page_title: 2015 Liège–Bastogne–Liège
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: 2015 Liège–Bastogne–Liège / Background
caption_attribution_description: The Belgian cyclist Eddy Merckx arriving at the start of the 22nd stage of the Giro d'Italia Tirano-Milan. Tirano, 11th June 1967
context_page_description: The 2015 Liège–Bastogne–Liège was a one-day cycling classic that took place in the Belgian Ardennes on 26 April 2015. It was the 101st edition of the Liège–Bastogne–Liège one-day cycling race and was the fourth cycling monument of the 2015 season. It was part of the 2015 UCI World Tour and was organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation, who also organise the Tour de France.
  200 riders raced over a 253-kilometre route that started in Liège, travelled south to Bastogne, then returned north by an indirect route to finish in Ans on the outskirts of Liège. The route included many hills, especially in the final 70 kilometres, which were the principal difficulty in the race.
  There were many attacks in the final part of the race, with several groups breaking away from the peloton and subsequently being caught. A small group came together on the final ascent to the finish line, where the race was decided in a sprint. It was won by the pre-race favourite, Alejandro Valverde, ahead of Julian Alaphilippe and Joaquim Rodríguez. This was Valverde's third victory in Liège–Bastogne–Liège and put him into the lead of the World Tour standings.
context_section_description: Liège–Bastogne–Liège was established in 1892 and is one of the oldest races on the cycling calendar. Milano–Torino is the only current race to have begun earlier, although it did not exist as a regular event until the 1920s. Liège–Bastogne–Liège was founded as a precursor to a planned Liège–Paris–Liège event, which never came about, but eventually became one of the most important races on the cycling calendar in its own right. The race has come to be seen as one of the cycling Monuments, alongside Milan–San Remo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris–Roubaix and the Giro di Lombardia. Because Liège–Bastogne–Liège is the oldest of the major races on the cycling calendar, it has been given the nickname La Doyenne (English: The Old Lady). It is particularly known as a race where the best one-day riders and the best Grand Tour riders can compete on relatively equal terms. In his book The Monuments, Peter Cossins wrote that Liège–Bastogne–Liège "is generally regarded as the toughest one-day race on the calendar". Eddy Merckx holds the record for the most victories: he won five times between 1969 and 1975.
  Liège–Bastogne–Liège was the fourth of the Monuments to take place in the 2015 season. Milan–San Remo and Paris–Roubaix has been won by John Degenkolb (Team Giant–Alpecin), while the Tour of Flanders was won by Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha). Liège–Bastogne–Liège was the final event of the spring classics season and came as the conclusion to the Ardennes classics, following the Amstel Gold Race and La Flèche Wallonne. It was also part of the 2015 UCI World Tour, a season-long competition that included both one-day events and stage races.
caption: Eddy Merckx, photographed here during the 1967 Giro d'Italia, holds the record for the most wins in Liège–Bastogne–Liège.
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