Description
April 17, 2024
La Flèche Wallonne 2024 🇧🇪 – Charleroi – Huy : 198,6 km
La Flèche Wallonne is the first of the two one-day races that bring the curtains down on the Spring Classics.
Show more...
April 17, 2024
La Flèche Wallonne 2024 🇧🇪 – Charleroi – Huy : 198,6 km
La Flèche Wallonne is the first of the two one-day races that bring the curtains down on the Spring Classics. The race takes place on Wednesday, 17 April in the French-speaking Wallonne region of Belgium. Year after year, the race provides an explosive, albeit expected final sprint up the punishingly steep Mur de Huy. The is unique in the WorldTour as the only one-day race which concludes on a finishing climb on the fearsome 20+ per cent gradients of the Mur de Huy. While the race is not a Monument, and doesn’t have the unpredictability that other more beloved Classics have, the final climb makes this race a spectacle every year.
Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) soared to the biggest win of his career on the steep slopes of the Mur de Huy to score the victory at La Flèche Wallonne.
The Welshman powered home with a huge acceleration with 300 metres left of the steep1.3km climb to beat Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-Samsic) and Maxim Van Gils (Lotto-Dstny) to the line at the end of the attritional 199km race.
The podium trio were part of a much-reduced 35-man peloton which battled up the final of four ascents of the Mur de Huy after a day of heavy rain and even snow at times as the peloton fell to pieces over the famous wall and four further ascents of the Côte d’Ereffe.
Williams was among the front third of the group as the riders made their way up the opening kilometre of the final climb as the likes of Benoît Cosnefroy (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), Richard Carapaz (EF Education-Easypost), and Toms Skujinš (Lidl-Trek) led the way at the front.
He’d make his winning move just past the 300-metre to go marker, finding a space up the outside of Johannessen to accelerate away from the group and build a gap. There was no immediate response from those behind, though Cosnefroy would lead the chase into the final 175 metres.
Vauquelin, Van Gils, and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) were also up there attempting to close the gap as Williams kept pushing on around the final bend and onto the flatter finishing straight.
However, his first acceleration was too much for any rivals to match, and his advantage was too big to close down, leaving him to sprint home and claim Israel-Premier Tech’s fourth WorldTour win of 2024.
22-year-old rising star Vauquelin ended up in second place just metres behind Williams, while Van Gils led home Cosnefroy and Buitrago three seconds behind.
“What a day. I’m so happy right now. I can’t believe I just won Fleche!” Williams said after the race. “I’ve been watching this race for years and I’ve always wanted to come here with decent legs to try and win it. Today with the weather – I do enjoy racing this kind of weather and to come away with a victory – I’m just over the moon.
“The boys backed me all day and they gave me the best chance to try and to result today and to come away with the win here is special, really special.
“There was a bit of a like a block on the road like everyone was just kind of waiting, and I just saw the 300 metres to go and I thought if I can get a jump here and you know put five to 10 seconds into the group and see the line in front of you then I think it’d be a good chance to hold on and I was looking around a bit and I was a bit like because the legs are empty but really happy to hold on and win.
“I’m exhausted and lost for words, quite emotional really. It’s just a really hard sport and to win bike races is hard. Especially here in these Classics. So yeah, I’m really happy.”
Results :
 soared to the biggest win of his career on the steep slopes of the Mur de Huy to score the victory at La Flèche Wallonne.
The Welshman powered home with a huge acceleration with 300 metres left of the steep1.3km climb to beat Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-Samsic) and Maxim Van Gils (Lotto-Dstny) to the line at the end of the attritional 199km race.
The podium trio were part of a much-reduced 35-man peloton which battled up the final of four ascents of the Mur de Huy after a day of heavy rain and even snow at times as the peloton fell to pieces over the famous wall and four further ascents of the Côte d’Ereffe.
Williams was among the front third of the group as the riders made their way up the opening kilometre of the final climb as the likes of Benoît Cosnefroy (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), Richard Carapaz (EF Education-Easypost), and Toms Skujinš (Lidl-Trek) led the way at the front.
He’d make his winning move just past the 300-metre to go marker, finding a space up the outside of Johannessen to accelerate away from the group and build a gap. There was no immediate response from those behind, though Cosnefroy would lead the chase into the final 175 metres.
Vauquelin, Van Gils, and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) were also up there attempting to close the gap as Williams kept pushing on around the final bend and onto the flatter finishing straight.
However, his first acceleration was too much for any rivals to match, and his advantage was too big to close down, leaving him to sprint home and claim Israel-Premier Tech’s fourth WorldTour win of 2024.
22-year-old rising star Vauquelin ended up in second place just metres behind Williams, while Van Gils led home Cosnefroy and Buitrago three seconds behind.
“What a day. I’m so happy right now. I can’t believe I just won Fleche!” Williams said after the race. “I’ve been watching this race for years and I’ve always wanted to come here with decent legs to try and win it. Today with the weather – I do enjoy racing this kind of weather and to come away with a victory – I’m just over the moon.
“The boys backed me all day and they gave me the best chance to try and to result today and to come away with the win here is special, really special.
“There was a bit of a like a block on the road like everyone was just kind of waiting, and I just saw the 300 metres to go and I thought if I can get a jump here and you know put five to 10 seconds into the group and see the line in front of you then I think it’d be a good chance to hold on and I was looking around a bit and I was a bit like because the legs are empty but really happy to hold on and win.
“I’m exhausted and lost for words, quite emotional really. It’s just a really hard sport and to win bike races is hard. Especially here in these Classics. So yeah, I’m really happy.”
<strong>Results : </strong>
<iframe width="100%" height="730" scrolling="yes" frameborder="0" data-lazy-priority="low" data-lazy-src="https://firstcycling.com/widget/?r=10&y=2024&lang=EN&cn=1" src="https://firstcycling.com/widget/?r=10&y=2024&lang=EN&cn=1"></iframe>)
