Bardet rises, Skjelmose collapses
The 2024 Liège-Bastogne-Liège was yet another triumphal, and solitary, ride for Tadej Pogacar , winner of the sixth Monument in his career. The Slovenian rises by another two million, thus bringing his price to an already challenging figure. Whoever wants to buy it, now and in view of the Giro, will have to spend 79 million.
The surprise of the day, Romain Bardet, arrived on the podium. It deserves a +4 rating (and for the points taken home).
Van Gils, Aurelien Paret Peintre and Vansevenant also did well, fourth, fifth and sixth respectively in a very particular Liège (+3 for each of them). Applause for Lutsenko (+2), Lapeira (+1) and Madouas (+1). A separate chapter for Mathieu Van der Poel (+2), third at the finish line after a comeback race. His spring, however, was already more than satisfactory...
The disappointment of the day (or maybe not?!) is Mattias Skjelmose, who made statements before the start that seemed to suggest an excellent performance. In reality the Dane ended up far from the leaders, so the Fantacycling team lowered him by 3 fantasy million.
Simon Yates also goes down (-2), then Vlasov, Carapaz, Healy, Almeida, Poels, Buitrago, Gaudu, Kron and Bagioli with -1. Jay Hindley also did badly, but in the heat of the race: his Liège ended with a -2.