Preview: Flèche Wallone. Mur de Huy awaits star-studded classics lineup

On the 20th of April the peloton will ride the second of the Ardennes classics trio, as the peloton head deep into Belgian territory for a day where the puncheurs will have the opportunity to have a strong result.

202 kilometers and 3200 meters of climbing. That is the data you’ve got for this race, it is one that doesn’t feature any long ascent however it does feature a lot of rolling roads throughout the entire route. The race is decided on a circuit, in which the riders will ride 3 laps of with 31 kilometers in distance.

In the final lap the riders will go through the Côte d’Ereffe with 2Km at 5.8%, which summits with 19.5 kilometers to go. As for the Côte de Cherave it summits with a mere 6 kilometers to go which may open the race a bit more. It’s 1.5Km at 6.9% and features gradients in the double digits, it’s no easy feature. A small descent and fast run-up to Huy will follow, until the final climb which is a grind, an ascent that gets steeper all the way up and is very well known in the peloton, the Mur de Huy. It’s a pure anaerobic effort, and is ideal for the lightweight puncheurs with 10.2% average gradient (maximum 18%) throughout 1.2 kilometers that go straight up to the line.

CyclingUpTodate prediction:

**** Tadej Pogacar, Julian Alaphilippe

*** Benoît Cosnefroy, Tom Pidcock, Alejandro Valverde

** Michael Woods, Remco Evenepoel, Marc Hirschi, Warren Barguil

* Dylan Teuns, Daniel Martínez, Bauke Mollema, Jonas Vingegaard, Aleksandr Vlasov

You will be able to keep up with the race here on CyclingUpToDate as we bring you the race report and interviews surrounding Paris-Roubaix.