THE OLDEST RACE NEEDS YOUNG FANS

It feels almost sacrilegious to say, but Liège- Bastogne- Liège means almost nothing to me. I’ve been following cycling for over 10 years now, but

I don’t think I watched it until Wout Poels’ win in 2016, and even then I barely paid attention until the final kilometre. It has never caught my imagination in the same way as the other monuments or classics - give me Strade Bianche or San Sebastián over La Doyenne any day. That’s not to say I don’t want to like it, I’m just not sure it appeals to younger fans.

I understand that it’s old. I know that it has a list of famous winners. I often hear that Bernard Hinault soloing away through the snow in 1980 was one of the best rides of all time. That was 15 years before I was born, however, and Hinault doesn’t have the resonance for me that he evidently does for fans who actually saw him race. The 1980 race feels like a different era to me. Don’t get me started on the lack of welfare shown for the Frenchman in keeping him out there in the freezing cold.

It’s hard to warm to the race when the list of recent winners is more like a rogues’ gallery of riders who served bans for doping: Davide Rebellin, Alexander Vinokourov won it twice, Alejandro Valverde has won it four times, Danilo Di Luca, Tyler Hamilton, and Maxim Iglinsky. They’re no Bernard Hinault, that’s for sure. It has also suffered from the same problem as Flèche Wallonne - the race was so hard that more often than not, the win was decided on the final climb in an uphill sprint. Even last year, when the finish was changed from Ans to a city- centre finish, the action took place on the final climb. The last time the Liège finish was used was in 1992, before I was born.

The last two editions have been pretty exciting, and I hope that this continues. I want to like LiègeBastogne- Liège, I want to understand it, it’s just that as a 24-year- old I don’t have an emotional attachment to the race yet. If you feel strongly about it, please help me love it.