PREVIEW: Fleche Wallonne
The 81st edition of La Flèche Wallonne is a 200 km race that winds through the hills of the Ardennes this Wednesday April 19th 2017
Fleche Wallonne translates to the Walloon Arrow in English and American.
The race is marked by steep hills in the Ardennes and the finish is at the top of the Wall of Huy, a 1.3 kilometre climb with its steepest section at 17%. La Flèche Wallonne totals 200 kilometres and takes in nine climbs towards the end of the race.
Last year in 2016, Alejandro Valverde took his fourth win, out sprinting Julian Alaphilippe and Dan Martin on the Wall of Huy.
Valverde is the record holder with the most wins at La Flèche Wallonne.
The Course
The classic course winds it's way through the beautiful Ardennes hills. It's at 127.5 km the first climb of Côte d’Amay arrives with the Côte de Villers le Bouillet not long after.
At 142 km the first ascent of the Mur de Huy, a climb of the 1.3 kilometres with an average gradient of 9.6%. The climb is fairly flat for 200 meters before hitting 11% - 17% for 900 meters before returning to 6% for the last 100m kick to the top.
The riders climb it twice, the second time with 29 kilometers to go, with the Côte d’Ereffe (2.1 kilometres at 5%) and the Côte de Cherave (1.3 kilometres climb at 8.1%).
At the top of the Côte de Cherave, it's only 5.5 kilometres to the finish line at the top of the third ascent of the Mur de Huy.
La Flèche Wallonne starts at 11:10 CET and the finish is expected at 16:30 CET which is (15:30 GMT, 10:30 EST, 23:30 AWST).
Viewers from North America can tune in from 09:00 - 10:30 EST to watch the finale .
The Favorites
Valverde is an obvious favorite with four victories in 2006, 2014, 2015, 2016 and this season has won Ruta del Sol, Volta a Catalunya and Tour of the Basque Country and is in good form albiet misisng the break at Amstel Gold along with Greg Van Avermaet last Sunday.
Philippe Gilbert would have been annother obvious favorite, but with a tear to his right kidney after crashing in the Amstel Gold Race whihc he won, he's been ordered to rest for at least a week.
Amstel Gold runner up Michal Kwiatkowski skipped the cobbles classics to focus on the Ardennes and is in good form so is another top favorite going into Wednesday's race. Kwiatkowski has already won Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo this year.
Our favorites for 2017 Fleche Walonne:
*** Alejandro Valverde, Michal Kwiatkowski
** Sergio Henao, Rui Costa, Ion Izagirre,Gianni Moscon
* Rigoberto Uran, Samuel Sanchez, Michael Albasini, Tim Wellens
Start List
Movistar Team
1 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa)
2 Carlos Alberto Betancur Gomez (Col)
3 Imanol Erviti Ollo (Spa)
4 Jesus Herrada Lopez (Spa)
5 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa)
6 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa)
7 Marc Soler (Spa)
8 Rory Sutherland (Aus)
Quick-Step Floors
12 Gianluca Brambilla (Ita)
13 Eros Capecchi (Ita)
14 Laurens De Plus (Bel)
15 Dries Devenyns (Bel)
16 Bob Jungels (Lux)
17 Daniel Martin (Irl)
18 Petr Vakoc (Cze)
Team Sky
21 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol)
22 Owain Doull (GBr)
23 Tao Geoghegan Hart (GBr)
24 Michal Golas (Pol)
25 Sebastian Henao Gomez (Col)
26 Sergio Luis Henao Montoya (Col)
27 Gianni Moscon (Ita)
28 Diego Rosa (Ita)
Wanty - Groupe Gobert
31 Jérôme Baugnies (Bel)
32 Thomas Degand (Bel)
33 Fabien Doubey (Fra)
34 Guillaume Levarlet (Fra)
35 Guillaume Martin (Fra)
36 Xandro Meurisse (Bel)
37 Marco Minnaard (Ned)
38 Dion Smith (NZl)
BMC Racing Team
41 Samuel Sanchez (Spa)
42 Alessandro De Marchi (Ita)
43 Floris Gerts (Ned)
44 Ben Hermans (Bel)
45 Amaël Moinard (Fra)
46 Michael Schär (Swi)
47 Dylan Teuns (Bel)
48 Silvan Dillier (Swi)
Orica-Scott
51 Michael Albasini (Swi)
52 Sam Bewley (NZl)
53 Jack Haig (Aus)
54 Damien Howson (Aus)
55 Daryl Impey (RSA)
56 Roman Kreuziger (Cze)
57 Alex Edmondson (Aus)
58 Christopher Juul Jensen (Den)
UAE Team Emirates
61 Rui Alberto Faria da Costa (Por)
62 Matteo Bono (Ita)
63 Louis Meintjes (RSA)
64 Matej Mohoric (Slo)
65 Manuele Mori (Ita)
66 Simone Petilli (Ita)
67 Oliviero Troia (Ita)
68 Diego Ulissi (Ita)
Team Sunweb
71 Warren Barguil (Fra)
72 Johannes Fröhlinger (Ger)
73 Simon Geschke (Ger)
74 Wilco Kelderman (Ned)
75 Michael Matthews (Aus)
76 Lennard Hofstede (Ned)
77 Georg Preidler (Aut)
78 Sindre Skjøstad Lunke (Nor)
Cannondale-Drapac
81 Rigoberto Urán (Col)
82 Brendan Canty (Aus)
83 Simon Clarke (Aus)
84 Alex Howes (USA)
85 Thomas Scully (NZl)
86 Toms Skujins (Lat)
87 Tom Jelte Slagter (Ned)
88 Michael Woods (Can)
Team LottoNL-Jumbo
91 Robert Gesink (Ned)
92 Enrico Battaglin (Ita)
93 Koen Bouwman (Ned)
94 Floris De Tier (Bel)
95 Bert-Jan Lindeman (Ned)
96 Juan José Lobato (Spa)
97 Paul Martens (Ger)
98 Alexey Vermeulen (USA)
Cofidis, Solutions Credits
101 Julien Simon (Fra)
102 Yoann Bagot (Fra)
103 Guillaume Bonnafond (Fra)
104 Jérôme Cousin (Fra)
105 Nicolas Edet (Fra)
106 Luis Angel Maté Mardones (Spa)
107 Anthony Perez (Fra)
108 Stéphane Rossetto (Fra)
Lotto Soudal
111 Tim Wellens (Bel)
112 Sander Armee (Bel)
113 Sean De Bie (Bel)
114 Bart De Clercq (Bel)
115 Thomas De Gendt (Bel)
116 Tomasz Marczynski (Pol)
117 Tosh Van der Sande (Bel)
118 Jelle Vanendert (Bel)
AG2R La Mondiale
121 Alexis Vuillermoz (Fra)
122 Romain Bardet (Fra)
123 Mickael Cherel (Fra)
124 Axel Domont (Fra)
125 Mathias Frank (Swi)
126 Cyril Gautier (Fra)
127 Quentin Jauregui (Fra)
128 Pierre Latour (Fra)
Astana Pro Team
131 Jakob Fuglsang (Den)
132 Pello Bilbao (Spa)
133 Laurens De Vreese (Bel)
134 Andriy Grivko (Ukr)
135 Tanel Kangert (Est)
136 Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz)
137 Nikita Stalnov (Kaz)
138 Michael Valgren Andersen (Den)
Dimension Data
141 Igor Anton Hernandez (Spa)
142 Nathan Haas (Aus)
143 Jacques Janse van Rensburg (RSA)
144 Jacobus Venter (RSA)
145 Merhawi Kudus Ghebremedhin (Eri)
146 Ben O'Connor (Aus)
147 Serge Pauwels (Bel)
148 Johann Van Zyl (RSA)
Katusha-Alpecin
151 Maurits Lammertink (Ned)
152 Jenthe Biermans (Bel)
153 Robert Kiserlovski (Cro)
154 Pavel Kochetkov (Rus)
155 Vyacheslav Kuznetsov (Rus)
156 Marco Mathis (Ger)
157 Mads Würtz Schmidt (Den)
158 Angel Vicioso Arcos (Spa)
Trek-Segafredo
161 Jarlinson Pantano (Col)
162 Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn)
163 Andre Fernando S Martins Cardoso (Por)
164 Gregory Daniel (USA)
165 Michael Gogl (Aut)
166 Ruben Guerreiro (Por)
167 Jesus Hernandez Blazquez (Spa)
168 Haimar Zubeldia Aguirre (Spa)
Bora-Hansgrohe
171 Rafal Majka (Pol)
172 Cesare Benedetti (Ita)
173 Patrick Konrad (Aut)
174 Jay McCarthy (Aus)
175 Gregor Mühlberger (Aut)
176 Christoph Pfingsten (Ger)
177 Lukas Pöstlberger (Aut)
178 Michael Schwarzmann (Ger)
FDJ
181 Arthur Vichot (Fra)
182 Arnaud Courteille (Fra)
183 Marc Fournier (Fra)
184 David Gaudu (Fra)
185 Rudy Molard (Fra)
186 Cédric Pineau (Fra)
187 Kevin Reza (Fra)
188 Anthony Roux (Fra)
Bahrain-Merida
191 Enrico Gasparotto (Ita)
192 Yukiya Arashiro (Jpn)
193 Grega Bole (Slo)
194 Tsgabu Grmay (Eth)
195 Jon Izagirre Insausti (Spa)
196 Antonio Nibali (Ita)
197 Giovanni Visconti (Ita)
198 Wang Meiyin (Chn)
Direct Energie
201 Lilian Calmejane (Fra)
202 Fabien Grellier (Fra)
203 Romain Guillemois (Fra)
204 Jonathan Hivert (Fra)
205 Bryan Nauleau (Fra)
206 Paul Ourselin (Fra)
207 Perrig Quemeneur (Fra)
208 Romain Sicard (Fra)
Fortuneo - Vital Concept
211 Arnold Jeannesson (Fra)
212 Franck Bonnamour (Fra)
213 Maxime Bouet (Fra)
214 Brice Feillu (Fra)
215 Armindo Fonseca (Fra)
216 Elie Gesbert (Fra)
217 Romain Hardy (Fra)
218 Eduardo Sepúlveda (Arg)
Sport Vlaanderen - Baloise
221 Preben Van Hecke (Bel)
222 Maxime Farazijn (Bel)
223 Eliot Lietaer (Bel)
224 Ruben Pols (Bel)
225 Thomas Sprengers (Bel)
226 Dries Van Gestel (Bel)
227 Kenneth Van Rooy (Bel)
228 Jens Wallays (Bel)
Aqua Blue Sport
231 Lars Petter Nordhaug (Nor)
232 Adam Blythe (GBr)
233 Mark Christian (GBr)
234 Conor Dunne (Irl)
235 Aaron Gate (NZl)
236 Lasse Norman Hansen (Den)
237 Daniel Pearson (GBr)
238 Michel Kreder (Ned)
WB Veranclassic Aqua Protect
241 Sébastien Delfosse (Bel)
242 Gregory Habeaux (Bel)
243 Justin Jules (Fra)
244 Christophe Masson (Fra)
245 Olivier Pardini (Bel)
246 Dimitri Peyskens (Bel)
247 Maxime Vantomme (Bel)
248 Antoine Warnier (Bel)