Cycling: On Wednesday (April 20th) one of the big highlights of the spring season is the Flèche Wallonne (or in English, the Walloon Arrow). Who will be able to face Alejandro Valverde, so dominant in the past, on the wall of Huy? What are the effects of the route changes? Where and when are there live pictures on TV? Find out in our preview.
The Walloon Arrow is the second of a total of three so-called Ardennes classics, after the starting signal was given last Sunday at the Amstel Gold Race. The conclusion of the classic trio will then be Liège-Bastogne-Liège next weekend. The finale of the Flèche Wallonne traditionally takes place on the notorious Mur de Huy, the summit of which is also the finish of the one-day race. This means that strong climbers are always among the favorites and the tactical focus is on the Huy wall from the first meter. In recent years, however, the organizers have tried to spice up the race with a few small changes to the course and to give the teams more tactical options.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAdHrwYLzoA
La Flèche Wallonne 2016: the route
The heart of the route is of course the wall of Huy. The riders have to master the legendary ascent three times, which is only 1.300m long, but with a maximum of 24% (!!) and an average of 9,6% on each crossing will be a test for mind and body. Of course, the third crossing of the Mur will be decisive: the goal is waiting at the top and the steep climb will hurt the legs even more than the two times before with more than 190km.
| Position | Name | Length | Slope |
|---|---|---|---|
| 67km | Cote de Bellaire | 1.000m | 6,3%. |
| 74km | Cote de Bohissau | 1.300m | 7,6%. |
| 87km | Cote de Solieres | 4.300m | 4% |
| 101km | Wall of Huy | 1.300m | 9,6%. |
| 114km | Cote d'Ereffe | 2.100m | 5% |
| 133km | Cote de Bellaire | 1.000m | 6,3%. |
| 140km | Cote de Bohissau | 1.300m | 7,6%. |
| 153km | Cote de Solieres | 4.300m | 4% |
| 167km | Wall of Huy | 1.300m | 9,6%. |
| 180km | Cote d'Ereffe | 2.100m | 5% |
| 190km | Cote de Cherave | 1.300m | 8,1%. |
| 196km | Wall of Huy | 1.300m | 9,6%. |
For the majority of the Walloon Arrow, the favorites will have to be careful with their own strength in order to have a few grains more than the competition at the very end. The organizers tried to break up this somewhat one-dimensional course of the race last year with the introduction of the Côte de Cherave, also a fairly short but steep climb, 5 km before the last crossing of the Mur and also to enable earlier attacks. Nevertheless, the decision in Huy was again a lot last year, when Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) left Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx – Quick-Step) and Michael Albasini (Orica GreenEDGE) behind.
This year, too, there is a small change to the route, which could make for a somewhat more varied course of the race. A new addition is the Côte de Solières, which at over four kilometers is significantly longer than the other climbs and will be crossed twice during the course of the race - the second time around 40km before the finish and only a few kilometers before the penultimate crossing of the Mur. An attack could possibly be successful here and lure the favorites out of their reserve.
La Flèche Wallonne 2016: the favourites
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar)
Victory at the Flèche Wallonne will undoubtedly only go to Alejandro Valverde this year. The Spaniard, who has won the last two editions of Movistar, would go down in history as the first rider to win the Walloon Arrow four times. After a quiet spring, the now 35-year-old showed impressive form last weekend in the stage race Vuelta Castilla y Leon and drove there to overall victory.
Michael Albasini (Orica GreenEDGE)
Switzerland's Michael Albasini could bring a second storm of celebration to his Australian team of Orica GreenEDGE within a short space of time with a win on Wednesday after Mat Hayman's sensational triumph in Roubaix. The chances are good: in the recent past, the 35-year-old has finished on the podium twice at the Flèche Wallonne (2012: 2nd place, 2015: 3rd place) and now wants to finally celebrate his first victory on the Mur summit. In any case, he was highly motivated in advance: "During the season I hardly get any chances to drive for victory myself - but the Flèche Wallonne is one of them."
Joaquim RodriguezKatusha
Joaquim Rodriguez and the Mur de Huy: You could almost call the relationship a love story of modern cycling. The Spaniard is achieving top results here with almost frightening consistency – most recently he won the third stage of last year's Tour here, before that he triumphed in 2012 at the Walloon Arrow. But even if he wasn't the first to cross the finish line here, the Katusha pro was almost always in the top 10 in Huy his favorite compatriot from the Movistar team.
Sergio Henao (Team Sky)
Colombia's Sergio Henao has had an exhausting 2015 season. The 28-year-old fought back from a serious knee injury suffered in 2014 and again showed the climbing qualities with which he had brought himself into the limelight in 2013. The start of his season was promising and the Sky professional has so far been able to win the mountains classification at the Tour Down Under in January and most recently the points classification and second place in the overall classification at the Tour of the Basque Country. In 2013 he was narrowly beaten by Daniel Moreno (Katusha) in Huy – maybe this year he will be able to pull off a big coup.
La Flèche Wallonne 2016: TV and live stream
Eurosport gives the Flèche Wallonne a full 2 1/2 hours of broadcasting time in this country. The broadcast starts on Wednesday at 14:30 p.m. and gives you the opportunity to follow the decisive phase of the race live on screen.
La Flèche Wallonne live broadcast
Date: 20.04.2016
Time: 14:30 p.m. – 17:00 p.m
Broadcaster: Eurosport 1
Those who prefer to follow the race via the Internet can either click on the Eurosportplayer fall back on, or from the free offer Zattoo Make use of which Eurosport is also part of the offer. Cycling fans who access the internet from outside of Germany can look forward to www.cyclingfans.com look around where a corresponding live stream is listed for almost every major country.