While waiting to know the seriousness of the injury of the French, apparently mainly affected in the back, the Quick-Step team celebrated the great performance of Evenepoel, author of a large-scale offensive in the last 30 kilometers.

A year after the success of Slovenian Tadej Pogacar (absent on Sunday), the winner of the Tour de France barely a few months older during his victorious sprint in a small committee in 2021.

Evenepoel, to whom an entire country promises a great destiny despite his serious fall in August 2020, took over on the list of Belgian victories from Philippe Gilbert.

Eleven years later, Gilbert took part in the Doyenne for the last time, as did the Spanish veteran Alejandro Valverde, four times victorious and again placed on the Quai des Ardennes (7th) on Sunday.

On this festive day for Belgian cycling, two other national riders climbed the podium.

Quinten Hermans, a cyclo-cross specialist, settled the sprint for second place, 48 seconds behind the winner, ahead of Belgian champion Wout van Aert, who was making his debut in the Doyenne.

The joy of Belgian Remco Evenepoel, winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, in front of his compatriots Quinten Hermans (g) and Wout Van Aert, April 24, 2022 ERIC LALMAND Belga / AFP

Another beginner on roads that he knows by heart, Evenepoel got everyone to agree with a violent start at the top of the Côte de la Redoute.

Behind him, the pursuit led most often by the hitherto ubiquitous Bahrain team placed the group about forty seconds at the foot of the last hill, Roche-aux-Faucons, where Evenepoel distanced the last survivor of the morning breakaway, Frenchman Bruno Armirail.

Bardet's gesture

"I had chills on the climb," said Evenepoel, very moved at the finish, about the ovations of a public who consider him a prodigy since his demonstrations in the junior category and his sensational debut at the age of 19, in the elite, when he won the Clasica San Sebastian.

His memorable crash in a downhill Tour of Lombardy the following summer added to interest in the former footballer, who later came to cycling.

His actions and gestures are dissected, his technical weaknesses (especially in the descents) analyzed, at the risk of excessive pressure for him to succeed Lucien Van Impe, the last Belgian winner of the Tour de France in 1976.

For the time being, Evenepoel is relishing the success that saved the hitherto failed spring of its Quick-Step team in the classics.

"It's the race of my dreams", had repeated the young Belgian before the start of the 257 kilometers, convinced that the Doyenne, by its demanding profile (4500 m of elevation gain) and the repetition of the coasts in the deep valleys of the Ardennes , could suit him.

"I can say today that I have returned to my best level and that I am among the best in the world," said the winner of the day.

"He was the strongest, it was impossible to reach him," admitted van Aert, satisfied with his third place.

Especially after being slightly off the chase group in Roche-aux-Faucons, the ultimate difficulty which sounded the death knell for the hopes of Benoît Cosnefroy (24th) and Valentin Madouas (34th).

The other French chances had disappeared in the big crash that occurred downhill 60 kilometers from the finish for a whole part of the peloton.

Mainly Julian Alaphilippe, thrown a few meters from the road and rescued initially by Romain Bardet.

The French Julian Alaphilippe, before his fall, accompanied by his teammate, and future winner, the Belgian Remco Evenepoel, during the classic Liège-Bastogne-Liège, April 24, 2022 ERIC LALMAND Belga / AFP

"We don't cycle for that," reacted Bardet.

"The last time I saw such a fall was the fall of William Bonnet on the Tour in 2015".

© 2022 AFP