Tadej Pogacar lines up on the start line at the 2026 Liege-Bastogne-Liege with a specific mission in mind: get back on the winning track after his Paris-Roubaix defeat, and rack up another victory at a race he has already conquered twice.
The Slovenian world champion has been nearly unstoppable this spring. He has gone three-for-three at Strade Bianche, Milano-Sanremo and the Tour of Flanders — his third Flanders win and his first Sanremo — before arriving at Paris-Roubaix on April 12 chasing the Monument still missing from his palmares. It did not happen.
Mathieu van der Poel rode what previewers described as a "tactically brilliant race" to deny Pogacar in the velodrome. Van der Poel — the Dutchman who has dominated at Paris-Roubaix in recent seasons — let Pogacar do 80 percent of the work in the closing kilometres, then held on to take the sprint on the boards and deliver what one cycling analyst called "a massive important cobbled Monument win that Wout desperately needed in his palmares."
For Pogacar, the loss shifts the spring narrative. The Slovenian had hoped for a four-for-four opening and the missing fifth Monument in his collection. Instead, he arrives at Liege with four Monument wins already in the bank and the final remaining target — Paris-Roubaix — now waiting another 12 months.
Pogacar has dominated Liege in recent editions, winning in 2024 and 2025 in commanding fashion. "Let's look at Liege-Bastogne-Liege last couple years," one preview noted. "It's gone to Tadej. It's been Pogacar domination. The world champion has shown he's the man."
He will bring a strong UAE Team Emirates-XRG support cast including the young Slovenian climber Jan Novak and Tim Wellens, who has already won twice this spring across smaller stage races. Wellens's ability to stay in the key selection inside the final 60 kilometres could prove decisive against a motivated Remco Evenepoel on home roads.
Evenepoel enters with Amstel Gold form, but Pogacar has made a habit in 2026 of answering every question put to him. The exception was Roubaix — and that, for the world champion, is exactly the point.
Historically, Pogacar has sat out the midweek Fleche Wallonne to arrive fresh at Liege. That playbook has not changed. The 112th edition of La Doyenne is set up to be the final chapter of an unprecedented spring for the Slovenian — or, if Evenepoel has his way, the start of someone else's story.
