UAE Team Emirates announced its team for Liège-Bastogne-Liège, where Slovenian Tadej Pogacar will be looking for his sixth victory in a monument; while America will be represented by nine riders from Colombia, Ecuador, Canada, Venezuela and the United States.
The leader of the Arabian team, who will seek to win this Sunday the race that closes the Ardennes triptych, returns to the competition after sweeping the Strade Bianche and the Volta a Catalunya, where he won four stages.
Pogacar, winner of the ‘Decana’ in 2021 and 3rd in 2020, did not participate in 2022 and last year did not finish after suffering a crash in which he fractured several bones in his wrist. Now the Slovenian returns to the Belgian classic to which, he recognizes as one of his favorite races.
“Liège is one of my favorite races and also one of the hardest. Since Catalunya I’ve spent some time at altitude with some teammates and we’ve been preparing well together for the Giro. I’m in good shape and I think I can do well, but overall the team is very strong and we’ll have options, which is always an advantage. I’m excited to put on a bib again on Sunday,” said Pogacar, in statements collected by his team.
The UAE leader will be joined in the fourth monument of the season by Diego Ulissi, Marc Hirschi, Joao Almeida, Sjoerd Bax, Finn Fisher Black and Domen Novak. The team will be led by Joxean Fernández Matxin along with sports directors Andrej Hauptman from Slovenia and a representative from America, Venezuelan Tomas Gil.
America in luxury this Sunday
After the great triumph of Tom Pidcock in the Amstel Gold Race, the British rider will be the main card of the Ineos Grenadiers to face the Liège-Bastogne-Liège, while the Colombians Egan Bernal and Brandon Rivera will be among the seven chosen by the club to take the start.
The two from Zipaquire return to competition, in the case of Bernal he returns to action after his podium in the Volta a Catalunya, while Rivera comes from racing the Flèche Wallonne and the Amstel Gold Race.
Other Colombians in the Belgian competition known as La Decana will be Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain – Victorious), Santiago Umba (Astana Qazaqstan) and Rigoberto Urán with the EF Education – EasyPost club. Precisely in that group will also be another Latin American, none other than the Olympic road champion, the Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz.
With the uniform of Israel-Premier Tech appears the Canadian Dereck Gee, while in the roster of Team dsm-firmenich PostNL is expected to run the American Kevin Vermaerke. Finally, with Movistar Team, there is another northern rider, Will Barta.