In the history of the Flèche Walloon it has often happened that the winner of the Amstel Gold Race also repeated the second Ardennes Classic on the following Wednesday and for this reason Tom Pidcock can be considered the most highly rated runner for the victory at the Waalse Pijl.
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The Briton was the author of a beautiful victory at the Beer Classic last Sunday and considering his excellent form and being a light and explosive weight, he is certainly the best rider to overcome the Huy Wall without too many difficulties. In reality, the Briton has never been on the podium in this race, but after last Sunday’s success, this time he could be the one to raise his arms on the finish line.
Also Dylan Teuns he could do well today, considering he had excellent legs in the Tour of Flanders and the Brabant Arrow. Furthermore, he has already shown that the Wall of Huy is within his reach, finishing third in 2017 and first in 2022.
UAE Emirates won last year with Tadej Pogacar, but this year the Slovenian will only be at the start of Liège-Bastogne-Liège and for this reason the captaincy passes directly to Marc Hirschi, who came first in Huy in 2020. The Swiss seems to have rediscovered his 2020 form and last Sunday he finished second in the Amstel Gold Race, behind Pidcock. Always with the colors of UAE Emirates will be there Juan Ayuso who, having had no luck in the Netherlands, could find redemption in this race. Then there is also Mattias Skjelmose who last year came second behind Pogacar. The Dane from Lidl-Trek has performed well so far and he too could win on the Huy wall.
Looking at Benoît Cosnefroy, after a disappointing 2022, the Frenchman is back to doing well and demonstrated it at the Tour des Alpes-Maritimes and Paris-Camember, he finished sixth at Strade Bianche, he also won the Freccia del Brabant, so he could be a capable rider to win. Among the hosts we find Maxim Van Gils: the twenty-four year old Belgian finished eighth on the Wall of Huy last year and something important could happen for him too at the Flèche Wallonne.
There are also other Belgians to keep an eye on, besides Teuns and Van Gils and this is how we find Tiesj Benoot, third in Sunday’s Amstel Gold Race and Mauri Vansevenant fourth in the Beer Classic.
In the list of possible winners, we must put Alexander Vlasov, third at the Freccia in 2022, but also Michael Woodswho finished fourth twice in this race and finished third in 2020.
There are many other runners who should be mentioned, among them Paul Lapeira (Decathlon AG2R La World), Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious), Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X), Andreas Kron (Lotto Dstny), Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Bauke Mollema, Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek), Quentin Pacher, Romain Grégoire, Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla), Ben Healy and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost).
PATH
From Charleroi to Huy, the kilometers to run will be 198.6 and the big news of this edition will be tackling the iconic Huy Wall, no longer three times, but even four times. The Wall, 1.3 km long with gradients of 9.6%, is the symbol of the Waalse Pijl and will be the main obstacle, particularly now that the Côte de Cherave has been removed.
The local circuit has also been changed and the start will no longer be the same. In the last edition the runners started from Hervé, but this time the start will be given from Charleroi. In the first part of the route, we will see only one categorized climb, it is the Côte d’Yvoir (2.1 km at 5.5%).
After almost ninety kilometers of the race you will enter the final circuit which will have to be completed four times, but it will be a little easier than in other years, because one climb has been removed. You will then end up with the Côte d’Ereffe (2.1km at 5%) and the Wall of Huy. After the Côte de Cherave the group will no longer have wide roads to pick up a high pace and also for this reason the ending could be different than usual.
The Wall of Huy remains the key point of the race, but if the riders have not managed to break away on the last ascent, then the situation could get complicated. Timing will be fundamental on this climb to make the winning move and arrive in the last 200 meters, when the road clears, with the right advantage to be the winner.
THE DEPARTURES
UAE Team Emirates
1. HIRSCHI Marc
2. AYUSO Juan
3. FISHER-BLACK Finn
4. ALMEIDA João
5. MCNULTY Brandon
6. NOVAK Domen
7. ULISSI Diego
Lidl – Trek
11. SKJELMOSE Mattias
12. BAGIOLI Andrea
13. BERNARD Julien
14. KONRAD Patrick
15. MOLLEMA Bauke
16. OOMEN Sam
17. SKUJIŅŠ Toms
Soudal Quick-Step
21. VANSEVENANT Mauri
22. HUBY Antoine
23. KNOX James
24. REINDERINK Pepijn
25. SERRY Pieter
26. VAN WILDER Ilan
27. VERVAEKE Louis
Israel – Premier Tech
31. TEUNS Dylan
32. BENNETT George
33. CLARKE Simon
34. FUGLSANG Jakob
35. SCHULTZ Nick
36. STEWART Jake
37. WILLIAMS Stephen
Cofidis
41. IZAGIRRE Ion
42. FERNÁNDEZ Rubén
43. HERMANS Ben
44. HERRADA Jesus
45. IZAGIRRE Gorka
46. MARTIN Guillaume
47. PEREZ Anthony
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
51. BENOOT Tiesj
52. STAUNE-MITTET Johannes
53. VADER Milan
54. VAN BELLE Loe
55. VAN DER SANDE Tosh
56. VAN DIJKE Tim
57. VERMOTE Julien
Dstny Lot
61. VAN GILS Maxim
62. BERCKMOES Jenno
63. CURRIE Logan
64. DRIZNERS Jarrad
65. KRON Andreas
66. MONIQUET Sylvain
67. GREGAARD Jonas
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
71. VERMAERKE Kevin
72. DINHAM Matthew
73. EDDY Patrick
74. LEIJNSE Enzo
75. NABERMAN Tim
76. TUSVELD Martijn
77. VAN DEN BROEK Frank
Arkea – B&B Hotels
81. VAUQUELIN Kévin
82. BARRÉ Louis
83. CHAMPOUSSIN Clément
84. COSTIOU Ewen
85. DELAPLACE Anthony
86. GUGLIELMI Simon
87. HUYS Laurens
Movistar Team
91. LAZKANO Oier
92. ARANBURU Alex
93. ARCAS Jorge
94. CANAL Carlos
95. FORMULUS David
96. GARCÍA CORTINA Iván
97. ROMEO Iván
Bahrain – Victorious
101. BILBAO Pello
102. ARASHIRO Yukiya
103. BUITRAGO Santiago
104. BURATTI Nicolò
105. MIHOLJEVIĆ Fran
106. WIŚNIOWSKI Łukasz
107. ZAMBANINI Edward
Uno-X Mobility
111. JOHANNESSEN Tobias Halland
112. URIANSTAD LIES Martin
113. EIKING Odd Christian
114. HOELGAARD Markus
115. HOLTER Ådne
116. SKAARSETH Anders
117. LEKNESSUND Andreas
INEOS Grenadiers
121. PIDCOCK Thomas
122. DE PLUS Laurens
123. FRAILE Omar
124. HAYTER Ethan
125. KWIATKOWSKI Michał
126. RIVERA Brandon Smith
127. WURF Cameron
Alpecin – Deceuninck
131. LAURANCE Axel
132. HERMANS Quinten
133. HOLLMANN Juri
134. KRAGH ANDERSEN Søren
135. MEURISSE Xander
136. VERGALLITO Luke
137. VAN TRICHT Stan
EF Education – EasyPost
141. CARAPAZ Richard
142. DOULL Owain
143. HEALY Ben
144. HONORÉ Mikkel Frølich
145. RYAN Archie
146. SHAW James
147. SWEENY Harry
Team Jayco AlUla
151. MATTHEWS Michael
152. CRADDOCK Lawson
153. DE PRETTO David
154. DURBRIDGE Luke
155. FOLDAGER Anders
156. MAAS Jan
157. SCHMID Mauro
Groupama – FDJ
161. GAUDU David
162. GERMANI Lorenzo
163. GRÉGOIRE Romain
164. MADOUAS Valentin
165. PACHER Quentin
166. ROCHAS Rémy
167. RUSSO Clément
Intermarché – Wanty
171. BUSATTO Francesco
172. PLANCKAERT Baptiste
173. CALMEJANE Lilian
174. COLLEONI Kevin
175. PAQUOT Tom
176. ROTA Lorenzo
177. TAARAMÄE Rein
TotalEnergies
181. BURGAUDEAU Mathieu
182. DOUBEY Fabien
183. GRELLIER Fabien
184. JOUSSEAUME Alan
185. JEGAT Jordan
186. VUILLERMOZ Alexis
187. VERCHER Mattéo
Decathlon AG2R The World Team
191. COSNEFROY Benoît
192. ARMIRAIL Bruno
193. GODON Dorian
194. LABROSSE Jordan
195. LAPEIRA Paul
196. PRODHOMME Nicolas
197. RETAILLEAU Valentin
Astana Qazaqstan Team
201. VELASCO Simone
202. BATTISTELLA Samuele
203. CHARMIG Anthon
204. CHZHAN Igor
205. FEDOROV Yevgeniy
206. SCARONI Christian
207. UMBA Santiago
BORA – hansgrohe
211. VLASOV Alexander
212. ADRIÀ Roger
213. ALEOTTI Giovanni
214. HAJEK Alexander
215. JUNGELS Bob
216. SOBRERO Matthew
217. WANDAHL Frederik
Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team
221. BRAMBILLA Gianluca
222. BREECHES Walter
223. DONOVAN Mark
224. FANCELLU Alexander
225. HOWSON Damien
226. ROSSKOPF Joey
227. WHELAN James
Bingoal WB
231. DE TIER Floris
232. MATTHYS Louka
233. MEENS Johan
234. VAN BOVEN Luke
235. VAN DER BEKEN Aaron
236. VILLA Giacomo
237. VLIEGEN Loïc
Euskaltel – Euskadi
241. MARTÍN Gotzon
242. BERASATEGI Xabier
243. ISASA Xabier
244. DE LA PARTE Víctor
245. FOUCHE James
246. JUARISTI Txomin
247. MINTEGI Iker
Tags: FRECCIA VALLONE MEN TIMES WALL HUY ELECT KING ROUTE DEPARTURES
