La Fleche Wallonne 2014

The 2014 edition of La Fleche Wallonne took place on Wednesday, continuing the Ardennes Classics under bright sunshine. The race was 199 kilometres from Bastogne to the Mur de Huy, another race that is a tough war of attrition between the favourites. Philippe Gilbert of BMC was one of the main favourites due to his brilliant return to form and victories at Brabantse Pijl and Amstel Gold.

A breakaway did try its hand early on in the race, defying the fast pace of the peloton. Preben Van Hecke (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise), a man frequently in the breakaways this season and indeed in a breakaway in Amstel Gold last weekend, was joined by Ramunas Navardauskas (Garmin-Sharp) and Jonathan Clarke of UnitedHealthcare. 

Their lead stretched to nine minutes at its peak, and hovered around five minutes once they reached the circuit. The peloton was chasing under the impetus of Katusha and BMC Racing, who were trying to set it up for Daniel Moreno and Philippe Gilbert respectively. Jonathan Clarke dropped back with fifty kilometres to go, finding Van Hecke and Navardauskas' pace too quick.

In the closing kilometres Lotto-Belisol, Astana and Katusha put down a fierce pace to bring back the breakaway, inadvertantly distancing Joaquim Rodriguez to the back of the peloton, still suffering from his injuries sustained in his crash in Amstel Gold. Jeremy Roy (FDJ.fr) tried his luck late on but it came to nothing, and then Damiano Cunego crashed in the peloton, also bringing down Joaquim Rodriguez, also delaying Vincenzo Nibali and Philippe Gilbert.

Dan Martin was also distanced, but recovered well on the final climb, until with 200 metres to go Alejandro Valverde of Movistar timed his attack to perfection, with no one else able to follow. Valverde won La Fleche Wallonne by three seconds from Dan Martin. Michal Kwiatkowski finished third another second down. The win here was Valverde's first Ardennes Classic since 2006, which makes him a big favourite for Sunday's Liege-Bastogne-Liege.