Remco Evenepoel has silenced his critics and rescued Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl's spring with an incredible victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The 22-year-old, now a monument winner, attacked over the top of La Redoute, where his rivals simply could not stay with him.
He got a gap and began catching the dropping the last of the breakaway riders until finally he was alone at the head of the race and powering his way to victory.
In the end he won the race by 48 seconds from a chasing group, which was led home by Quinten Hermans (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux). Wout van Aert (Jumbo Visma) made it a 1-2-3 for Belgium after he narrowly held off Daniel Martínez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Sergio Higuita (Bora-hansgrohe).
When Evenepoel attacked he still had 30km to race and though the riders on the front of the group - especially Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) - responded to him, Evenepoel was far too strong and got clear on his own.
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Once he was away, and with some of the other strong riders having been taken out by a major crash in the bunch with about 60km to go, Evenepoel powered to victory. The young Belgian, who has almost as many detractors as fans, came in for some criticism when his climbing ability was exposed earlier this season, took an emotional victory at the finish; the first by a Belgian rider for over a decade.
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The only Irish rider in the race was Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) was a non finisher and we'll have more news of him shortly.
More to come.
