Welcome to Eurosport-Yahoo!'s live text commentary of Liege-Bastogne-Liege.

Oscar Freire makes it back to the bunch after a puncture forces him to drop back to the team car. Meanwhile, the leaders have reached Bastogne, with a margin of 3'40" over the peloton.

Samuel SANCHEZ: The Olympic champion certainly possesses a fine sprint in a difficult finish, and he is in decent form, as his 3rd place at Fleche Wallonne and win in stage 4 of the Tour of the Basque Country would suggest. However, that third place on Wednesday was a long, long way in sprint terms behind Gilbert, and it's doubtful whether he will have the legs on Rodriguez either. His recorded his best result here back in 2004, when he was fourth.

41km were covered in the second hour of racing, so an average speed of 42.1km/h so far today. Very respectable indeed. The gap remains just above the three-minute mark.

Joaquin RODRIGUEZ: Second behind Gilbert at both Amstel Gold and Flèche Wallonne, Rodriguez is desperate for a classics victory befitting his talent. The problem is, if he wasn't able to beat Gilbert on the Mur, he's even less likely to do so on the Côte de Saint-Nicolas. “Gilbert is the favourite, that’s for sure,” Rodriguez concedes, “but I proved I’m in a good shape too and I’ll try to win on Sunday for sure." Following an attack from Schleck further from home could be his best chance.

Thomas de Gendt (Vacansoleil) is first over the Côte de St-Roch, followed by Sebastien Delfosse (Landbouwkrediet) and Tony Gallopin (Cofidis). The pack at still 3'15" behind.

Andy SCHLECK: Last year's Tour runner-up, and the winner here back in 2009. Endurance is Schleck's strength, rather than sprinting ability or explosive accerleration. "For Gilbert it doesn’t have to be a really hard race. For us, it has to be,” he said. "We cannot sit back and wait. He can win in a sprint of 100.” An attack on the Côte de la Roche aux Faucons climb, 20km from home was the launchpad for Schleck in 2009, though Gilbert and Rodriguez will be waiting for the attack this time round.

Our ten leaders hit the first of the ten hills on today's course, the Côte de St-Roch. This hill is 1 kilometre long, at 11%. An early tester for the legs.

As expected, Omega Pharma-Lotto are keeping this potentially dangerous ten-man break on a very tight leash. The gap has stabilised at around the 3'00" mark. They certainly don't want a crazy, panicked chase, as was the case for a while on Wednesday.

Philippe GILBERT: "The Mur de Huy is too steep for him," said numerous pundits, before Gilbert proved such statements pure nonsense, destroying a field including Joaquin Rodriguez and Alberto Contador at Fleche Wallonne. This, though, is the one he really wants. "It's the most important race of the season and of my career," he admitted. "It's a big thing to be the favourite at the start. If I can win, it will be amazing. I'll exchange it for all my other victories. I really want to win Liège."

Time for a look at the favourites for this race, starting with the defending champion Alexandre VINOKOUROV: Now 37, the Kazakh is entering his final season as a pro, and is confident about his chances against Gilbert, a rider he admits he'd love to sign for Astana. "It'll be very hard but I'm not afraid to get in the breakaway with Gilbert. I'm in good form and I could even beat him in the sprint, especially after 260km of racing."

43.2 kilometres were covered in the first hour. The Omega Pharma-Lotto team are at the head of the peloton now, keeping the breakaway's lead to a manageable 3'20".

Thomas de Gendt (Vacansoleil) is perhaps the man with the biggest win under his belt in this breakaway. he won the first stage of Paris-Nice earlier this season, and in fact was also in a breakaway here last year. BMC's Mathias Frank won the mountains and sprints jerseys at last year's Tour of Switzerland, while David Le Lay won the Circuit de la Sarthe back in 2009.

Well, despite my earlier comment it seems like we may have our breakaway for the day. The ten leaders have now extended their advantage to 1'45" over the pack,

BMC's Mathias Frank makes it across! That makes it ten riders in the breakaway. Surely the big teams in the peloton will be very reluctant to let them stay clear for long.

It's all very hectic early on, as is to be expected in the last of the big Spring classics before the big stage races get udnerway in earnest. Kristof Vandewalle (Quickstep), David Loosli (Lampre) and Laurens De Vreese (Topsport Vlaanderen) have now tried to bridge the gap, only to be swiftly reeled in by the pack, while the same has happened to Simon Geschke, for the second time.

There are three former winners racing here today. Katusha's Danilo di Luca won here in 2007, Andy Schleck (Trek-Leopard) won here in 2009, and Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) won in 2005 as well as last year, when he managed to drop Aleksandr Kolobnev on the Côte de Saint Nicolas. It'll be a long, long time before anyone reaches Eddy Merckx's record total of wins here, which stands at 5.

Three becomes nine! Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana), Eduard Vorganov (Katusha), Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil), Tony Gallopin (Cofidis), Mickael Delage (Française des Jeux), and Yannick Talabardon (Saur-Sojasun) have now made it across to the breakaway, 25 seconds clear of the pack, which has now caught Simon Geschke.

There are ten hills on the parcours today (hence the race's nicknake "the Ardennes rollercoaster". The steepest of which is the Côte de Stockeu, after 164 kilometres, at a punishing 12%, though the three key hills are likely to be the Côte de la Reboute (35km from the finish, 2km long @ 8% gradient), the Côte de la Roche aux Faucons (20km from the finish, 1.5km long @ 9.5%) and the Côte de St Nicolas (6 kilometres from the finish, 1.2km long @ 8.3%).

The breakaway have 15 seconds' lead over the peloton, who are still moving along at a very respectable pace. Skil-Shimano's Simon Geschke is absolutely flat out trying to bridge the gap out to the three leaders, though I'm not sure he's going to manage it.

Landbouwkrediet's local boy Sebasien Delfosse has managed to escape from the pack now, and Ag2r's David Le Lay and Movistar's Jesus Herrada have gone with him.

Seven riders immediately break clear of the peloton, but they're swiftly reeled back in. After a breakaway quartet gained so much time at Fleche-Wallonne the other day, the likes of Omega Pharma-Lotto and Saxo Bank aren't likely to be so relaxed here.