Just three days after the Amstel Gold Race, it's now time for the next hilly classic with "La Flèche Wallonne". This year's edition was won by Stephen Williams (Team Israel Premier Tech). In this post, you can find my takeaways of this year's edition of this race together with a short explanation.
1. Stephen Williams (Team Israel Premier Tech) continues to have a good season
In January, Stephen Williams had already won the Santos Tour Down Under. Winning this race, the Briton wins another relatively big race by timing his sprint perfectly. With this win, Williams also confirmed to a lot of people that his win in the Santos Tour Down Under wasn't just a coincidence. After this race, the 27-year old rider will go to Liège-Bastogne-Liège before he will start his preparation for the Tour de France, in which he will try to go for a stage win.
2. Kevin Vauqelin (Team Arkea B&B Hotels) continues his good season
In this race, there was another rider, who continues to impress this year and his name is Kevin Vauqelin. The Frenchman was tenth in the final general classification in Tirreno Adriatico, eighth in the final general classification of the Tour of the Basque Country. In this race, he showed that his legs are still good by being second in this race. The twenty-two year old rider was second by a clear margin, but was clearly ahead of the number three. Consequently, he can go to Liège Bastogne Liège with confidence before he will also start his preparation for the Tour de France.
3. The weather conditions took their toll
The weather conditions made the race a lot more difficult. The riders in the peloton faced rainy condition and wet roads for the big majority of the day. Only in the final, the roads started to dry up. As a consequence, a lot of big names, who started, didn't finish; Mattias Skjelmose (Team Lidl Trek), Juan Ayuso (Team UAE Emirates) and Aleksandr Vlasov (Team Bora Hansgrohe) were just a few of them.