ABU DHABI, 23rd April, 2025 (WAM) -- The UAE Team Emirates-XRG has announced its full lineup for the "Lige-Bastogne-Lige" race, one of the most prestigious classic cycling races in the world, which is set to take place early next week in Belgium.

The UAE Team Emirates-XRG lineup for Lige-Bastogne-Lige is as follows Felix Groschartner (Austria), Vegard Stake Laengen (Norway), Brandon McNulty (USA), Domen Novak (Slovenia), Pavel Sivakov (France) and Florian Vermeersch (Belgium).

Three weeks after the last of his eight Monument victories to date, Tadej Pogaar will lead UAE Team Emirates-XRG at this weekend's Lige-Bastogne-Lige in Belgium. The grand old race will round out this year's spring Classics and see the world's best go head to head once more before attention turns to the Grand Tour season.

With a second-place finish at the Amstel Gold Race on Sunday, Pogaar showed himself up for the fight in the s Ardennes Classics, with some of the region's toughest climbs to come over the double-header of La Flche Wallonne and the Monument known as La Doyenne.

In Spain, meanwhile, UAE Team Emirates-XRG will head to the Vuelta Asturias Julio Alvarez Mendo, with an eye on retaining the title won through Isaac del Toro last season.

Although sitting as the final race of the week, Lige-Bastogne-Lige is likely to be the most hotly anticipated, with the 133-year-old race proving the oldest of cycling's five Monuments.

Over the years, Pogaar and UAE Team Emirates-XRG have won two editions, with victories in 2021 and 2024 serving as revenge for a third place in 2020 and the season-altering crash in 2023.

This time around, the Slovenian has enjoyed an uninterrupted Classics campaign that has seen him win Strade Bianche and the Tour of Flanders, adding to podium finishes at Milano-Sanremo, Paris-Roubaix and the Amstel Gold Race. The world champion took the cycling world by storm in finishing second at Paris-Roubaix on debut, but he will be on more familiar terrain in La Doyenne.

Taking in 4,400m of climbing across 251.8km, the route for Lige-Bastogne-Lige remains the same from recent years, with nine of the eleven categorised climbs falling within the final 100km of racing. In days gone by, it was the Cote de Stockeu which would be most feared by all, with Eddy Merckx making this particular climb his playground in his heyday.

Now sitting on eight Monument victories, the world champion is looking forward to another couple of one-day showdowns before all attention turns to this summer's Tour de France preparation.

Pogaar commented, "I've enjoyed this Classics campaign a lot so far. I came into this period with a lot of goals and ambitions and there are still two left, with the biggest of them next Sunday. The most suited race for me is probably Liege so I'm really looking forward to it in particular, but every race is important."