La Flèche Wallonne

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2011 route
The target ascent on the wall of Huy

La Flèche Wallonne (to German: Walloon Arrow ) is a year since 1936 (except 1940) in the Walloon part of Belgium being transmitted road race , which by the Société du Tour de France will be held. The classic one-day race was one for three years to the newly introduced in 2005 UCI ProTour , a series of the most important cycling race of the year. Since 2011 the race has been part of the successor series UCI WorldTour .

La Flèche Wallonne is one of the important spring classics of cycling , but has always been somewhat overshadowed by the even more prestigious Liège – Bastogne – Liège race , which is always held four days later. Both races are traditionally referred to as the "weekend ardennais". Recently, the Amstel Gold Race that took place previously has also been counted as part of the “Ardennes Week”.

route

In the first three years, the demanding race between Tournai and Liège took place through the hilly country of the Belgian Ardennes and was up to 300 km long. Until 1986 alternating routes were chosen that were never longer than 250 km. According to the rules of the UCI , the race has not been allowed to be longer than 200 km since the mid-1990s. After Charleroi was the starting point of the race for many years , it was relocated to Ans in 2019 .

The most important characteristic of the route profile is the destination in Huy . The goal is at the end of the so-called Wall of Huy (French: Mur de Huy), a difficult climb of around 1.3 km in length. The “wall” with its gradient of 10% on average, a maximum of 27% for the decision of this bike race is mostly of decisive importance.

A Flèche Wallonne for women has been held since 1993 , which last ran over 98 km. The race was part of the women's cycling world cup until 2004 . The women's race was added to the calendar of the newly launched UCI Women's WorldTour in 2016 .

Palmarès

Men

Until the 1970s, the race was clearly determined by Belgians. Since then, the list of winners has internationalized. With five wins, the Spaniard Alejandro Valverde is the most successful arrow driver . The Belgians Marcel Kint and Eddy Merckx , as well as the Italians Moreno Argentin and Davide Rebellin can claim three wins each .

Women

Since 1998, the classic has also been carried out for women. So far, the Dutch Marianne Vos and Anna van der Breggen have each won the race five times and the British Nicole Cooke and the Italian Fabiana Luperini have each won the race three times.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ La Fléche Wallone this time with three finish laps. In: radsport-news.com. January 22, 2019, accessed January 22, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Women's World Tour will replace the World Cup from 2016. radsport-news.com, September 25, 2015, accessed October 24, 2015 .

Web links

Commons : La Flèche Wallonne  - Collection of images, videos and audio files