Recon Ride: Liège-Bastogne-Liège Preview

The Ardennes Classics reach their conclusion Sunday at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the last Monument of the spring. Top-shelf climbing legs, a punchy finish, tactical cunning and elite endurance are all valuable tools for a race that checks all the boxes for a major Classic – Liège is very long, very demanding and very, very old. Can Movistar's Alejandro Valverde leverage his blazing form en route to a fourth career victory? Can Sky's Michal Kwiatkowski pick up the baton for defending champion Wout Poels – sidelined with a knee injury – and hunt down a second Monument win this year? Can Dan Martin find his way back to the top of the podium in the race that saw him claim his first big one-day victory a few years ago? With the Amstel Gold Race and La Flèche Wallonne lending a hand as guides for which riders are in form and motivated this April, the Recon Ride looks ahead to 'La Doyenne.'