2021 La Flèche Wallonne Race Preview
The details of this year's 2021 La Flèche Wallonne are falling into place. Find the latest route profiles and maps below, followed by our strategic preview of the race.
La Flèche Wallonne arrives once again at its traditional mid-week slot in the Ardennes, serving as the middle chapter of the classic trilogy that begins with Amstel Gold Race and concludes with Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The race is defined almost entirely by its finish, the brutal Mur de Huy, a climb so short and so savage that it has the power to reduce even the most complete riders to a crawl in those final desperate metres.
The Mur itself is only around 1300 metres long, but its average gradient of around nine percent conceals ramps that bite closer to twenty-six percent near the summit. The race will cross the climb three times in total, with the final ascent coming after more than two hundred kilometres of racing through the rolling and frequently draining roads of the Belgian Ardennes. Fatigue plays a significant role in who can and cannot handle those closing moments, and positioning in the final kilometres before the Mur is absolutely critical. Getting stuck behind a crash or losing a wheel at the wrong moment can end any chance of victory before the climb even begins.
Alejandro Valverde has turned this race into something close to personal property over the years. The Movistar veteran has won La Flèche Wallonne an extraordinary five times, most recently in 2019, and his ability to time his effort on the Mur with almost supernatural precision has repeatedly left younger rivals bewildered. Now well into his forties, Valverde remains a genuine contender and should never be discounted on this particular finish.
Marc Hirschi showed tremendous promise in these Ardennes races last year and arrives with something to prove after a disrupted season early in his career at UAE Team Emirates. The Swiss rider has the explosive climbing ability that suits the Mur perfectly, and if he can arrive at the foot of the final climb in good position he will be a dangerous threat.
Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert have dominated much of the spring and both will be present, though the Mur represents a different kind of challenge to the punchy, rolling terrain where they have so often flourished. Van Aert in particular has shown a capacity for improvement on pure climbs and cannot be dismissed, while van der Poel's raw power gives him options that few others possess.
Primož Roglič leads a formidable Jumbo-Visma team and represents perhaps the most complete threat in the race. The Slovenian is an excellent climber with a powerful sprint finish when racing from a small group, exactly the combination required here. His team should be able to control much of the racing and ensure he arrives at the Mur with everything he needs.
David Gaudu, Julian Alaphilippe, and Benoît Cosnefroy give French cycling plenty of interest, while Michael Woods and Enric Mas add further depth to a strong field. The women's race on the same day has seen its own evolution, with Annemiek van Vleuten a perennial favourite on a course that suits her sustained climbing power.
The weather in the Ardennes in April can be unpredictable, and a cold or wet day would add further suffering to an already demanding afternoon. Whatever the conditions, the race will almost certainly come down to those final few hundred metres on the Mur, where one explosive acceleration will settle everything in a matter of seconds.
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