More than 50 riders split off the front early in Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday morning, and Paul Seixas was not in the move. Tadej Pogačar also missed the breakaway as the 260-kilometre monument began to shake itself apart in the opening 10 km.
The front group pulled out 3:30 before the final 180 km, with UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Decathlon chasing their riders behind the split. The size of the move mattered because it formed before the race had really settled, turning the first signs of action into a major gap on a day that had barely started.
That front group was not just a collection of escapees. It included Remco Evenepoel, with Nico Denz in his company, along with Egan Bernal and Laurens De Plus, a spread of riders from several top teams that made the break unusually significant. The live image had not yet started when the information emerged, but the names already in the move showed how quickly the race had moved beyond a routine early attack.
There were complications early for Ion Izagirre and Andrea Vendrame, adding to the sense that the opening kilometres were doing more damage than the profile alone might suggest. In a race as demanding as Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the first 10 km can be enough to decide who spends the day chasing and who spends it shaping the result.
For Paul Seixas, the missed breakaway leaves him outside the move that set the tone. For the teams behind it, the next task was simple but not easy: close down a large and dangerous group before the race’s hardest roads could turn a gap into something much bigger.
