Men’s Liege-Bastogne-Liege 2024 as it happened – Pogcar attacks with 35km to go, cruises to second LBL title; Bardet 2nd, Van der Poel 3rd

1. Tadej Pogacar 6'13'48"
2. Romain Bardet +1'39"
3. Mathieu van der Poel +2'02
4. Maxime Van Gils "
5. Aurelien Paret-Peintre "
6. Mauri Vansevenant "
7. Valentin Madouas "
8. Alexiy Lutsenko "
9. Pello Bilbao "
10. Tom Pidcock "

Possibly the biggest surprise of the afternoon. Maxime Van Gils almost comes a-cropper in the finish but fortunately everyone stays upright.

A great result for him. It's 45 years since a Frenchman won this race.

A seventh victory in ten days this season. A sixth Monument victory in not many starts more than that. Rob Hatch calls him "a Titan of our times". I can't improve of that.

It's in the bag. It's been as easy a Monument victory as you'll see. They knew it was coming and there was nothing they could do about it.

All that stop-start stuff has indeed helped him. Looks like we might have a sprint finish for 3rd. Pogacar is going to win this by around two minutes.

Setting his sights on the Healy group to prevent himself from falling to his worst ever Monument result.

But it looks like he's going to get swept up, as moves are made among the riders behind. The Frenchman might be better off easing up, but if they're attacking rather than cooperating it could be to his advantage.

There's no chance of him catching Pogacar, but he's looking better and better for the podium.

Only Bardet able to stay with Ben Healy. As Egan Bernal attacks up the final hill of the day. Great to see him back in some sort of form.

Pogacar isn't letting up, not exactly taking the corners cautiously. He's onto the final official climb, the Cote du Roche-aux-Faucons.

And Pogacar powers on in his smooth trademark style. The riders in the Healy group are gritting their teeth and having to fight just to keep the gap from ballooning out to 2 minutes plus.

Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich), Romain Gregoire (Groupama FDJ), and Benoit Cosnefroy (Decathlon AG2R) are a minute behind Pogacar, 25 seconds ahead of the Van der Poel group.

The group had already grown too big to be effective, so Ben Healy looks to salvage what he can.

Not to spoil it, but the ten behind are surely already racing for second place.

Carapaz can't hang on. His team-mate Healy is in the next group further back so they could find a way to stay in this between them.

Who else? Tadej Pogacar attacks early, before the hardest part of the climb. Only Richard Carapaz can even remotely stay with him, and the Ecuador rider is doing all he can, wrestling the bike and out of the saddle.

Pogacar looks very comfortable as Stevie Williams does not, and is unable to stay in touch. More will follow.

They're riding so hard, this has got to be it. Lascano is leading them into it for Movistar in the Spanish champions jersey, as they go over the river. Ben Healy is near the front, so is Toms Skujins, and Mattias Skjlemose through the twists and turns of the town.