Male Team 18 Apr
Flèche Wallonne
198.5 Kilometers
Alejandro Valverde will be surely looking forward to a race he’s dominated lately, the Spanish superstar from the Movistar Team having won the last four editions of the Flèche Wallonne. There will be no big changes -the ones happening, though, will bring the event closer to her ‘sister’, Liège-Bastogne-Liège- on a 2018 route which maintains the Mur de Huy as center of all attentions -also in its women’s event–.
La Vecquée (65km) and La Redoute (82km) are new to this year’s course from Seraing, anticipating -together with the climbs of Mont (100km) and Amay (126km)- the first ascent to Huy, completed with 58km from the finish line.
There, a circuit will start with two passages through the ‘côtes’ of Ereffe (2km, 5%) and, most importantly, Cherave (1,300m, 8.1%), a very long straight whose position inside the final 6km offers the most courageous ones a long shot before the inevitable sprint finish through the climb also known as Chemin des Chapelles (1.3km, 9,6%).