2015 Liège–Bastogne–Liège
| 2015 UCI World Tour, race 13 of 28 | |||||||||||||
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The riders on the podium after the race
(from left to right: Julian Alaphilippe, Alejandro Valverde and Joaquim Rodríguez) |
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| Race details | |||||||||||||
| Dates | 26 April 2015 | ||||||||||||
| Stages | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Distance | 253 km (157.2 mi) | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 6h 14' 20" | ||||||||||||
| Results | |||||||||||||
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| Winner |
 Alejandro Valverde (ESP)
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(Movistar Team) | |
| Second |
 Julian Alaphilippe (FRA)
|
(Etixx–Quick-Step) | |
| Third |
Joaquim Rodríguez (ESP)
|
(Team Katusha) |
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 (ASO), who also organise the Tour de France.
200 riders raced over a 253-kilometre (157 mi) 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 (43 mi), 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 (Movistar Team), ahead of Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx–Quick-Step) and Joaquim Rodríguez (Team Katusha). This was Valverde's third victory in Liège–Bastogne–Liège and put him into the lead of the World Tour standings.
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.
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