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Van der Breggen wins fifth consecutive La Flèche Wallonne Féminine

Canada's Blais in the day's breakaway

April 24, 2019
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World champion Anna van der Breggen (The Netherlands/Boels-Dolmans) is back to winning on the road, taking her fifth Flèche Wallonne Féminine in a row on Wednesday in Belgium. Van der Breggen matches her compatriot Marianne Vos with five wins.

The Course

The women’s peloton raced a 70-km loop before reaching the final circuits where it tackled the Ereffe-Cherave-Mur combination of climbs twice, with the finish line at the top of the second ascent of the Mur de Huy–a 1.3-km ascent that averages just over nine per cent and hits knee-cracking gradients of 26 per cent. The total distance was 118.5 km, with a total of seven climbs.

Blais in the Breakaway

There were a few breakaway attempts in the first 25 km but a headwind wasn’t helping. Leah Kirchmann was one of several riders with mechanicals.

Finally, a six pack of riders scooted away and Canada’s Marie-Soleil Blais was in the mix. The sextet took a gap of 1:10 onto the first climb of the day, Cote de Warre. Sunweb upped the tempo in the crosswinds and began to fragment the peloton. On the first passage of Ereffe (2.1 km of 5 percent) Blais and three others were dropped and a duo beat on out front.

With 42 km to go and under the impetus of Mitchelton-Scott, the last of the breakaway was swept up.

Endgame

Lizzie Deignan attacked on the first passage of Cherave (1.3 km of 8.1 percent) but she came to heel before the mighty Mur.

Another breakaway formed going into the second Ereffe-Cherave-Mur circuit but it was lassoed with 15-km to go. Canada’s Alison Jackson attacked with 10-km remaining. This drew the winner of Sunday’s Amstel Gold Race, Katarzyna Niewiadoma. Niewiadoma wasn’t given a long leash, but she whittled down the peloton.

Trofeo Alfredo Binda runner-up Amanda Spratt accelerated on the Cherave but there was a large regrouping on its descent. Kirchmann’s teammate Floortje Mackaij dashed away before the Huy, leading by 15 seconds and still had five seconds with 500 metres of the climb remaining. But van der Breggen and Niewiadoma caught up. The Pole couldn’t hold the Dutchwoman’s wheel.

Runner-up by a single second was Annemiek van Vleuten, with Annika Langvad rounding out the podium and giving Boels-Dolmans two spots on the celebration steps. Van Vleuten has been runner-up in the last three WorldTour events after winning the Strade Bianche opener and will be crowding Marta Bastianelli at the top of the individual standings.

Kirchmann was top Canadian in 17th.

2019 La Flèche Wallonne Féminine
1) Anna van der Breggen (The Netherlands/Boels-Dolmans) 3:17:04
2) Annemiek van Vleuten (The Netherlands/Mitchelton-Scott) +0:01
3) Annika Langvad (Denmark/Boels-Dolmans) +0:04
17) Leah Kirchmann (Canada/Sunweb) +0:51
37) Alison Jackson (Canada/Tibco-SVB) +2:03