Published April 26, 2026 01:09PM
Liège-Bastogne-Liège started strangely and unraveled even faster for Remco Evenepoel, who lined up Sunday as a top favorite but had to settle for third.
The Belgian superstar was swept into a bizarre early-race split that scrambled the script and saw him burning matches too soon.
The Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe star later didn’t have the spark to follow the race-winning accelerations from Tadej Pogačar and Paul Seixas when the race ignited on La Redoute.
He bounced back to salvage team pride with a podium to cap a wild rollercoaster spring campaign.
“It was a strange day. I found myself in the break. It was by accident,” Evenepoel said. “I was just in the front of the bunch and it split. And then it was a bit strange.”
What began with an atypical early split in the Belgian monument later grew more complicated for Evenepoel, who said that 19-year-old Seixas might be in for a rude shock in the six-hour, 250km-plus route.
Instead, in a race framed as a generational shift inside the peloton, it was Evenepoel who couldn’t respond to the race-breaking flares on La Redoute.
“Third in the end is pretty okay result,” he summed up. “I think I had to kind of recover a bit from being in the break and then I gave it the maximum to go for the podium. Being again on the podium is a good feeling.”
Did that weird early-race split leave Evenepoel scrambled for when it really counted? Or was it something deeper?
‘You never let Remco go away’
When most fans turned on the TV they saw the stunning scene of Evenepoel off the front in a big group very early in the race, and Pogačar and the pack chasing nearly 3 minutes back.
A crash caused a split in the bunch as it rolled south toward Bastogne. It wasn’t sure exactly what happened because TV hadn’t started, but Evenepoel was clear up the road in a 50-plus group.
Pogačar admitted he was caught off guard, but quickly pivoted with about 200km still to race as the course looped south to Bastogne and back toward Liège.
“I was at the back, and I just followed the wheels. I looked down, I saw we go fast, and then one moment I looked up and the group was split,” Pogačar said. “But then after 20 minutes we realized it is not so bad to let them go. But of course still a bit scared, Remco can go from far away from that group.”
Evenepoel was at once both in an advantage and disadvantage as the kilometers clicked by. It was too to truly attack, but it was too big of a gap just to sit up.
“No idea how I ended up in the early breakaway,” Evenepoel told Sporza. “It certainly wasn’t intentional. The peloton split and suddenly there were 40 to 50 of us away. That was a bit of a surprise for me too.”
Yet hours later, when the big moves went on La Redoute, just where Evenepoel knew they would go, he couldn’t answer.
All questions led back to the big split. Did it cost Evenepoel later?
“In the end, I didn’t waste too much energy,” Evenepoel insisted. “It didn’t change my result either, and I still finished third.”
Missing the punch
La Doyenne certainly didn’t unfold the way Evenepoel wanted it to.
On the Côte de la Redoute, at 35km to go, Pogačar dropped the Pogi bomb that everyone knew was coming. The world champion rode clear of everyone, except a surprising Seixas.
Evenepoel knew instantly he wouldn’t be able to follow.
“On La Redoute, the pace was very high right from the base. It was really tough right from the start. I felt immediately there that I wouldn’t play a significant role in an attack,” Evenepoel said.
Evenepoel and his Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe squad were left to limit the damage and defend his podium chances.
The team helped shut down moves from Mattias Skjelmose and other late attacks, anchored by big turns from Jai Hindley, to set up Evenepoel for the reduced sprint for third.
“In the end, I tried to stay calm and focus on the Roche aux Faucons and later on my sprint,” Evenepoel said. “The team’s positioning was good today, but I just had tired legs.”
Evenepoel delivered a face-saving podium to close out the spring classics, but it was a messy day that saw the Belgian superstar oddly at the front too early and then off the back when it counted most.
Regrouping after rollercoaster spring
How much of a factor was the unexpected split that wasn’t reeled in until the approach to the Stockeu with about 80km to go?
Red Bull sport director Klaas Lodewyck said the early split forced the team to race on the fly rather than follow their pre-race tactics.
“It was a very fast start today and 53 guys went up the road. We had Nico and Remco in. It wasn’t really planned but suddenly it happened. The peloton wasn’t really reacting,” Lodewyck said.
“In the end we weren’t able to follow Pogačar and Seixas, but still able to fight back after that and still do a big result, third in a monument, with the help of Jai. We came for more, but we have to be happy with what we have.”
Evenepoel now takes a break after rollercoaster spring and reloads for a narrative-defining Tour de France this summer.
He opened 2026 in blistering form, racking up six victories in his first eight days of racing to validate the hype surrounding his bank-busting transfer to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.
He added a time trial win at the UAE Tour, but revived doubts about his absolute ceiling against the very best climbers when he was dropped on two searing summit finales.
The double Olympic champion salvaged fifth behind Jonas Vingegaard at the Volta a Catalunya after a bizarre mid-race crash, and then rebounded with a strong classics block.
Evenepoel took third in a “surprise start” at the Tour of Flanders, followed by another third at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, a race he has already won twice, and delivered a textbook victory at the Amstel Gold Race.
On balance, that’s a very good spring. No monument victories, but seven wins, and perhaps most importantly, no major crashes or serious injuries.
But he won’t leave Liège satisfied after being smoked by Pogačar and Seixas, who both stole the spotlight Sunday.
Evenepoel will now reset, taking a short break before heading to altitude, then the rebranded the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (formerly Dauphiné), and the Tour de France.