The Groupama-FDJ leaders were ready to take on the 111th Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday, and they delivered over the 252 kilometres of the season’s fourth Monument. Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough in a race which proved quite blocked because of the wind, which highlighted the strong field. Behind the top three of the day, a peloton of around forty men sprinted for the remaining places, with Romain Grégoire and Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet having to settle for nineteenth and twenty-first respectively.
The 2025 Spring Classics campaign was to come to an end this Sunday, on the oldest of cycling’s five Monuments. In this 111th edition of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the riders’ menu was unchanged from previous years. Nine climbs featured in the final hundred kilometres, with the côte de la Redoute as the usual launching ramp thirty-five kilometres from the finish, and the côte de Roche-aux-Faucons as the final climb with fifteen kilometres to go. Before reaching the first key point of the day, the race proved quite “straightforward,” according to Benoît Vaugrenard. “As we thought, UAE Team Emirates pulled behind the breakaway of twelve,” he said. “It was fast, hard, but the front wind on the way back to Liège still blocked the race a little.” Therefore, despite a hard pace on the first climbs, namely the Wanne-Stockeu-Haute Levée sequence and the Col du Rosier, the peloton still included around a hundred riders approaching the Côte de la Redoute. “The team worked well to put us in position at the bottom,” claimed Romain Grégoire.
“We would have needed a harder race”, said Benoît Vaugrenard.
Yet, no one was able to follow Tadej Pogacar when he accelerated, and it quickly became clear that the Slovenian would never be seen again. At the top of La Redoute, Romain Grégoire was still among the top ten, within a chase group, while Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet joined him a few kilometers further on together with Remco Evenepoel. “Guillaume and I were in the mix on the climbs, but I think the race wasn’t selective enough to give us an advantage,” explained Romain. Subsequently, four riders were able to get away, while a peloton of around twenty, then thirty riders bunched up before the day’s final climb. Kevin Geniets and Rudy Molard then used their last bit of energy to help their leaders, and Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet tried to take advantage of the Roche-aux-Faucons climb to attack for a potential top-5 finish. The French climber pushed on for a while, but the day’s conditions once again allowed the peloton to come back.Behind Pogacar, and a Healy-Ciccone duo who fought for the podium, a very imposing group headed to Liège. “We knew we could see a large sprint for the remaining places, which was the case since there were still forty guys,” added Benoît. “We would have needed a harder race for Guillaume or Romain, but those were the day’s conditions and we had to deal with it… It’s frustrating because I think we deserved better, but we knew the wind wouldn’t be our ally”. “I didn’t find a space in the sprint, so I’m very frustrated,” said Romain. “I was up there, but when the team is working for you, you want to reward it. It’s a shame I couldn’t do it today.” At the finish line, the young man took nineteenth place on the day, following his two seventh-place finishes at the Amstel Gold Race and the Flèche Wallonne, while Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet got twenty-first place. “We would have liked to finish these Ardennes Classics on a high note,” confessed Benoît. “The goal was the top five, our leaders were there, they delivered, but it didn’t go our way. I’ll remember that the team was strong again.”
