Taddei Pogachar heads into Liège-Bastogne-Liège as one of the few superstars to have made it through the first few months of the 2024 season unscathed. At the pre-race press conference, Pogachar said he will miss having Remco Evenpole, winner of the last two La Doyenne races, at the starting line. [He loves this race. Pogachar said, "I love this race too, it was interesting, but I hate cycling sometimes."

Pogachar may have been lucky to have escaped the turmoil of the Giro d'Italia, where Wout Van Aert (Visma Lease-a-Bike) crashed and teammates Jonas Vingegaard and Srdal-Quickstep's Evenpole suffered broken bones. The Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France were the two most important events of the season. This season's race was shortened to just nine days so that he could be fresh for the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France conquests.

Still, he is one of the main contenders for Liège-Bastogne-Liège with his impressive solo victory at Strade Bianche and his stunning win at Volta a Catalunya. In Evenpoel's absence, Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin Desseuninck) has stepped up to add the oldest monument to his record and will likely be his biggest rival, along with Amstel Gold Race winner Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers)!

Start list.

Despite the quality of his start list, Pogachar would rather let all of his rivals fight it out.

"It's much more satisfying when the best of the best in cycling are in the race and winning," he said.

The same can be said for the Tour de France. Pogachar has finished second to Vingegaard the last two times, and he hopes Vingegaard recovers in time, even if the crash that left the Dane with a broken bone and punctured lung improves his chances of winning the Giro-Tour double.

"I always want to race with the best, and Jonas is probably the best climber in the world and always the best in the Tour.

"In my experience, even if you are ready to ride the bike, your body needs a very long time to recover. Even if you want to push, your body needs to recover from a breakdown or damage. So it definitely affects my readiness, and it affects my mentality as well.

"I want to recover as quickly as possible and get to the high altitude training camp as soon as possible to prepare for the Tour. I know there is still time before the Tour, but time is ticking away."

Pogachar, winner of the Tour de Flanders, La Flèche Wallonne, and Amstel Gold Race, was the favorite to win last year's Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but a fall early in the race forced him to leave the race for several weeks with a broken wrist.

"It was completely my fault. I was concentrating on saving as much energy as possible and looking behind my teammate Vega [Vegard Stake Rengen]. So when Mikel Honoré crashed, I couldn't avoid it. So it was completely my mistake."

Van Aert's crash at Dwar door Hlaanderen and the mass crash of Vingegaard, Evenpole, and Primos Roglic at Itzria-Basque were "two of the most terrifying crashes ever," he said.

"It wasn't nice to see a big, big crash and see people just lie there and stay still, not even moving on the ground.

The athletes criticized the Pogachar for including this descent in the Dwar door Hlaanderen and for failing to protect the corner where Vingegaard fell into a concrete culvert, but the Pogachar placed some of the blame on the peloton.

"Cycling is a very dangerous sport. I hope everyone knows that. Every year I get faster, my equipment gets faster, and I push the limits of my body and my bike. You get faster and faster on all the downhills, uphills, and flat sections, and with the added fatigue of the body, there is usually a crash," he said.

"I see a lot of riders blaming the organizers, but sometimes it is purely the rider's fault.

Pogachar also knows a little something about speed, having attacked at Strade Bianche and won the 82km solo. Van der Pol then won the Tour of Flanders with a 45km solo ride and Paris-Roubaix with a 60km solo ride.

He did not expect to do the same in Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

"This race is not Roubaix, it is not Strade. This race is not Roubaix and it is not Strade. So I think it will be quite difficult to go early."

He added that the climbs would make it difficult for Van der Pol to win.

"This race is more suited to climbers than to heavier riders like Mathieu. There are a lot of attacks from afar and you never know what will happen."

"You need a good team to control it, but I think there are a lot of competitors. The guys who raced in Flèche and Amstel - the top 10-15 guys - all have good legs and can manage the short climbs. So we can't let up in the last 100 km."

Seeing his rivals suffering in the freezing cold and rain of La Flèche Wallonne, Pogachar did not regret skipping the race and training in sunny, 20°C Spain.

The weather on Wednesday was so bad that Matthias Skjelmors (Lidl-Trek), who Pogachar said was his first bet to win in Flèche, had to abandon the race because he suffered from hypothermia and could not stop shivering. He and Flesch's winner, Stevie Williams (Israel Premier Tech), said they had already proven they were in good shape.

"We can expect a good race from them. As for Matthias, if he doesn't get too cold ...... I felt sorry for him on Wednesday. I think he will be a little more clothed for Sunday, so we can expect him to do well in the race," he joked.

Pogachar did not rule out working for teammate Marc Hirschi, who finished second in the Amstel Gold Race. This was like what Van der Pol did for teammate Jasper Philipsen in Milan-San Remo, which he called "the poetry of cycling."

"The UAE team has given me so much in the last six years. It's like the poetry of cycling, like Van der Pol did for San Remo. He knew that Philipson would be there and he had the best sprints. It was a very good choice."

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