Racing

Liege-Bastogne-Liege 2015 preview: the key climbs

Where Sunday's Monument will be won or lost

Cote de Stockeu

Philippe Gilbert battles his way up the Stockeu last year, one of the key climbs in Liege-Bastogne-Liege (Pic: Sirotti)
The Cote de Stockeu may be short - but it's very steep (Pic: Sirotti)
The Stockeu wounds you, but it is the Haute-Levee that finishes you off - just ask Joaquim Rodriguez, who was dropped on the ascent last year (pic: Sirotti)
Julien Arredondo goes deep as he battles with Jan Bakelants on La Redoute (pic: Sirotti)
The residential street of the Cote de Saint-Nicolas may not look pretty but it offers a last chance for a solo attack (pic: Sirotti)
Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha, left) and Dan Martin (Cannondale-Garmin, right) race up the final, uncategorised ascent at Liege-Bastogne-Liege (Pic: Sirotti)

Cote de Stockeu

The fourth climb of the race, the Cote de Stockeu, is sandwiched between the Cote de Wanne and Cote de la Haute-Levee in a quickfire trio which often causes the first major split.

Joaquim Rodriguez, runner-up in 2013, was one rider who slipped off the back 12 months ago to prove how even the most esteemed climbers in the bunch can be caught out by the short, steep pitches of the Ardennes.

The Stockeu is just longer a kilometre in length and is among the steepest of all the climbs in the race, with an average gradient of 12.5 per cent.

A favourite training climb of Eddy Merckx, and launchpad for some of The Cannibal’s race-winning escapes (Merckx won the race five times in total), the climb starts steep and gets steeper, ramping again severely just after the half-way point.

At its steepest, the gradient touches 21 per cent, and the rough road surface of the tree-lined ascent only makes its tougher before you reach a monument of Mercx at the top.