Hello and welcome to live coverage of the fourth monument of the season, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, otherwise known as La Doyenne, or Old Lady. It's the oldest one-day race in the pro calendar and the last hurrah of the spring classic season before the Grand Tours get underway with next month's Giro d'Italia. So, without further ado...

The leaders are onto a cobbled section ahead of the next climb. The gap has stablised at 4:20. And it looks like Chris Froome has had a little tumble at the back of the peloton - nothing serious, but he's on the side of the road remounting his steed.

A little indication of how bad the weather was earlier this morning. Thankfully, they seem to be much better now - indeed, some of the stretches of road have even dried out...

One of those BMC riders is that man Alessandro De Marchi, who is currently riding on the back of the break as they crest the summit of the Cote de Wanne after a pretty wooded section of the climb. The Italian actually powers through to cross the line in third place. Back in the pack, it's still Movistar controlling things.

This wouldn't be such a huge surprise... although it's hard to tell until we see some aerial pictures of the peloton. It might be a slight exaggeration on the part of BMC to make their riders look more heroic in comparison to their rivals.

The break is onto the third climb, the Côte de Wanne (2.8km at 7.4%). They have 4:30 over the pack and the sun is definitely shining through the grey rainclouds.

There's some blue sky now and the odd ray of sunshine - so perhaps the worst of the bad weather is behind us? That said, they're heading back towards Liege now after the outward loop and so there's no banking on it! The gap has dropped below the five-minute mark.

There were no dramas over the second climb of the day, the Côte de Saint-Roch (1km at 11.2%). There was a bit of a crash a bit ago back in the pack, with several riders hitting the deck including Angel Vicioso (Katusha) and Alexey Vermeulen (LottoNL-Jumbo).

The leaders have already completed the first of 10 categorised climbs: the Côte de La Roche-en Ardenne (2.8km at 6.2%). It was Jeremy Roy who led them over the top, while Movistar controlled things in the peloton for their man Alejandro Valverde, the defending champion and race favourite.

One-hundred kilometres left for the leading group, who have 5:45 on the pack. Seven riders initially broke clear after 13km before Stake Laengen managed to bridge the gap to make it eight.

One rider gave up early on today: Julien Loubet (Fortuneo Vital Concept). No surprise, with the temperature currently 1 degrees Celsius...

Around five kilometres have been lost today because of a detour around one of the earlier, unclassified climbs. The change came after 45km, with the riders picking up the original route 30km later. There's no change to the major part of the course, with all those 10 classified climbs remaining untouched and still very much on the menu.

So, those eight riders in the breakaway are: Paolo Tiralongo (Astana), Alessandro De Marchi (BMC), Pavel Brutt (Tinkoff), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Jeremy Roy (FDJ), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) and Cesare Benedetti (Bora Argon 18). It's hard to make them out because they're all in rain/wind capes because of the dour conditions. The gap is six minutes.

It appears that that link to the Facebook chat with Sean Kelly didn't work earlier, so take two...

One rider you wouldn't expect to see in a cold, wet, one-day spring classic in the Ardennes is two-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome - but the Team Sky rider is indeed here, helping out his team-mate Michal Kwiatkowski, who is one of the riders to watch today. Will be go the distance? It's unlikely, but stranger things have happened.

Shades of that freezing Milan-SanRemo from 2013 out there today...

We join the race now live with the riders having completed around 135km of a course that has been slightly tweaked owing to the foul weather. A group of eight riders have over seven minutes on the pack - and there's some big names here, with the likes of De Gendt, Tiralongo, De Marchi all involved...

Right, I'm back after that great chat with Sean Kelly, a man who knows just what it's like to win here - twice. If you missed it, here's me and Sean chewing the Ardennes fat over a cafe Liegeois.

Before we pick up the race live I'll be doing a quick Facebook chat with cycling legend and Eurosport commentator, Sean Kelly - a two-time winner here at Liege. We'll be starting at 12:45 for the chat, so tune in...

It's an undulating 253km route through the Belgian Ardennes featuring 10 categorised climbs but numerous other ascents, including the punchy rise to the finish in Ans. Conditions are far from ideal: wet, miserable and even a bit sleety. Nice...

It's also the third and final race in Ardennes Week after last Sunday's Amstel Gold Race (Enrico Gasparotto) and Wednesday's Fleche-Wallonne (Alejandro Valverde). If those races were a bit subdued, there's high hopes that Liege-Bastogne-Liege will spice things up a little.