Van der Breggen wins La Fleche Wallonne Feminine

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Anna van der Breggen (Boels Dolmans) won La Flèche Wallonne Féminine for the fifth time in a row on Wednesday. The world champion emerged as the strongest on the finishing climb, biding her time as a late attack from Floortje Mackaij (Team Sunweb) was reeled in on the lower slopes of the Mur de Huy.

Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) increased the pace and took the lead, but van der Breggen surged past with about 200 metres to go and held off Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) and Annika Langvad (Boels Dolmans) to win.

How it unfolded

Starting and finishing in Huy, the race included seven ascents of four hard climbs on 118.5 kilometres. The Côte d’Ereffe, Côte de Cherave and Mur de Huy were part of a finishing circuit and each climbed twice in the final 50km. Unfortunately, the women's Flèche Wallonne was not broadcast live, the first of this year's UCI Women's WorldTour races not to offer live footage.

After several unsuccessful attempts to form a break in the early parts of the race, a group of six that formed after 30km got away. Malgorzata Jasinska (Movistar Team), Diana Peñuela (Alé Cipollini), Lauren Stephens (Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank), Loes Adegeest (Parkhotel Valkenburg), Tatiana Riabchenko (Doltcini-Van Eyck), and Marie-Soleil Blais (Astana Women’s Team) increased their advantage to 2:30 minutes on the Côte de Wârre, the first climb of the day, though Adegeest had to let go of the group.

Due to a high pace by the peloton, only 35 seconds were left at the start of the Côte d’Ereffe where the break fell apart. Riabchenko was the last escapee to be caught 42km from the finish. On the Côte de Cherave, Elena Cecchini (Canyon-SRAM) and Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo) set a high pace that reduced the size of the peloton.

The first ascent of the Mur de Huy with 29km to go was not yet done at full speed, enabling Riabchenko to crest the climb in first position, closely followed by a peloton of about 40 riders. After all these efforts, the Belarusian eventually finished in a strong 19th place.

Four riders launched an attack with 22km left to race: Jeanne Korevaar (CCC-Liv), Elisa Balsamo (Valcar Cylance), Ruth Winder (Trek-Segafredo), and Olga Shekel (Astana Women's Team) started the Côte d’Ereffe 20 seconds ahead of the peloton that had grown to around 60 riders. They held this advantage on the climb but were caught in the following descent.

Alison Jackson (Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank) attacked with 10km to go, but the Canadian was reeled in on the Côte de Cherave. Niewiadoma attacked for the first time, which led to a group of 13 riders containing most of the favourites breaking away on the climb. Amanda Spratt (Mitchelton-Scott) was the next to go over the top but was caught in the descent to the Meuse river where more riders came back from behind.



Then it was Mackaij, who launched a solo attack with less than three kilometres to go and got a gap of 15 seconds. She led the race onto the final kilometre up the Mur de Huy but ultimately could not hold off the strongest riders.

Van der Breggen passed Mackaij with about 500 metres to go, then Niewiadoma made her move and took the lead. Using her experience, van der Breggen waited until the final 200 metres where she passed Niewiadoma and rode to her fifth consecutive Flèche Wallonne victory.



Behind van der Breggen, her teammate Langvad showed a strong performance and was passed only by van Vleuten, who took second place ahead of the Dane.

Van Vleuten is now only 60 points behind UCI Women's WorldTour leader Marta Bastianelli (Team Virtu Cycling), who was not racing today. Sofia Bertizzolo (Team Virtu Cycling) continues to lead youth classification at the Women's WorldTour, tied in points with runner-up Marta Cavalli (Valcar Cylance). 

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