This Sunday brings us the last Monument of this year’s spring campaign: Lige-Bastogne-Lige. Ed Hood runs a keen eye over the long, star studded history of La Doyene, examines the course and picks the winner for the 2015 Walloon Classic. The PEZ Lige preview. Luik Bastenaken Luik they call it up in Flanders; Lige Bastogne Lige down in French speaking Wallonia. La Doyenne is her Sunday name, meaning; A woman who is the eldest or senior member of a group. With this being the 101st edition its hard to argue with that definition bearing in mind that nine editions were lost to the two World Wars with the Ardennes parcours the scene of the Battle of the Bulge the last, desperate German counter-attack of the World War Two. Milan Sanremo may be longer; Paris Roubaix crazier and Lombardy more beautiful, but Lige is the certainly the oldest first run as an amateur race in 1892 – and arguably, the toughest.The parcoursThe route does as it says on the tin; the 253 kilometres start by heading south out of post-industrial Liege (main town of the province which bears its name) to Bastogne (rather confusingly situated in the Belgian province of Luxembourg) and back again to finish at a disappointing and drab retail park in the Lige suburb of Ans which happens to be at the top of an endless climb past defunct factories, mine workers houses, shops and garages.Its arguable that Ans has stilted the race to an extent with most...
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