Profile & Route Flèche Wallonne 2026

On the 22nd of April the peloton tackles the second of the Ardennes classics: La Flèche Wallonne. The Belgian classic is marked by the multiple ascents of the famous Mur de Huy, the only one of the week's tryptic that features a summit finish. We take a look at its profile.

The race was created in 1936 with Philémon De Meersman taking the first win; and Marcel Kint taking three triumphs consecutively less than 10 years before it was created. Rik van Steenbergen, Fausto Coppi, Raymond Poulidor, Eddy Merckx, Rik van Looy, Roger de Vlaeminck, Francesco Moser, Bernard Hinault, Laurent Fignon, Laurence Armstrong and Laurent Jalabert are amongst the winners of this race.

There is a combination of classics specialists and climbers that have won this race including Davide Rebellin, Cadel Evans, Philippe Gilbert, Alejandro Valverde (four times from 2014 to 2017)... The most recent editions have been won by Julian Alaphilippe, Marc Hirschi, Dylan Teuns, Tadej Pogacar and Stephen Williams. In 2025 Pogacar took a comfortable win with a seated attack on the Mur de Huy.

205 kilometers and 3100 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. It's a classic that suits the pure puncheurs and also some climbers, a race which is frequently quite controlled and sees a sprint finish up the very steep ramps of the final climb. The race starts in Chey, and has more climbing and distance than last year's route due to the return of the Còte de Cherave.

This however has proven to be over the year a race which is only decided in the final climb, hence most favourites will just ride as conservatively as possibly until that point whilst their teams to the work to control the race. The race is decided on a circuit, of which there will be three laps of 37 kilometers in distance.

In each lap we've got the Côte d'Ereffe, summiting with 18.5 kilometers to go, having 2.2 kilometers at 5.4%. A small hilltop follows, but then the very fast and furious run-in to the Mur de Huy begins and that is where the race will be decided. Before getting there, there will be the Côte de Cherave which is 1.3 kilometers long at 7%, ending with 5.5 to go.

A grind, an ascent that gets steeper all the way up. It’s a pure anaerobic effort, and is ideal for the lightweight puncheurs and climbers. The ascent is 1.2 kilometers long at 10.3% and gets steeper and steeper towards the finish line. It's an effort that is gradually upped all the way. The fight into the bottom of the climb is every year very intense, and once there it's usually a lead up into the spring. The final 300 meters are very steep and so riders frequently try slightly earlier, but a long-range attack is unlikely to succeed.