Flèche Wallonne 2025 contenders - The kings and queens of the Mur de Huy

Flèche Wallonne and Flèche Wallonne Femmes on Wednesday, April 23, the races taking place in Belgium, to continue with the second event of the three-race swing for the Ardennes Classics. Don't miss all the action as the contenders for each race tackle the famed slopes of the Mur de Huy as its iconic grand finale in Huy.

This race is famed for its finish atop the Mur de Huy - French for 'wall of Huy' - the Walloon town it overlooks, which has marked the finish line of the Flèche Wallonne since 1985 for the men's race and since 1998 for the women's race.

It is a 1.3km hill, and the riders must contend with its average gradient of 9.6% on the way up. But what makes this climb so memorable is its steep pitches. 

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The first 500 metres or so run at 5% before the road steepens, as the gradient reaches its steepest point at 22% on the midpoint bend, before the final curve towards the finish. It reduces to roughly 13% and then final averages 10% through the final sweeping curve and into the last 200 metres, where the winning moves are made.

The climb is tailor-made for previous champions like Alejandro Valverde, Julian Alaphilippe, and last year's winner Stephen Williams. At the women's race, Marianne Vos has won it five times, and in the last three editions, Marta Cavalli, Demi Vollering, and Kasia Niewiadoma have claimed the title. Anna van der Breggen has dominated with seven titles, but she has been hampered with recent illness so may be an outside contender she could win an eighth.

Cyclingnews selects a handful of riders to watch at this year's Flèche Wallonne and Flèche Wallonne Femmes.

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Demi Vollering (FDJ-SUEZ)

Demi Vollering stole the show at the Ardennes Classics in 2023, winning all three events, but she was unable to replicate the same sparkling success in 2024, her final season with SD Worx-Protime.

In her new colours of FDJ-SUEZ, however, Vollering has risen to victories at Setmana Valenciana and Strade Bianche, two races where she performed well against one of her biggest rivals, Van der Breggen.

Vollering will have learned a great deal in her time as a teammate and athlete-director with Van der Breggen, and certainly she understands how to race to win on the Mur de Huy. But both riders will have similar strengths and experience on this ascent.

If we gauge their capabilities on the more recent Strade Bianche, it was clear that Vollering was the strongest of the two on the steep climb into Siena, where she powered away from her rival to take the win. Watch for a similar showdown on the Mur de Huy.

An Ardennes triple is also not in the cards for Vollering as she was involved in a crash at the Amstel Gold Race and finished 20th.

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)

A former champion on the Mur de Huy in 2023, Tadej Pogačar returns for the full Ardennes Classics, which is new on his spring campaign this season. 

He started out eyeing the triple, which has not been accomplished in men's racing since Philippe Gilbert in 2011 and Davide Rebellin in 2004 - but a runner-up performance at Amstel Gold Race means it won't be in the cards for him this year.

But he still has two more chances at victory with Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège up next. 

He has already had a winning start to the season, wearing his world champion's jersey, and we expected no less after his dominant performances in 2024. Victories at the UAE Tour, Strade Bianche and Tour of Flanders stood out this year, but he was also on the podium at Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix, punctuating his all-around talent across varied terrain.

He arrives in the Ardennes week eager to perform, but he will face top competition, and as we saw at Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix, winning is not a given, although the odds are in his favour.

Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime)

No one has conquered the Mur de Huy as many times as Anna van der Breggen, who will be hunting a record eighth title to add to the consecutive seven that she won between 2015 and 2021.

Although this is her comeback year from a three-year retirement, she has already proved to be in competitive form, having finished third overall at Setmana Valenciana and second at Strade Bianche on the steep climb into Siena.

However, Van der Breggen suffered with illness and pulled out of the Amstel Gold Race in the early stages on Sunday. The team said her participation in La Flèche Wallonne, as well as Liége-Bastogne-Liége, would most likely proceed as she should recover from a cold, but the expectation of a significant result was not a primary objective. 

The Dutch racer is one of only two women who have won the Ardennes triple back in 2017, a feat followed by Demi Vollering in 2023. A repeat is not in the cards this year, however, as Van der Breggen didn't finish the Amstel Gold Race on Sunday.

Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling)

Tom Pidcock has been a consistent competitor at the Ardennes Classics, winning Amstel Gold Race in 2024 and finishing third in 2023 and second in 2021, and he was also second at Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2023. He has had less success at the mid-week Flèche Wallonne, 6th in 2021, but he could still be a contender for the podium. 

This year, he joins Q36.5 Pro Cycling for the Ardennes stretch of races. Although he admits to lacking some explosiveness after finishing 11th at Brabantse Pijl, he improved to ninth at Amstel Gold Race.

He may not be on winning form yet, but he is certainly racing his way into being a contender for a top-three.

The team hasn't announced the full roster yet, but Flèche Wallonne is all about the slopes of the Mur de Huy, and if he can find his explosive power before Wednesday and has good positioning into the final climb, he has a chance at success.

Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM zondarcypto)

Kasia Niewiadoma had one of the most successful seasons of her career last year, and it all started with her victory at Flèche Wallonne. It takes a level of fitness and strategy to get to the top of the Mur de Huy first, and the Polish rider had both in spades.

She is always a consistent contender at the Ardennes Classics, and she added her Flèche Wallonne title to the Amstel Gold Race victory back in 2019. They are races that suit her ability to climb with the best in races of attrition. 

Timing on the Mur de Huy is key, and if she comes into this race in the same form as last year, her experience will carry her a long way on the iconic ascent's steep slopes. 

It's difficult to gauge Niewiadoma's form after the Amstel Gold Race as many of the favourites missed out on the day's 23-rider breakaway, but if anything, she might be coming into Flèche Wallonne fresher than she has in recent years.

Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep)

Remco Evenepoel will line up as a dark horse for a race like Flèche Wallonne because he has only ever competed in it once, and he finished somewhere back in the 40th position on the ascent. 

In fact, he came into these Ardennes Classics wanting to compete in all three, but as a somewhat of an unknown because his focus has traditionally been on Liège-Bastogne-Liège, a race he won in 2022 and 2023.

He is, however, on a successful comeback after a winter spent recovering from a complex shoulder injury, winning De Brabantse Pijl on Friday and finishing third in a three-way sprint against winner Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) and runner-up Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) at Amstel Gold Race - a race he said he could have won had he not crashed mid-race.

He has indicated that his focus is still on winning another Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but if he is in a position to climb for a strong finishing position at Flèche Wallonne, he will likely take it.

A rider like Evenepoel doesn't start races without intending to perform at his best, so watch to see what he can do on the punishing slopes of the Mur de Huy.

Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck)

Another dark horse contender is Puck Pieterse, who has decided to focus on the Cobbled Classics and the Ardennes Classics this season.

The reigning MTB cross-country World Champion is continually gaining ground on her more experienced rivals in the peloton every time she lines up to compete in the Spring Classics.

Once again, she has been one of the most consistent performers, so far, finishing fourth at Omloop and taking a pair of seventh places at Strade Bianche and Trofeo Alfredo Binda, delivering 10th at Milan-San Remo, fourth at Dwars door Vlaanderen, ninth at Tour of Flanders, and third at Amstel Gold Race.

This is her first year committing to the Ardennes Classics, and her performance in getting into the winning breakaway and sprinting for a podium spot says a lot about how much these races might suit her. 

She already has some knowledge of the Liège-Bastogne-Liège route, having won the Tour de France Femmes stage into Liège last summer, but Flèche Wallonne will be the outlier for her.

Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek)

Mattias Skjelmose is having a dream Ardennes Classics after winning the Amstel Gold Race on Sunday. 

It was a shock victory after he outsprinted favourites and breakaway companions Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), and that win will give him extra confidence heading into both Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

He is no stranger to the steep slopes of the Mur de Huy, having finished second in Flèche Wallonne in 2023, on the same time but slightly behind Pogačar. 

But his Amstel win isn't the only indication that he is in great form this spring because he had already finished fifth overall at the Itzulia Basque Country, a podium in stage 4 into La Loge des Gardes at Paris-Nice and at the one-day Faun Drome Classic.

He is clearly in some peak form and will use his strength and experience to gain another victory at Flèche Wallonne.

Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ)

Her participation in the Ardennes Classics was an unknown after she crashed and sustained a concussion at the Tour of Flanders. But the Italian Champion has recovered quickly and has returned to top form, winning Brabantse Pijl in what was her first race back.

She almost didn't miss a beat as that performance came after a strong early-season campaign that saw her win the UAE Tour and Dwars door Vlaanderen. 

She is always a contender for the Ardennes Classics, and while her performance at Amstel Gold Race (35th) is not indicative of her form, as she was not among the 23-rider winning breakaway, she will want to show her true strengths on the Mur de Huy.

She has finished on the podium four times at this race and this could be her year to take the top step in Huy.

Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech)

Stephen Williams will line up as the defending champion in the men's race after storming to victory on the Muy de Huy last year. He has only competed in two stage races and a handful of one-day races this year, and did not compete at the Amstel Gold Race, so his form is somewhat of a question mark.

He has taken a similar approach to the season, starting at the Tour Down Under, and he recently competed at the Giro d'Abruzzo.

Having already won on the Mur du Huy, Williams will know what kind of form he needs to replicate his previous year's success, but he will also know where and when to put his efforts on the climb in order to be a contender. 

It would not be outside the realm of possibility to pull off another surprise win in Huy.