Valverde wins the 2014 Flèche Wallonne

Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) showed us why he’s won more races than anyone else this season. Valverde timed his attack to perfection on the Mur de Huy to win his second Flèche Wallonne, ahead of Dan Martin (Garmin-Sharp) and Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-QuickStep).

Valverde, who won this race in 2006, sat on the front of the peloton unfazed by the little digs off the front happening around him. Kwiatkowski made the first move of the favourites, passing Bauke Mollema (Belkin) who had been marshalling things on the front.

Martin managed to stage a great recovery after being hampered by a crash at the foot of the Mur de Huy. The Garmin rider briefly looked like he might have the legs to make it to the line.

Valverde kept his cool until the climb began to crest, at around 200 metres to go, before launching his attack. Nobody was able to get close to Valverde as he powered away and the Spaniard built up a sizable gap by the time he reached the finish line. The Movistar rider has been on scintillating form this season and Flèche Wallonne is his eighth victory this season.

"The Ardennes have been resisting me in the last few years - always getting podium places, but no victories," Valverde said. "I was coming here a bit frustrated. I felt strong at the Amstel, but not as well as today. I had good legs from the beginning; when you feel well, you have to take all chances. It turned out perfectly well at the end, but sometimes, you're doing well but you run out of luck, which I really had today."

Some of the same protagonists from Amstel Gold Race were near the front at the top of the climb, but Amstel Gold Race winner Philippe Gilbert (BMC) was also caught out by the same crash as Martin. However, the Belgian rider found himself stuck in the middle of the peloton with nowhere to go, the huge crowds preventing him from making it back to the front. He had to settle for 10th place. Defending champion Daniel Moreno (Katusha) could only manage once place better than Gilbert.

"Those who contested the win today were not a surprise at all: all the top guys," Valverde said. "I didn't want to get myself boxed in - I had to get in very, very good position into the final climb. When you're feeling great, you have to start climbs up front not to suffer any misfortune. You can get boxed in, you have to brake, you take bigger efforts, and you don't win.

"I was looking for Dani (Moreno), Purito, Gilbert, Kwiatkowski, Daniel Martin... there were many candidates I was next to the barriers with 300m to go and couldn't get past, but as soon as I saw a gap, I followed it, I jumped away and managed to make a gap and raise my arms at the finish."

How it happened

Perhaps motivated by the much warmer, drier weather than had been forecast and the lack of any classified climbs for the first two fifths of the 199 kilometre route, the peloton roared out of the Flèche Wallonne 2014 start town of Bastogne at an extremely fast pace, averaging 49.4 kilometres in the first hour of racing.

That couldn’t stop three riders going clear very early on: Garmin-Sharp’s Ramunas Navardauskas - who in 2012 became Lithuania’s first ever Giro d’Italia leader after his team won the TTT there - United Healthcare’s Jonathan Clarke and Belgian veteran Preben Van Hecke (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise). Van Hecke had already established his early break credentials for this year’s Ardennes when he took part in a day-long four-man move in the Amstel Gold last Sunday that only fell apart in the last 15 kilometres.

As the trio of early movers headed north towards the Huy circuit, their lead stretched to as much as nine minutes on the rolling farmland before Katusha and BMC opted to begin the process of reeling them back in. At the Côte de Bellaire, the first classified climb of 11, their advantage was down to 6:40 and on the first ascent of the Mur de Huy, as BMC tapped out a steady rhythm behind, the three were now down to an advantage of 5:50.

With a little less than 50 kilometres to go, Clarke found the going too tough on the Cote de Bohissau climb and dropped back, whilst Navardauskas and Van Hecke continued to forge on regardless. BMC and Katusha continued to set a painfully high pace, however, and the lead was falling fast. The remaining two escapees only had 1:18 on the peloton on penultimate ride up the Mur de Huy.

There was a flurry of attacks as the escapees came close, but Katusha looked in control as they sat on the front of the peloton. The Russian team were joined by Astana and AG2R-La Mondiale at the helm in the closing kilometres. One Katusha rider that wasn’t present at the pointy end was Joaquim Rodríguez. The Spaniard could be seen dangling off the back, still suffering from the rib injury he suffered at Amstel Gold.

As the escapees were caught with 12 kilometres to go, Lotto-Belisol began to drive the pace. The result was the peloton stringing out and gaps began to appear near the front. Jérémy Roy (FDJ.fr) saw his opportunity to go and the Frenchman tried to go on a long-range attack.

Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Merida) saw his chances of a good result go up in smoke when he went down with just under three kilometres to go. He fell right into the path of Rodríguez, who found himself on the floor again. The crash also disrupted the run of the likes of Gilbert, Martin and Nibali, as they entered the Mur de Huy.

AG2R-La Mondiale lead the peloton onto the Mur, with Belkin taking up the pace setting soon after. As the favourites assembled on the front of the group, Gilbert found himself only able to watch the action from a distance.

Valverde sat comfortably to one side of the group, allowing the others to show their cards. After his performance on the Mur de Huy, the Spaniard will surely be favourite for victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday.

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