Anna van der Breggen wins La Flèche Wallonne Féminine

Anna van der Breggen (Rabo Liv) came out on top after an exciting finale to La Flèche Wallonne Féminine. The Rabo Liv rider beat Annemiek van Vleuten (Bigla) from an unexpected two-rider breakaway, while Megan Guarnier (Boels Dolmans Cycling Team) was the best of the rest on the Mur de Huy.

Van der Breggen took advantage of a strong performance by her Rabo-Liv team to bridge across to Van Vleuten and teammate Roxane Knetemann at the foot of the final climb. Knetemann sacrificed her chances for her teammate, and Van der Breggen jumped away to win by a 12-second margin.

"All of the riders deserve a big compliment," Rabo-Liv director Koos Moerenhout said. "Everyone made a big contribution to this. Anna rode great, but we were formidable as a team today."

Van Vleuten held on for second, while Guarnier came in third at 20 seconds as Knetemann faded back to seventh.

Most editions of Flèche Wallonne have come down to a large group at the base of the final climb, and this one looked to go to script as Rabo-Liv ramped up the pace with an attack by Roxane Knetemann with 25km to go. However, Van Vleuten's solo bridge across to the Dutch rider threw a wrench in the team's plans, forcing them to chase their own rider as the leaders' gap grew to more than a minute. When the gap became small enough on the new Cote de Cherave with 5.5km to go, Van der Breggen jumped away and made the bridge after the descent.

"When Anna came across to me with 4km to go I knew it would be hard to beat her on the Mur but I’m very happy with this result," Van Vleuten said. "Usually this isn’t a race for me but with the team performance today, I didn’t have to do anything.

"I could not believe that they hadn’t caught us at the bottom of the Mur and I thought this is going to be close," she continued. "I knew I was doing a good job on the Mur because Anna wasn’t getting away from me that quickly and when I looked behind me I could still not see the others coming. With 250m to go I started to believe I could be on the podium and I gave everything. I am very happy."

143 riders lined up in sunny Huy for the 121km World Cup round, which featured two trips up the Côte d'Éreffe, Côte de Bellaire, Côte de Bohissau and Mur de Huy, with the new Côte de Cherave tacked on just 5.5 km before the finish.

The first successful attack came with 40km to go when Lauren Komanski (US National Team) got away with Lizzie Williams (Orica-AIS), but the pair could only manage 20 seconds on the field and were caught 10km later. The peloton was split on the Côte de Bohissau, leaving World Cup leader Jolien D'hoore behind.

Knetemann and Van Vleuten used the aggressive pace to form their attack, and quickly built up a 1:10 advantage, forcing the favourites to decide on using their energy to chase or saving it for the final climb. At the bottom of the Côte de Cherave, Rabo-Liv had contributed to the chase with Wiggle Honda and Boels-Dolmans, clawing the gap back to 40 seconds. Van der Breggen, Ferrand-Prévot, Ashleigh Moolman (Bigla), Evelyn Stevens and Guarnier (Boels Dolmans) hammered up the climb, bringing the leaders within sight.

It was all that Van der Breggen needed, and the powerful Dutch rider bridged across to her teammate, who then poured her remaining energies into setting up her team leader for the win, while Van Vleuten had enough left to hold on for second.

Full Results