La Flèche Wallonne 2025

April 23, 2025 La Flèche Wallonne takes a lot of heat for being boring and predictable but it is a very difficult race and one that any rider would want on their palmares. The 205KM run from Ciney to Huy is riddled with short and steep climbs that add up to 3,100M of elevation by the end of the day. There are two and a half laps, 37KM each, that the riders take on in the finale. There are three main climbs on each lap, the Côte d'Ereffe, the Côte de Cherave, and the Mur de Huy. The race ends at the top of the 1.3KM Mur de Huy which is brutally steep. It averages just under 10% but there are long sections around 15% and up to 20% that make the difference. If you get your timing wrong, you could be at the front one moment and finish halfway down the peloton by the top. Like last year, the weather was terrible. It was cool with light rain at the sign-on and the forecast was for it to get worse throughout the day. Five riders made the break of the day including Simon Guglielmi of Arkéa-B&B Hotels, Artem Shmidt of Ineos, Cériel Desal of Wagner-Bazin WB, Tom Paquot of Intermarché-Wanty, and Siebe Deweirdt of Flanders-Baloise. Their lead was just 90 seconds with 150KM to go with Soudal Quickstep chasing in the peloton as the rain was coming down heavier. The gap came down to 45 seconds and Tobias Foss of Ineos went on the attack from the bunch to bridge to his teammate in the break. He was joined by Robert Stannard of Bahrain-Victorious and the pair made it up to make 7 leaders with 135KM to go. At the base of the Côte de Petite Somme with 120KM to go, Uno-X Mobility sent Fredrik Dversnes and Andreas Leknessund on the attack. The bunch backed off the pace and the counter attackers bridged up to the break just as they entered the circuit at 99.5KM to go with a gap of 1 minute 40 seconds. The gap remained around the same time over the Côte d'Ereffe and the Côte de Cherave. They held just under 1 minute over the Mur de Huy for the first of three ascents at 73KM from the finish. The race remained in a holding pattern until the Côte de Cherave at 44KM to go when UAE-XRG took over the pace in the bunch from Soudal Quickstep. The gap to the break went from 50 seconds to just 20 seconds by the top. Only Desal, Dversnes, Leknessund, and Foss were left at the front but a right turn on to the main road at the bottom of the Côte de Cherave caused Desal to come down hard and slide across the road. A few moments later, the peloton came storming through the same corner and at least five riders went down including Mattias Skjelmose of Lidl-Trek who won Amstel Gold on Sunday. He looked quite hurt and would not rejoin the bunch. The three leaders had just 14 seconds through the finish line for one more 37KM lap with a large peloton still together. The break were finally caught at the start of the Côte de Cherave with 7KM to go. The pace stayed calm until about halfway up when Jan Christen of UAE-XRG increased the speed and put the race into one line. Gaps started to form and all of a sudden, the front of the race was only 15 riders. There were more splits on the descent and by the bottom, it was Remco Evenepoel of Soudal Quickstep, Ben Healy of EF-Education EasyPost, Tadej Pogačar and Brandon McNulty of UAE-XRG, and Kévin Vauquelin of Arkéa-B&B Hotels. Groupama-FDJ was able to sew it back together with 2.5KM to go to make around 40 riders going into the Mur de Huy together. Christen made a hard pace on the Mur de Huy and with 600M to go, Pogačar attacked and left everyone else in his wake. Healy was the only one that attempted to follow but he had nothing to counteract the Pogačar acceleration and sustained power. Pogačar crossed the line with eyes blackened from road spray but he put his hands in the air in celebration for the second time at Flèche Wallonne. Vauquelin was best of the rest in second with Tom Pidcock of Q36.5 in third.