"Now the race is locked because that finish is so difficult" - Tom Boonen supports the idea of changing the iconic Mur de Huy finish

As has been the tradition since many years ago, Mur de Huy was once again in the centre of attention of La Fleche Wallonne with all favorites saving their matches for this final ascent. In fact, according to Belgian experts this may have made the race a bit too boring, which brings on a radical idea.

"At first I thought that finish was fantastic," says Mark Uytterhoeven in Cycling Club Wattage podcast, who still remembers the first finish on the Mur de Huy 40 years ago. "But now I'm sick and tired of that finish. If they left out that finish on the Mur de Huy, wouldn't we have a much more interesting race?"

Tom Boonen applauds Uytterhoeven's proposal. "Because now the race is locked because that finish is so difficult. But it is not only the arrival that needs to be examined," Boonen takes a broader view. He believes that the remainder of the course simply doesn't offer riders many opportunities to try to attack from far out.

"In the final of La Fleche Wallonne, you have super-fast intermediate sections that are quite wide. The peloton always gains the upper hand there, so that no one dares to do anything."

Jan Bakelants is less supportive of the idea of a different final and finish in a race that'll celebrate 90th anniversary next year. "In the meantime, the arrival of La Fleche Wallonne has become so classic that it is not easy to simply change that. Because the DNA of the race would also change."

"La Fleche Wallonne would then start to look more like a small Liège-Bastogne-Liège," Boonen admits. Yet he pinpoints that it isn't that rare to have a mini-version of a Monument as an appetizer before the main dish: "A bit like the E3 is a mini version of the Tour of Flanders."