April 22, 2026
Over the last five or six years, the style of racing has changed with the finale of nearly every race opening up earlier and earlier. La Flèche Wallonne has somehow become immune to that change and has been won just the same way each and every year, with the right timing and strong legs on the final passage of the Mur de Huy. At 200 km, the second of the Ardennes Classics starts from Herstal on the Meuse River and finishes atop the Mur de Huy, overlooking the same great river. The only flat roads in this region are those that run along rivers and there isn't much of that today. The first half of the race is a softening up of the legs as the bunch will make their way South to find the finish circuit after 100 km of racing. The circuit is made up of the 2.2 km, 5% Côte d'Ereffe, the 1.4 km, 7.6% Côte de Cherave, and finally the Mur de Huy. The Mur is 1.4 km long at 9% but that doesn't tell the story. There are sustained sections of 15% with the steepest bends well over 20%. Each of the climbs will be taken on three times with the finish line right at the top of the Mur de Huy on the third time around. It's hard to see the winning formula changing which means patience, positioning, and timing are all keys to unlocking success on the Mur.
Highlighted Riders:
Benoît Cosnefroy, Julian Alaphilippe, Kévin Vauquelin, Mattias Skjelmose, Romain Grégoire, Paul Seixas, Lenny Martinez, Mauro Schmid, Tobias Johannessen, Alex Baudin, Alex Aranburu, Ion Izagirre, Cian Uijtdebroeks, Christain Scaroni, Clément Champoussin, Jørgen Nordhagen, Ben Tulett, George Bennett, Valentin Paret-Peintre, Lennert Van Eetvelt, Frank van den Broek, Gal Glivar, Clément Venturini
Race Summary
The passed few editions of La Flèche Wallonne have been plagued by poor weather but the tides have turned and the day was set for shorts sleeves and perfectly clear blue skies. A group of six got away to form the break of the day with Andreas Leknessund of Uno-X Mobility, Sjoerd Bax of Pinarello Q36.5, Jakub Otruba of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, Vincent Van Hemelen of Flanders-Baloise, Jardi Van Der Lee of EF-Education EasyPost, and Alan Jousseaume of TotalEnergies. With 145 km to go, the group had 2 minutes 40 seconds but there were plenty of teams interested in chasing including Lidl-Trek, Tudor Pro Cycling, Ineos, Decathlon CMA CGM, and UAE-XRG who were all queued up near the front.
The next 35 km passed in a holding pattern with the break locked in at 3 minutes. The scenery was beautiful with rolling, round hills and lush green grass along the road side, waiting for the year's first cutting. Through Ocquier with 109 km to go, the bunch started to bubble up at the front with team helpers bringing their leaders forward with the first ascent of the Côte d'Ereffe just up the road. As a result of the increased pressure, the gap came down to 2 minutes by the time they entered the circuit with 99 km to go.
The first passage of the Côte d'Ereffe and Côte de Cherave were ridden quite conservatively but the tension was slowly building with more and more riders pushing forward to be at the front with the Mur de Huy next up on course. Leknessund led the break for most of the climb through a tunnel of noise. The weather and excitement for the race brought out thousands of people who stood four or five deep for a full kilometer up the Mur just to see the riders go by.
When the peloton reached the top, they were 1 minute 20 seconds behind with first attacks coming right at the top from Raúl García Pierna of Movistar. A Jayco AlUla rider went after him but the peloton closed it down. García Pierna tried again which kicked off a series of attacks that drew out a number of teams. Movistar continued attacking as did Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe which caused reaction from nearly every other team. It looked like the pattern of events would finally change and a strong advancing group would get away but over the plateau leading away from the Mur, no one was able to split off from the bunch and the mood shifted back to positioning for the Côte d'Ereffe.
Leknessund continued pushing the break to get them moving as quickly as possible but the gap was coming down. It was hovering around 1 minute on the Côte d'Ereffe and had fallen another 15 seconds on the Côte de Cherave which brought them within sight. On the descent off the Cherave coming into Huy, Tobias Johannessen of Uno-X Mobility crashed along with Finn Fisher-Black of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, two key leaders for their respective teams. Johannessen got going relatively quickly after a bike change with a teammate but Fisher-Black stayed on the ground and looked to be in quite a bit of pain.
It was rapid coming into Huy along the Meuse with UAE-XRG and Alpecin-Premier Tech present at the front, setting the hard pace. Leknessund and Van Der Lee went clear of the other riders in the break on the lower slopes of the Mur de Huy and hit the line for one lap to go, still with a gap of 45 seconds on the peloton. Tobias Johannessen got one of his spare bikes and made it back into the peloton with 33 km to go on the plateau before the Côte d'Ereffe but the ordeal burned a lot of unnecessary energy for him and his teammates.
With 30.5 km to go, Bax and Otruba made it up to Van Der Lee and Leknessund to make four at the head of the race but the peloton was closing at just 35 seconds with Lidl-Trek owning the front of the bunch. Back along the river, the road was blocked from gutter to gutter with teams drag racing to the bottom of the Côte d'Ereffe. A touch of wheels in the first 40 riders of the peloton saw a few riders come down including former winner, Marc Hirschi of Tudor Pro Cycling who was the worst afflicted and did not finish due to a suspected broken collarbone.
The break arrived at the base of the Côte d'Ereffe with just 20 seconds but once the bunch started the climb, the tension eased slightly and the gap was able to grow slightly. Tudor Pro Cycling took another blow to their chances when Yannis Voisard fell with a few others in the last few hundred meters of the Côte d'Ereffe. He didn't seem hurt but the race was coming into crunch time and consequences of any mishap were amplified. Meanwhile up front, the indefatigable Leknessund went solo and had increased the gap out to 30 seconds. Groupama-FDJ United lined up at the front and had great position heading into the descent down to the river to the base of Côte de Cherave.
Decathlon CMA CGM arrived at the front for the first time in quite a while with Groupama-FDJ United, Visma-Lease a Bike, and Ineos all fighting for position. The battle burned off a lot of teammates and when the bunch arrived at the base of the Côte de Cherave with 7 km to go, almost no team had riders together with the exception of Decathlon CMA CGM who still had four near the front. Leknessund was finally caught as the peloton's momentum carried them with more speed onto the Cherave. Visma-Lease a Bike and Lidl-Trek each took turns on the front but there was no action and the group went over the top all together.
When the bunch turned off the Côte de Cherave with 5.5 km to go, EF-Education EasyPost were leading with Decathlon CMA CGM near the front, as were Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe. Plenty of riders were going out the back but there were nearly 100 riders still connected and in contention when the descent into Huy began. The bunch was frantic as they had just 3 km along the river to position their leaders before the start of the Mur de Huy.
It was Groupama-FDJ United who took the right turn away from the river and onto the Mur in first position with Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe and EF-Education EasyPost queued up behind. When the road started to get steep under 1 km to go, Decathlon CMA CGM hit the front with NSN Cycling overtaking the rest to sit in the second row. With 700 meters to go, Paul Seixas of Decathlon CMA CGM found himself on the front along with Ben Tulett of Visma-Lease a Bike. Mauro Schmid of Jayco AlUla moved forward and sat beside Romain Grégoire of Groupama-FDJ United, Benoît Cosnefroy of UAE-XRG, and Pello Bilbao of Bahrain Victorious. Seixas started to move with 275 meters to go which stretched the group. Tulett was the closest to Seixas when the Frenchman accelerated towards the line at 200 meters. The gap to Tulett expanded from one bike length to three and then became unbridgeable. Seixas had time to let off the gas and coast as he crossed the line with arms aloft. Tulett was overtaken by Schmid on the line with the Swiss National Road Champion taking second place, Tulett third and Cosnefroy fourth, all three seconds down on Seixas. The result seemed inevitable as Seixas has continued to impress with his dominant style at such a young age.