La Flèche Wallonne 2023

La Flèche Wallonne: Tadej Pogacar puts hammer down on Huy for victory

Tadej Pogačar made it two out of three in the Ardennes Classics, after winning the Amstel Gold Race, the UAE Team Emirates rider crushed the competition on the Mur de Huy to win La Flèche Wallonne 2023.

Read how La Flèche Wallonne 2023 was won in our live report.

La Flèche Wallonne 2023 Overview

The mid-week 2023 La Flèche Wallonne will take place on April 19.

The route for La Flèche Wallonne in 2023 starts in Herve and runs 194.2 kilometres to the finish atop the Mur de Huy. The triple circuit with the Mur de Huy, Côte d'Effere and Côte de Cherave softens the legs but the decider is the 19% section of the Mur de Huy at 400 metres to go.

Last year, Alejandro Valverde was denied in his final run at the Spring Classic that he won five times, being beaten to the line by Bahrain Victorious' Dylan Teuns.

La Flèche Wallonne 2023 Teams

• AG2R Citroën Team
• Alpecin-Deceuninck
• Astana Qazaqstan Team
• Bahrain Victorious
• Bingoal WB
• Bora-Hansgrohe
• Burgos-BH
• Cofidis
• EF Education-Easypost
• Equipo Kern Pharma
• Groupama-FDJ
• Ineos Grenadiers
• Intermarché-Circus-Wanty
• Israel-Premier Tech
• Jumbo-Visma
• Lotto Dstny
• Movistar Team
• Soudal Quick-Step
• Team Arkea-Samsic
• Team DSM T
• Team Jayco AlUla
• TotalEnergies
• Trek-Segafredo
• UAE Team Emirates
• Uno-X Pro Cycling Team

La Flèche Wallonne history

Past winners of La Flèche Wallonne

Flèche Wallonne is the middle child of the Ardennes Classics, sandwiched in the middle of the week between younger sibling Amstel Gold Race and La Doyenne - the oldest - Liège-Bastogne-Liège,  which rounds out the triple crown.

Before the Amstel Gold Race was born in 1966, La Flèche Wallonne, which began in 1936, bounced around the calendar searching for its identity, finally linking up with Liège-Bastogne-Liège first on the same weekend in 1951, then as its post-script until it settled down in 1985 in its current Wednesday spot.

The start cities have changed over the years but came up with the winning formula when organisers chose the Mur de Huy as the finish in 1983, when Bernard Hinault claimed the victory.

In recent years, new climbs have been added to the finale, with the Côte d'Ereffe and Côte du Chemin des Gueuses adding another level of difficulty but the Mur de Huy is almost always the deciding climb from a large group.

In 2022, Dylan Teuns (Bahrain Victorious) made his move on the steepest section of Mur de Huy to win the 2022 La Flèche Wallonne, holding off five-time race winner Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), while Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) took third place.

La Flèche Wallonne records

• Alejandro Valverde holds the record of wins with five
• Valverde also won four in a row between 2014 and 2017
• Valverde won both Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège three times (2006, 2015, 2017) but has never won all three Ardennes Classics