Women's Liege-Bastogne-Liege - As it happened

1. Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo)
2. Grace Brown (Mitchelton-Scott)
3. Ellen van Dijk (Trek-Segafredo)
4. Marianne Vos (CCC Team)
5. Amy Pieters (Boels-Dolmans)

Wht a ride for the Aussie rider. She comes home 9 seconds after Deignan.

Behind, the chasers fight for the podium, and Ellen van Dijk makes it first and third for Trek-Segafredo.

It was close, but she held on.

Deignan sprints out of the saddle with Brown not far behind.

Has she got enough of a gap?

The Australian is on a mission! She is just 10 seconds behind the leader.

Gap is just 18 seconds between Deignan and Brown!

Our two main players have made rather different wardrobe choices today. Brown, the Australian, is still wearing her gilet and arm warmers, while Deignan, who hails from Yorkshire, is perfectly happy in a skinsuit.

Our race leader is still solo as she goes under 10km to go. Brown is dangling about 25" behind.

Deignan looks smooth with about 25" to Brown who is riding hard, but the gaps haven't changed for a few kilometres.

Race leader Lizzie Deignan is onto the descent with a little over 30 seconds advantage over Grace Brown.

The steep gradient of the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons is taking some prisoners.

Grace Brown (Mitchelton-Scott) attacks her fellow chasers and eats hungrily into the gap. She's 40 seconds from the front.

Deignan's gap is over a minute as the road begins to tilt upwards. Could it be over?

Marlen Reusser accelerates from the chasing group (+50") but she's covered by Ellen van Dijk, riding for her teammate out front.

Deignan now has about 2'20" over the peloton, where they're making Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope) do all the work.

The eight riders who watched Deignan ride away are happy to ride together about 55 seconds behind the leader.

Lizzie Deignan has 1'35" over the peloton. It looks like she's barely having to breathe as the roads begin to dry out.

The Parkhotel Valkenberg rider, one of the only riders in short sleeves, accelerates from the peloton. This is a rider on form, third at Fleche Wallonne on Wednesday and third at last year's Liege too.

Lizzie Deignan is off the front alone!

The breakaway are still wrapped up warm, but their shadows have joined them on La Redoute.

We join the race with a little under 45km to go, and nine immensely strong riders are out front with over a minute's lead. Two key climbs to go, including La Redoute!

The nine riders are Ellen van Dijk and Lizzie Deignan (Trek Segafredo), Grace Brown (Mitchelton-Scott), Juliette Labous (Sunweb), Amy Pieters (Boels-Dolmans), Katrine Aalerud (Movistar Team), Hannah Barnes (Canyon SRAM), Marlen Reusser (Equipe Paule Ka) and Marianne Vos (CCC).

A small group has an advantage of about 55" on the Cote de la Vacquee.

Can anyone beat newly crowned world champ, Anna van der Breggen? She won both the first and second editions of this race - the first with that incredible Ardennes triple crown in 2017.

Annemiek van Vleuten is the defending champion of Liege-Bastogne-Liege and we've learned not to write her off. Even a broken wrist can't seem to keep her off the podium. She's swapped the rainbow for the stars of European Champion so she (still) can't be missed.

There were some splits early on, but it’s all still together and they are flying! The peloton was 7 minutes ahead of the fastest schedule as they took on the first climb of the day, the Côte de Wanne.

The fourth edition of the epic classic left Bastogne in pretty horrible conditions. Everyone was wrapped up in multiple layers and rain jackets, some even opting for leg warmers. At least the chances of snow – often associated with an April L-B-L – were slim to none…

Welcome to the live blog of a very wet women's Liege-Bastogne-Liege.