Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert mong best riders of spring Classics – but what about biggest disappointments?

With just a single top-10 finish in Monuments going into Sunday’s Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl were feeling the pressure ahead of La Doyenne. After the horrific mass pile-up that ended Julian Alaphilippe’s chances and sent the French world champion to hospital, it looked like the Belgian team’s terrible run would continue – only for Remco Evenepoel to put in a timely reminder of his stardom with a pulverising attack on La Redoute to save Patrick Lefevere’s bacon.

On the whole, Quick-Step – and even more so, their Belgian counterparts Lotto Soudal – had a dire spring, but the whole period clearly benefitted from there being no single dominant rider or team. Ineos Grenadiers emerged as a whopping Classics force to be reckoned with – but they didn’t dominate the entire block of one-day races in the same way that the Sky team of old monopolised the annual pursuit of yellow in the Tour de France.

Ad/> Evenepoel soars to sensational win after nasty Alaphilippe crash Van Vleuten solos to sensational win at Liege-Bastogne-Liege Liège — Bastogne — LiègeOpinion: Evenepoel is back and on his way to greatness once again18 HOURS AGO And while Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel were once again right at the top of the pack, both aces had their campaigns momentarily curtailed by illness, fatigue or a late return to action. The real winners were the fans, who were treated to some superb, full-on racing from a bunch of riders boasting so many huge talents and attacking livewires.