La Flèche Wallonne: April 24th, 2019

[Pantani_lives]

After the exciting finals of last week it's time to move to the Belgian Ardennes. With its finish on the steep Mur de Huy La Flèche Wallonne can be seen as the unofficial world championship for uphill sprinters. In the past there were editions with successful longer attacks, but in the current decade it was always a game of waiting for that one explosion in the final km. World champion Alejandro Valverde holds the record with five wins, although last year he was beaten by his younger rival Julian Alaphilippe. Let's see how it turns out this time.

Climbs:
Côte des Forges (138 km)
Côte d'Ereffe (74,5 km)
Côte de Cherave (64 km)
Mur de Huy (58 km)
Côte d'Ereffe (45,5 km)
Côte de Cherave (34,5 km)
Mur de Huy (29 km)
Côte d'Ereffe (16,5 km) [2.1 km @ 5%]
Côte de Cherave (5,5 km) [1.3 km @ 8.1%]
Mur de Huy (0 km) [1.3 km @ 9.6%]

Recent winners:
2009 Davide Rebellin
2010 Cadel Evans
2011 Philippe Gilbert
2012 Joaquim Rodríguez
2013 Daniel Moreno
2014 Alejandro Valverde
2015 Alejandro Valverde
2016 Alejandro Valverde
2017 Alejandro Valverde
2018 Julian Alaphilippe

 

[Red Rick]

Alaphilippe with eyes closed

 

[DFA123]

Re:

Alaphilippe with eyes closed

I think Schachmann could run him close if he gets his positioning right.

 

[Vroome.exe]

Re:

Alaphilippe with eyes closed

Well he won Amstel with one leg, for sure he can win this one with closed eyes

 

[Gigs_98]

This is genuinly interesting. Valverde is in sh*tty shape, Alaphilippe is past his peak, so this is pretty wide open. What odds do the bookies give vanendert cause I think he has a good shot

 

[Anderis]

Lambrecht FTW.

 

[DFA123]

This is genuinly interesting. Valverde is in sh*tty shape, Alaphilippe is past his peak, so this is pretty wide open. What odds do the bookies give vanendert cause I think he has a good shot

How is Alaphilippe past his peak? He was part of a two man break for nearly 40km yesterday, which fairly consistently put time into everyone. They were strongest on the climbs and only didn't make it because they played games for too long in the final 2km.

 

[Laplaz]

Won't be an uphill sprint this year I feel

 

[gunara]

The superfun one is done, on to the gloomier two...

Ala with the angriest ride of his life

 

[Valv.Piti]

1. Valverde
2. Alaf
3. Martin
4. Bird

Im optimistic, Amstel may or may not have been an offday, but Valverde knows how to win this race.

 

[Bardamu]

Kwiato was massive yesterday, not sure if I see him winning but he'll be up there.

 

[yaco]

Interested to see How A.yates performs in this race - This is the first time he's having a real crack at this race - Reckon this race suits him better than LBL.

 

[Faserr]

Re:

Won't be an uphill sprint this year I feel

Would be great. I have the feeling that guys like Schachmann dont want to wait for a uphill Race.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Won't be an uphill sprint this year I feel

Would be great. I have the feeling that guys like Schachmann dont want to wait for a uphill Race.

Yeah, no. This is Fléche after all!

Would be interesting if they would play around with the use of Huy as the penultimate climb or as the last one, but with a downhill/flat or something. But then again, its a Wednesday race and lies between two extremely hard races, so maybe its fine its basically an uphill sprint.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

I would like to see Martin go long Bananito style rather than wait to come second or fourth or something for the thousandth time. I would like to see Adam Yates try similarly.

(It’s Fleche. Going at the bottom of the Mur counts as long)

 

[greenedge]

I went with Yates, he's been great at these uphill sprints this last year and has a good team around him. Dan Martin, ala and Valverde are the 3 main favourites and I think Bardet and Vanendert looked great in AGR so should feature.

 

[Velolover2]

Adam Yates who is in really great shape will win IF he goes around the 400 meter mark. Purito style.

If he waits for 150-200 m, he will definitely lose.

 

[Pantani_lives]

I expect a sprint between Julian Alaphilippe and Jakob Fuglsang.

 

[Velolover2]

I think Mur is too easy and explosive for Fuglsang. Can't even see him in top 5. There will have to be no tailwind, full gas from the bottom and the previous climbs should be ridden like a mountain stage.

He is in great shape but he always need some time to get up to the favorites on a climb. He is like a diesel motor on super steep stuff.

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Bardet could surprise here. I hope so.

I expect a sprint between Julian Alaphilippe and Jakob Fuglsang.

And then they get outsprinted by the ghost of MvdP.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

Adam Yates who is in really great shape will win IF he goes around the 400 meter mark. Purito style.

If he waits for 150-200 m, he will definitely lose.

Honestly this is quite fascinating cause it goes against the idea that you have the same energy expenditure over an x period of time no matter how you distribute it.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Lambrecht could really finish on the podium.
Interesting to see what Ciccone can do, he'll probably go early on the climb to make it hard for tgbm.

 

[Gigs_98]

I hope the Nibali-Schachmann break last year, that almost succeeded, motivates some riders to go long again. I really wish to witness an edition of this race that doesn't end in an uphill sprint once in my life.

 

[Valv.Piti]

I hope the Nibali-Schachmann break last year, that almost succeeded, motivates some riders to go long again. I really wish to witness an edition of this race that doesn't end in an uphill sprint once in my life.

Unfortunately I think the only way you can witness it is not to witness it and then witness it on replay after the race is done.

 

[Gigs_98]

I hope the Nibali-Schachmann break last year, that almost succeeded, motivates some riders to go long again. I really wish to witness an edition of this race that doesn't end in an uphill sprint once in my life.

Unfortunately I think the only way you can witness it is not to witness it and then witness it on replay after the race is done.

Well, I do have something to do on Wednesday, not sure yet if I'll be able to watch the finish live. Still, only switching on for the final 30 kilometers seems to have been enough last Sunday.

On another note, I always wonder how confused new members of the forum are when they read posts like this. Incredible that this whole meme already started over 3 years ago. :lol: