With a strong team on paper,
UAE Team Emirates held some lofty ambitions ahead of
La Fleche Wallonne 2024. Sadly for them though, it turned into a disaster day with none of their seven-man team even finishing.
The likes of
Juan Ayuso, Joao Almeida,
Brandon McNulty,
Marc Hirschi and more all succumbed to the conditions on a bitterly cold and wet day in the Ardennes. One man who has no sympathy for the UAE Team Emirates roster however, is
Soudal - Quick-Step's
Louis Vervaeke, also a DNF on the day.
“Just when it started to rain, they attacked. So you didn't have time to go to the car to get clothes. I immediately rode to the front, but in the chaos that followed I never got another jacket,” Vervaeke explains in conversation with Het Nieuwsblad.
“It's a tactic like any other,” the experienced, 30-year-old Belgian adds. “They wanted to screw the peloton, but in the end they mainly screwed themselves. At the moment of their attack I thought: they must have rain gear, but apparently, that was not the case.”