La Flèche Wallonne Feminine 2021: April 21, 2021 Start: Huy, Belgium Finish: Mur de Huy, Belgium Distance: 130.2km
Anna van der Breggen (Team SD Worx) won the Flèche Wallonne Féminine for the seventh time in a row with another show of climbing ability and control on the Mur de Huy. The double world champion has won every edition of La Flèche Wallonne since 2015.
Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) was the only one who could stay with Van der Breggen on the Mur de Huy, and the two rode side by side until Van der Breggen started her sprint with 100 metres to go, quickly distancing Niewiadoma and surging to victory.
La Flèche Wallonne is the oldest of the three one-day races that form the women's Ardennes Classics triple crown. The series has only been in place for women since 2017 when Amstel Gold Race Ladies Edition made its return after a 14-year hiatus, followed by the long-running La Flèche Wallonne and the debut of Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Since 1998, the women's peloton has been competing in their own La Flèche Wallonne Feminine and battling for the prestigious victory on the famed Mur de Huy.
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The Flèche Wallonne Feminine is synonymous with names like Anna van der Breggen, who has now won the race seven times, while Marianne Vos has won it on five occasions, and other multiple winners are Fabiana Luperini and Nicole Cooke.
Just one victory at La Flèche Wallonne is deserving of a prestigious place in the history books of women's cycling and the women who earned that status too are Sonia Huguet (France), Emma Pooley (Great Britain), Hanka Kupfernagel (Germany), Geneviève Jeanson (Canada), Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (France), and Evelyn Stevens (USA).
La Flèche Wallonne Feminine 2021 - Key climbs
La Fleche Wallonne Feminine 2021 - Route profile (Image credit: La Fleche Wallonne Feminine 2021 / ASO)
This year's Fleche Wallonne Feminine will began in Huy and follow a 130.2km course that included six climbs; Côte de Thon, Côte de Groynne, Côte de Haut-Boisa and the Côte de Gives, before entering the local circuit to contest the first time up the Mur de Huy, then the Côte d'Ereffe, Côte du Chemin des Gueuses and the finale up the Mur de Huy.
The Mur de Huy is a steep 1.3km ascent that starts with a run-in along the Avenue du Condroz before reaching the first right-hand bend at a 10 per cent grade. The climbs steepens to 12 per cent, then 14 per cent, and after a hard left turn it hits its steepest section at 19 per cent with 400 metres to go. The grade ever-so-slightly eases off to 13 per cent, and then 9 per cent in the final 100 metres to the finish line.
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