Good afternoon all! Tom Owen here, standing in for Felix Lowe and we're live with text commentary of the 104th edition of the world's oldest bike race, Liege-Bastogne-Liege. We'll have live pictures for you on Eurosport from 1pm, but until then I'm afraid you're stuck with me.

Spratt has 55 seconds now. She's climbing steady and her gap continues to grow.

Amanda Spratt hits the Cote Saint Nicolas alone. There are 6.5km to go and she's still off the front by some margin.

10 kilometres to go for Spratt who has 40 seconds on the chasers behind her. Can they bring her back? You'd have to back the Santos Women's Tour winner here...

The women's race is into its last 20km, with Ferrand-Prevot back in the front group and Amanda Spratt on the attack this time. They have just the Cote de San Nicolas to tackle now.

A bit of early news you may have missed, Alexis Vuillermoz has abandoned the race. He climbed off very soon into the day, a real blow for his AG2R leader, Romain Bardet, who could well excel on this sort of course.

The gap just edges back out to 4'45". It hasn't really ever got beyond five minutes today, as the UAE / Movistar-led peloton keeps them on a tight leash.

In the women's race Pauline Ferrand-Prevot is away off the front with 40 seconds and 30km to go. It'll be one hell of an effort if he makes it all the way there.

On Wednesday there were attacks flying throughout the race, making life really difficult for Valverde and Movistar. If they are to unseat him today, the other teams will have to create chaos and create it early. If the race comes to the finale all together, it will play beautifully to Valverde's fast finish.

Carlos Betancur is on the front right now, controlling the break at 4 minutes for his boss.

UAE Team Emirates have been doing a fair bit of work on the front of the peloton so far. Ostensibly they are working in the interests of Dan Martin, a previous winner of this race (2013).

UAE have had an odd beginning to 2018, after spending a huge amount of cash bringing top names like Martin, Alexander Kristoff and Fabio Aru on board. So far, that aggressive spending hasn't exactly paid off.

Can Dan deliver the goods today? He was 61st in Fleche on Wednesday and didn't finish Amstel Gold...

One of the weirder sub-plots of Liege-Bastogne-Liege is 'the Pimp of Liege'. Every year at about 5.8km to go he appears in a different fancy dress outfit and runs alongside the riders. US journalist Dan Wuori is trying to track the guy down for an interview, after bringing him to the wider cycling world's attention over the last couple of editions.

So... can you ID this hirsute chap???

A helpful reminder today from Rob that the weather is very, very good outside and you should probably be outside somewhere. A mere 140km to go.

This is the final time Liege-Bastogne-Liege will finish in Ans, with a planned return to the centre of town next year. The Ans finish is believed to be a large factor in Valverde's dominance over the last four years, with the race organisers perhaps deciding that five wins would be enough for everyone's favourite peloton panto baddie.

They've flown through that first 100km, with the break still 4'55 up the road.

BMC today are racing in the name of their late team owner, Andy Rihs. The 75-year-old Swiss billionaire, who passed away on Wednesday evening, bankrolled the team to a victory in the 2011 Tour de France with Cadel Evans, undoubtedly the squad's highpoint.

Our regular live text commentator Felix is away in Italy today, participating in the Gran Fondo Michele Scarponi, an event created in memory of the Italian rider who died a year ago today. Scarponi was a beloved rider among the peloton and his Astana team mates will be going full gas to bring home a win in his honour. Their main men today are Jakob Fuglsang and Michael Valgren.

The race situation at the moment is pretty subdued, with a fairly unthreatening four-man breakaway about five minutes up the road. They have 160km still to race.

Cofidis rider Anthony Perez is one of the quartet up front and it is his birthday today. Joyeux anniversaire, Tony.

I'm interested to hear your predictions today. Will Valverde double down after his defeat midweek, or will Nibali attempt another long range shark attack? Is Alaphillipe the new king of Ardennes week, or will Michael Matthews make it over the hills and all the way to the finale?

Reach me on Twitter at @owentcharles!

The big question today is whether or not the peloton can disrupt the work of Alejandro Valverde's Movistar team as the Spaniard pursues a record-equalling fifth L-B-L title.

On Wednesday 'Bala' was beaten in La Fleche Wallonne by Julian Alaphilippe of Quick-Step, and all of a sudden he looks far from invincible in the Ardennes Classics.

At the moment the race is heading towards Bastogne on the relatively benign outward leg. Things get interesting as they turn around and head back towards Liege, via lots and lots of lovely hills. The total ascent for the day is around 4,500m (14,700ft) packed into 258 kilometres.