2015 Ardennes: 79th La Fleche Wallonne - Mur de Huy - 205.5k

[rainman]

Apart from crazy amount of crashes great race until the finish but Piti did what he does very well.

 

[happytramp]

It's almost like it didn't happen.....

 

[IndianCyclist]

No attack by anybody and 2nd and 3rd to non favourites!!! Back to 200 m sprints. boring

 

[Miburo]

Bad luck for wellens that nibali wasn't good. Yea nibali tried but he's just not good enough, if nibali was there with wellens, maybe.

That was a boring muur climb btw, just terrible

 

[cineteq]

Re: 2015 Ardennes: 79th La Fleche Wallonne - Mur de Huy - 20

The point scoring machine wins again...

 

[DFA123]

Re:

That was the blandest Huy in recent memory.

Seemed like a harder race than normal. Lots of hard chasing in the last 40km and everyone still recovering from the penultimate climb. Much better, imo, than one rider sprinting clear in the last 500m after an easy race.

 

[burning]

Re:

betancur??? :O was that betancur who rode superb 2nd part of climb?

He's vuillermoz, don't be excited that easily.

 

[Velolover2]

Teams need to be reduced!

 

[TourOfSardinia]

slowmo uphill sprint

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Probably not a popular opinion, but I actually prefer FW to have everyone together at the bottom of the Mur and then everyone to go nuts for a few minutes. It's the one race each year I don't want tactical complexity in.

 

[hrotha]

The extra hill made the race more interesting, kudos to Wellens, but that last climb to Huy was simply pathetic. It was, more literally than ever, just a sprint.

 

[therhodeo]

Lulu leading the break and Piti winning. Sigh............

 

[Bushman]

Henao surprisingly bad.

Incredible ride by Alaphillippe he even closed down Nibali and Kreuziger on the penultimate climb and kept looking for Kwiat until he realized he was too far back.

 

[jaylew]

Weird Mur this year. No real attacks. Fewer 2nd tier riders there to take a chance on a flyer?

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Re: 2015 Ardennes: 79th La Fleche Wallonne - Mur de Huy - 20

ok so now we know the new climb kills of all legs and we get an even duller final acent of the mur. anyone could've predicted that

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

1 Valverde

2 Alaphilippe

3 Albasini

4 Rodriguez

5 Moreno

6 Vuillermoz

7 Henao

8 Fuglsang

9 Slagter

10 Kelderman

 

[hfer07]

Re: 2015 Ardennes: 79th La Fleche Wallonne - Mur de Huy - 20

this F-W could be the most obvious & predictable winning move ever--Valverde only had to sprint on the last 100 metres to get the job done. LOL

 

[TheQuick]

Boring sprint again. Sky *** it up for Henao, he was alone constanly and needed to work himself up in the peleton often, I could see sometimes that Roche was sitting in the front and not going down and help he's captain in the middle of the peleton !

 

[SeriousSam]

Going to be interesting how mucht average ascent time of the top 5 is compared to last year with the easier run in.

 

[Miburo]

Re: 2015 Ardennes: 79th La Fleche Wallonne - Mur de Huy - 20

ok so now we know the new climb kills of all legs and we get an even duller final acent of the mur. anyone could've predicted that

Let's make it 200km flatbefore the muur, will be super exciting then! Add in the 3 billion crashes we'll get in the last 10km too.

 

[DFA123]

Re:

Probably not a popular opinion, but I actually prefer FW to have everyone together at the bottom of the Mur and then everyone to go nuts for a few minutes. It's the one race each year I don't want tactical complexity in.

That doesn't make sense. If everyone is together at the foot of the Muur, then it's insanely tactical, with all riders fighting for position and trying to find the right wheel to follow, not to go full gas too early. It was less tactical today, with everyone knackered after the previous climb - no-one had the legs to time a sprint or to try to attack early.

 

[dicanio_michael]

Re: Re:

Damn it. Pace up the Mur wasn't high. Kwiatkowski had a chance to win it but bad positionning :/

Didnt have the legs at all.

If he had had the legs he would have been positioned in the front as he always is. He dropped back on the penultimate climb.

He was leading out Alaphilippe in the last kms. Alaphilippe sitting at his back for a long time already

 

[Savant12]

Re: 2015 Ardennes: 79th La Fleche Wallonne - Mur de Huy - 20

What a shockingly boring finish. Penultimate climb took all the "fun" out of the Huy.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Piti just classes above everyone else. He easily pulled 10 meters on Alaphilipe. Kwiatek was no where near the best today. Bad positioning and bad legs.

 

[the asian]

Really dull final climb.

At least we had 2 minutes of excitement on the old course.

There seems to be none in the new one, although it does reduces the no of rides for the final ascent.