Men’s and women’s WorldTours reunite at La Flèche Wallonne

Wednesday marks the second Ardennes Classic in the men’s WorldTour calendar and the sixth event in the women’s season with La Flèche Wallonne, or the Walloon Arrow. Both races finish on the dreaded Mur de Huy, 1.3-km of 9.6%. The last time the two tours overlapped was at the Tour of Flanders.

The women will race two circuits totaling 137-km, with five hills on the first lap and six hills in the second lap. Like the men, the women will have to scale the daunting Cote de Cherave (1.3-km of 8.1%) just before the final Huy.

Rabobank-Liv sends a very strong team, including Marianne Vos, Pauline Ferrand-Prevot and Anna van der Breggen, all of whom have won previous editions. Vos and Ferrand-Prevot both are making their way back from injuries that kept them out of the winter’s cyclocross season.

Another previous winner, Evelyn Stevens (USA) lines up for Boels-Dolmans, the squad that boasts two women who are dominating the 2016 WorldTour. World champion Lizzie Armitstead (Great Britain) leads the standings with three wins out of five events and Dutch rider Chantal Blaak has won the other two. Blaak skips the race, but Canadian Karol-ann Canuel will start for Boels-Dolmans.

Leah Kirchmann (Liv-Plantur) leads the Canadian contingent; she is 12th in the WorldTour. Joëlle Numainville and Gabrielle Pilote-Fortin line up for Cérvelo-Bigla. Lex Albrecht races for Bepink.

The men’s race, at 196-km containing 15 hills, is considerably shorter than the Amstel Gold Race. However, the men will assail the Mur de Huy thrice, twice in the final 32-km.

Amstel Gold winner Enrico Gasparotto (Italy/Wanty-Groupe Gobert) has the hot hand. He’ll have competition from Michael Matthews (Australia/Orica-GreenEdge). Although broken fingers scuttled Philippe Gilbert‘s Amstel Gold, he might come good on the Huy. If not, his Spanish teammate Sammy Sanchez might surprise. Like Gilbert, Joaquim Rodriguez (Spain/Katusha) hopes for a better result than at Amstel Gold.

The strongest Spaniard is reigning champion Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), who skipped Amstel Gold, but is fresh from winning the short stage race Vuelta a Castilla y Leon. Ignore Sky’s Sergio Henao (Colombia) at your peril.

In the last five Walloon Arrows that he’s finished, Ryder Hesjedal (Trek-Segafredo) hasn’t finished lower than 25th and as high as 9th. Michael “Rusty” Woods gets the call from Cannondale for his first single day race of the season.