With Team Sky’s defending champion Wout Poels ruled out injured, Liege-Bastogne-Liege could see a new winner crowned on Sunday (April 23).
Three-time former winner Alejandro Valverde – who warmed up for the race by winning La Fleche Wallonne for the fifth time on Wednesday – has designs on becoming only the third man to win La Doyenne, the oldest of the five Monuments, four times, however.
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The fourth of the five Monument races will also see Milan-San Remo champion Michal Kwiatkowski and Paris-Roubaix winner Greg van Avermaet bidding for more Monument success this year.
Were it not for him suffering a ruptured kidney at the Amstel Gold Race, Tour of Flanders champion Philippe Gilbert – another former Liege-Bastogne-Liege winner – would also have been involved.
– Liege-Bastogne-Liege 2017: TV schedule –
As it is, even without Gilbert and Poels, a fittingly stellar line-up will take on the climbs of La Redoute, the Cote de la Roche-aux-Faucons and Cote de Saint-Nicolas en route to the uphill finish in Ans.
We’ve picked out the leading contenders for Sunday’s race…