were saving their legs for La Redoute because you can save a lot in the bunch. But then on La Redoute I looked around and Evenepoel wasn’t close on my wheel, but that was also good motivation to go at that point.
I’m looking forward to a bit of a break now and then building up to the next part of the season.”
Liege-Bastogne-Liege Results
1.Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 6:00:09
2.Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) +1’03”
3.Ben Healy (Education First) s.t
