Tom Pidcock lines up at the 2026 Liege-Bastogne-Liege riding a recovery arc after a crash-interrupted spring, but the British Q36.5 leader still arrives as one of the strongest climbers in the field on a course where he has already proven he can podium.
Pidcock's 2026 season began with a standout winter training camp in Chile that carried him into strong early-season results at Muscat, where he was up front in the final on gravel, and second place behind Tim Wellens at the mid-January Saudi Tour equivalent. Crashes were not part of the script yet.
The British climber added a third-place finish at the Volta a Andalucia after attacking hard on the final stage, and he was rolling into the Italian peninsula in strong form. Stage seventh at the Trofeo Laigueglia preceded his biggest result of the spring: victory at Milano-Torino after a late-race attack peeled the British rider clear of the chasers.
Milano-Sanremo followed a week later. Pidcock rolled with Pogacar's attacks and came to the line with the Slovenian, only losing out in the sprint for the win — an outstanding result on a course that has historically not favoured his profile.
Then came Catalunya. Pidcock was moving well through the opening days of the week-long stage race when a crash took him out of the general classification and forced a recalibration. Rather than risking his Ardennes campaign, the Brit skipped Amstel Gold and Fleche Wallonne in favour of racing the Tour of the Alps, where he immediately returned to the front on stage one.
His Liege pedigree is strong. Pidcock finished inside the top 10 at La Doyenne in both 2024 and 2025, and his best-ever result at the race came in 2023 when he finished second to a solo-attacking Remco Evenepoel. A return to that level would place him firmly in the mix for a podium this Sunday.
The concern, as one previewer put it, is whether Pidcock will be able to follow "the big accelerations" when Pogacar and Evenepoel light up the Cote de la Redoute and the Cote de Seraing. On his best day, the British climber can; on the back of a crash-interrupted preparation, he cannot be certain.
What Pidcock does bring to the Liege start line is the intangible of being one of the few riders in the peloton who has beaten Pogacar in a one-day race. That history matters on a course this unforgiving — and Pidcock knows it.
