Of the teams starting Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Israel Premier Tech has the most to lose and the most to gain, facing relegation from the WorldTour in 2023 when the UCI limits the top teams to 18 and Lot Soudal and his cap. They are battling to stay in the race, leaving it up to 2019 winner Jacob Fuglsang and 2018 runner-up Michael Woods to turn the team's fortunes around.

Woods, 35, won a stage at the Gran Camino in February, but he and Fuglsang have been sick for the past few weeks, according to the team's pre-race press release. Woods finished 6th in La Flèche Wallonne, showing that he is back on track.

"I was sixth in La Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday," Woods said in an interview with CyclingPro. "My legs were really good, but I had a little bit of bad luck on the run-in. I feel very optimistic about tomorrow. With the way the leg is going, there's no reason why I can't be successful on Sunday."

The change to the Liege-Bastogne-Liege course, with the finish in Liege instead of near Anse, the removal of the Côte des Forges from the last 30km (due to damage caused by the flooding last July), and the flat run-in suited his strengths better than the old route The Canadians said that it suited them better.

"With the exception of my first year when I broke my hand, I've finished in the top 10 in every one of these races," Woods said. 'One of my best career finishes was second here in 2018. It's my favorite race and it's very competitive. I don't really like the new course because it doesn't suit my skills, but it's a great place to finish. I like to finish in Liège, not near Carrefour," Woods said. The finish line in Ans was adjacent to the Hypermarché Carrefour grocery store.

Teammate Fuglsang also spoke to CyclingPro and agreed that the downhill run-in to the flat finish was tactically tricky, but indicated that a similar finish could win in 2019.

"Of course, it's a little harder than previous Ans finishes, but not impossible," Fuglsang said. 'The race should be much more difficult from a distance.' This year's parcours has a small climb after La Redoute.

"I don't know how we will fight yet, but we have a strong team and we certainly have two guys who can fight for the win with me and Woods in the final. I think we're both in good shape. Maybe not as good as we want to be, but we're getting there and we're showing some good things. I think we can play both cards in the final and hopefully that will be the key to winning."

Woods agreed that the race needs to break up early for the team to have a chance at victory.

"We have guys like Wout Van Art here and other really strong players. Especially with the headwind of the Roche aux Fauchons. We have to be aggressive and we can't take it into a sprint race.

Israel Premier Tec is 68 points ahead of Lotto Soudal and 46 points ahead of Cofidis in the three-year ranking. A podium finish would guarantee the team a future on the World Tour. The winner of Liège will receive 500 UCI points, second place will receive 400 points, and third place will receive 325 UCI points.