La Flèche Wallonne 2024

April 17, 2024 Starting in Charleroi, the riders rode East towards the finishing circuit where the main racing will take place. 6 riders got in the early break, Lilian Calmejane of Intermarché-Wanty, Alan Jousseaume of TotalEnergies, Igor Chzhan of Astana, James Whelan of Q36.5, Johan Meens of Bingoal WB, and Txomin Juaristi of Euskaltel-Euskadi. Heavy rain began to fall with 105KM to race, UAE started to pull hard in the peloton and the break away's gap closed to 4 minutes. The break completely broke apart as riders went back to get jackets while others pressed on in the sideways rain and wind. The break reformed by the base of the Mur de Huy at 96KM to go but had lost a minute of their lead. The last breakaway riders were caught with 69KM remaining by a peloton that had been battered by driving rain and snow. The peloton was decimated on the second time up the Mur. The cold had set in and a cloud of warm breath from the riders followed them up the climb. Fewer than 35 riders made the front group with two more circuits to go. No team had the numbers to control the peloton so Søren Kragh Andersen of Alpecin-Deceuninck took advantage and went solo at 61KM to go. Andersen held a minute advantage over the Mur for the penultimate time as a small chase group formed consisting of Stephen Williams of Israel-Premier Tech, Richard Carapaz of EF-Education EasyPost, Maxim Van Gils of Lotto-Dstny, Santiago Buitrago of Bahrain-Victorious, and Kévin Vauquelin of Arkéa-B&B Hotels. Uno-X Mobility were left to chase in the peloton of only around 25 riders. Just before the last trip up the Côte d'Ereffe, the peloton caught the 5 chasers and were within 20 seconds of Andersen. Andersen was caught with 14.5KM remaining with Uno-X Mobility still driving the peloton. Decathlon AG2R led the reduced bunch onto the Mur. Stephen Williams was first and only attacker with 250M to go. His gap was large enough to hold off Vauquelin and Van Gils.