• The Cycling News forum is looking to add some volunteer moderators with Red Rick's recent retirement. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to @SHaines here on the forum, or use the Contact Us form to message the Community Team.

    In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.

    Thanks!

La Flèche Wallonne: April 24th, 2019

Who will win La Flèche Wallonne 2019?

  • Adam Yates

    Votes: 3 5.4%
  • Alejandro Valverde

    Votes: 9 16.1%
  • Jakob Fuglsang

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Jelle Vanendert

    Votes: 3 5.4%
  • Julian Alaphilippe

    Votes: 22 39.3%
  • Maximilian Schachmann

    Votes: 6 10.7%
  • Michael Matthews

    Votes: 1 1.8%
  • Michal Kwiatkowski

    Votes: 5 8.9%
  • Romain Bardet

    Votes: 1 1.8%
  • Other

    Votes: 6 10.7%

  • Total voters
    56
  • Poll closed .
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.

profile.jpg


1km.png


muur-van-hoei.jpg


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
 
Gigs_98 said:
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.
 
Re: Re:

Faserr said:
Laplaz said:
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.
 
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.
 
Re:

Velolover2 said:
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.
 
Gigs_98 said:
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. :D
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.
 
Valv.Piti said:
Gigs_98 said:
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. :D
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:
 

TRENDING THREADS