Pogacar wins Walloon Arrow for the second time
Tadej Pogacar has won the Flèche Wallonne, the Ardennes cycling race that finishes on the Mur de Huy, for the second time. The Slovenian from UAE Team Emirates accelerated on the final climb and none of his competitors could follow.
Frenchman Kévin Vauquelin finished second, with Briton Tom Pidcock third.
Pogacar, who previously won the race in 2023, is the successor to Britain's Stephen Williams, who triumphed last year in miserable conditions. The 26-year-old Slovenian has already won the Strade Bianche and the Tour of Flanders this year.
It was the 89th edition of the Walloon Arrow.
A leading group of eight, including Norwegian Tobias Foss and Australian Robert Stannard, never gained more than a three-minute lead. The peloton was controlled by the men from UAE Team Emirates and Soudal Quick-Step, the team of Belgian Remco Evenepoel.
With 40 kilometres to go, just before the second crossing of the Muur, Mattias Skjelmose crashed. The winner of the Amstel Gold Race took a number of riders with him in a slippery bend. Without the Dane from Lidl-Trek, the peloton quickly got the three remaining leaders in sight.
The trio - in addition to Foss's compatriots Fredrik Dversnes and Andreas Leknessund - started the climb of the Côte d'Ereffe with a 20-second lead. The peloton, in which Pogacar and Evenepoel were constantly at the front, let them do their thing for a while.
On the Côte de Cherave, the penultimate climb, the leading group was caught. Two of Pogacar's teammates kept up the pace and with a group of about thirty men they started the last climb of the Muur. There Pogacar accelerated after the Irishman Ben Healy had made a brief attempt earlier. Evenepoel, the other favorite, had no answer. The two-time Olympic champion reached the top in ninth place.
RTL Nieuws
