After two second places, Grace Brown produced a superb performance by winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège women after a six-person sprint. The Australian is ahead of Elisa Longo Borghini and Demi Vollering.
Still unable to win this season, Demi Vollering wanted to overcome the Indian sign this Sunday by presenting itself at the start of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, a race which it had won twice, including last year’s edition. In front of her, Katarzyna Niewiadomawho had just been full of confidence by winning the Flèche wallonne this Wednesday, the greatest victory of his career, undoubtedly represented his greatest threat with Elisha Long Borghinirunner-up last year.
After several not really coordinated attacks, a group of nine riders managed to open up an interesting gap and still had a lead of almost three minutes before the climb of the Côte de La Redoute. This climb inevitably hurt many riders at the front but also in the peloton which was no longer very strong at the top.
If the gap between the peloton and the leading trio composed ofElise Chabbey (editor’s note: 5th in 2023), Grace Brown et Kim Cadzow was falling constantly, it was still almost two minutes after the Côte des Forges, so the risk was real that the favorites would be trapped. At the foot of Roche-aux-Faucons, the gap had just fallen below a minute.
Longo Borghini was the first favorite to come out of the box, well followed by Vollering and Niewiadoma. Despite their acceleration, the three runners were still around thirty seconds behind at the top and therefore could not afford to wait if they still wanted to win. They finally returned eight kilometers from the finish when there was no longer the slightest difficulty. Everything ultimately came down to a sprint between the six runners.
After a big effort from Niewiadoma, Longo Borghini launched her sprint before being overtaken by Brown who took the opportunity to win the best victory of her career. Yet the fastest, Vollering was very poorly placed at the start of the sprint and therefore could not do better than third place.
