Liege - Bastogne - Liege 1980

The weather intervened throughout the race from start to finish. ^[1] Only 21 riders out of 174 starting were able to get to the finish line. ^[2]

Peloton began the race in a raging blizzard. After the first hour of the race, more than half of all start-ups retired. ^[3] After another hour, about 60 riders also left the race. Thus, the race was continued by one third of the starting athletes. ^[one]

Two riders, Rudy Pevinazh and Ludo Peters , broke away from the broken peloton and gained an advantage of 2'15 "from the rest on the rise of Stockeu . ^{[3] [4]} Bernard Eno teamed up with Silvano Contini and Henk Labberding , and after a 20-kilometer chase leaders on the Haute Levée climb. 80 km to the finish, Ino went solo ahead on the snowy roads and proceeded to the finish line in Liege. ^[3] After seven hours of the race at freezing temperatures, he finished almost 10 minutes before the second prize winner Henny Kuiper and won his second victory at Liege-Bastogne Liege after 1977. ^[5]

The race was extremely difficult due to weather conditions: it was snowing from the very beginning, and the temperature was close to the freezing point, which led commentators to call it “Neige-Bastogne-Neige“ (“Snow-Bastogne-Snow” “Snow “Bastogne is Snow.”) ^[6] Many media have called it the worst weather in the Ardennes in the history of Liege-Bastogne-Liege. ^[3]

A feature of the published British magazine Procycling in 2000 described the notorious race: ^[7]

The cold wind that blew in Belgium brought snow flakes, and then heavy snow that began to fall at the start of the race. [...] The riders tried their best to cover the road with their hands over their faces. The race was faceless due to the mass of jackets and windbreakers. Spectators stood in glasses, like elite snowmen, red-faced in bitterness. Within an hour, some teams barely left one rider in the race. They go two drops at a time. Among them were racers such as Gianbattista Baronkelli and Giuseppe Saronni , Lucien van Impe and Jean-René Bernado .

Original text

A cold wind that blew across Belgium brought snow flakes and then a heavy fall within moments of the race starting. [...] Riders struggled on, with hands to faces to keep a view on the road. The race was an anonymous mass of plastic jackets and windcheaters. Spectators stood in goggles like upmarket snowmen, red-faced in the bitterness. Within the hour some teams had barely a man left on the road. They pulled out two dozen at a time, men like Gibi Baronchelli and Giuseppe Saronni, Lucien Van Impe and Jean-René Bernaudeau.

Ino was one of the 21 riders who completed the race. He received a frostbite of two fingers on his right hand, it took three weeks to restore their correct mobility, ^[7] and this affects to this day. ^[one]

• Official site
• Liege - Bastogne - Liege 1980 at ProCyclingStats
• Liege - Bastogne - Liege 1980 at Cycling Archives