At the end of a cold and wet edition of La Flèche Wallonne, the win came down to the final ascent of the Mur de Huy. It was three riders at the head of the race, but the strongest of them was Kasia Niewiadoma. The Canyon-SRAM rider accelerated away from Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) and Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) to take her first road victory since winning the fourth stage of the Women’s Tour in 2019. Vollering held on for second and Longo Borghini third.
- For the first time in the race’s history, the ASO took a page out of Flanders Classic’s book and started the women after the men, so live coverage didn’t even kick off until 17:00 CET. That meant that the horrendous weather the men rode through hit the women early in their race, leading to some very cold fingers.
- An early break of three became a group of two after the first ascent of the Mur de Huy 32 km to the finish. Sara Martín of Movistar and Julie van de Velde held a two-and-a-half minute gap over the chasing peloton, but some were not content to wait for a chase to form. Grace Brown (FDJ-Suez) and Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) had attacked before the first ascent of the Mur and continued their attack after the climb, but were caught 15 km before the base of the climb.
- Niamh Fisher-Black unfortunately was taken out of contention with 9.4 km to go due to a mechanical. The rider from New Zealand went down momentarily but was able to get up quickly. It would not be quick enough to get back to the front of the race.
- Elise Chabbey was the next attack to go. She bridged to Rooijakkers who was dangling out front, behind Longo Borghini tried to stay in touch with the Swiss rider. The move forced the world champion to the front to chase and the acceleration closed down the attack from Martín and Van de Velde. As soon as it all came back together, with 5 km to go, Riejanne Markus of Visma-Lease a Bike countered. Not exactly one you want to let go, the Dutch ITT champion was able to get a 13 second gap by the base of the Mur de Huy.
- On the climb, Vollering set a pace that broke the peloton apart. Strong climbers like Ashleigh Moolman Pasio and Evita Muzic dropped but Niewiadoma and Longo Borghini held strong. Longo Borghini was the first to accelerate but as soon as she did Niewiadoma made her move, finishing with a convincing gap.
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The win was a big one for Niewiadoma who has been racing through a five-year drought. She’s come close, last year at the Tour de France Femmes Queen stage atop the Col du Tourmalet for example. But her only win in years has been the Gravel World Championships last Fall.
[This] means a lot, I really hope with this victory I inspired a lot of people who are pursuing their dreams for so long because I have experienced a lot of failures, a lot of second and third places but I never stopped believing as a team we can win another race. I really hope that race will inspire a lot of people to keep believing and keep pursuing their dreams because the real world is always right there waiting for us.
Kasia Niewiadoma after winning La Flèche Wallonne.
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