Forging its way through the harshly beautiful landscape of Belgium’s Ardennes hills, Liège-Bastogne-Liège is the oldest Classic of them all — and arguably the most complicated and challenging to win. Frequently rain-soaked, this is a race of pure attrition, dotted with short but viciously steep climb after climb after climb. Liege is also the culmination of the Northern Classics season, a tantalizingly elusive last chance for the one-day specialists to make it into the history books. Small wonder that this year, as in so many other years, a star-studded host of riders was drawn to the start of the 107th edition of this race.
