La Flèche Wallonne Femmes includes two laps south of Huy. The first one takes the riders to Hamoir before they return and move through Modave on the way back. After approximately 60 kilometres the race enters the finishing circuit to cross the line for the first time 10 kilometres later. Then the lap is ridden twice in its entirety.
Which means two times 31.5 kilometres and two times the Côte d’Ereffe, Côte de Cherave and Wall of Huy. The riders had a first taste of the latter two before the first passage on the line.
The Ereffe is 2.1 kilometres long and goes up at 5%. A rolling descent of 12 kilometres leads to the foot of the Cherave climb. It’s a 1.3 kilometres toil at 8.1% with a notably steep first part.
A 2 kilometres descent leads into Huy and the riders wind their way to the foot of the local Wall. Also 1.3 kilometres long, but even steeper then the Cherave. It begins relatively easy, but after 400 metres the gradient kicks up to more than 10%, only to drop to 6% when the riders enter the 100 metres home straight.
Anna van der Breggen is the Queen of La Flèche Wallonne. The retired former World and Olympic Champion won the race seven times in a row. She shared the podium on these occassions with Annemiek van Vleuten and Megan Guarnier (2015), Evelyn Stevens and Megan Guarnier (2016), Lizzie Deignan and Kasia Niewiadoma (2017), Ashleigh Moolman and Megan Guarnier (2018), Annemiek van Vleuten and Annika Langvad (2019), Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and Demi Vollering (2020), and Kasia Niewiadoma and Elisa Longo Borghini (2021).
With two second places Van Vleuten is supposed to be the successor of the Queen of Huy. Yet, statistics are one thing, having the legs is something else entirely…
Ride the route yourself? Download GPX Flèche Wallonne Femmes 2022.
Other interesting reads: results and start list 2022 La Flèche Wallonne Femmes.
La Flèche Wallonne Femmes 2022: route, profiles, more
Click on the images to zoom
