La Flèche Wallonne: Paul Seixas delivers on his promise with commanding victory

Paul Seixas (Decathlon-CMA CGM) continued his scintillating spring with victory at La Flèche Wallonne, soaring away on the brutal slopes of the Mur de Huy to stamp his name as the youngest-ever winner of the 90-year-old Ardennes Classic.

Coming off a dominant week-long performance at Itzulia Basque Country, 19-year-old Seixas was installed as the heavy favourite for success on his debut in Wallonia, and he delivered on the famed final ascent of the midweek race.

Seixas led the way up the climb from the very start, racing alongside Ben Tulett (Visma-Lease a Bike) early on before jumping clear with 200 metres to go. He dispatched the Briton with seeming ease on the steep ramps, while none of the other top favourites had any answer to his powerful move.

Swiss champion Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) passed Tulett in the dying metres to grab second place, three seconds down, while Benoît Cosnefroy (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), who followed Seixas and Tulett up the climb, took fourth place.

"I want to thank all my teammates. They gave it their all, 200%, and rode the whole time. Sometimes I had to fend for myself a bit, but they gave it their all," Seixas said after the race.

"This is truly unbelievable. Last year, I was still watching the TV broadcast of this race. Now I am here, and I've won it. But as I said, this is a victory for the team.

"I had planned to set the pace with the team, but it had been tough all day, and everyone was struggling. After that, it was a matter of feeling and watching the signs. Everyone went all out."

How it unfolded

The 90th edition of the men's La Flèche Wallonne followed a familiar formula, running 200km around Wallonia from Herstal to the Mur de Huy.

Almost 3,000 metres of climbing lay between the riders and the finish line at the start of the day, with three ascents each of the Côte d'Ereffe (2.2km at 5.2%), Côte de Cherave (1.4km at 7.6%), and the famous final climb of the Mur de Huy (1.4km at 8.9%) lying in wait.

Attacks flew in the early kilometres of the race, and it didn't take long for the break of the day to go clear.

Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility) was joined in the move by Sjoerd Bax (Pinarello-Q36.5), Jakub Otruba (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Alain Jousseaume (TotalEnergies), Vincent Van Hemelen (Flanders-Baloise), and Jardi Christiaan van der Lee (EF Education-EasyPost).

Back in the peloton, a selection of squads including Lidl-Trek, Ineos Grenadiers, Decathlon-CMA CGM, and UAE Team Emirates-XRG controlled the time gap, with the break's advantage not reaching out much more than three minutes.

Up front, Van Hemelen led the break over the first climbs of the day, the Côte de Trasenster and the Côte des Forges. Jousseaume led the race over the first ascent of the Ereffe with 95km to go, shortly after the break reached the first of three laps of the closing circuit.

Van Hemelen led over the Cherave with 81km to go, but he'd let go of the front of the race soon afterwards to leave five men up front.

Jousseaume led the race up the Mur de Huy for the first time, while back in the peloton, former triple race winner Julian Alaphilippe dropped out of the group. At that point, the gap to the breakaway had dropped down under two minutes, but they continued to push onto the second lap.

The next time up the Cherave, 44km from the finish, Bax and Otruba were struggling and dropped out of the break. The pair battled back to the move, but soon enough it was Jousseaume letting go on the second ascent of the Mur de Huy.

Up front, Leknessund and Van der Lee led the way with Bax and Otruba dropping away before getting back on following the climb. The survivors continued as a quartet, leading by 30 seconds into the final lap of the race.

The tension racked up as the riders headed towards the final, with teams battling for position at the head of the peloton. Further back in the group, another Tudor racer who has won the race in the past fell out of contention, with Marc Hirschi getting caught in a multi-rider crash with 20km to go.

On the next climb of the Ereffe, the break broke apart for good as Leknessund pushed on alone. Otruba was soon caught by the peloton, while Bax and Van der Lee fought on in pursuit for a little longer before they were brought back 15km from the line.

Leknessund continued alone with a gap of a shade under 30 seconds, while back in the peloton, the teams of the top favourites jostled for prime position with just the Cherave and Mur de Huy left on the menu.

French squads Decathlon-CMA CGM and Groupama-FDJ United massed on the front for the final 10km as Leknessund lay just 15 seconds up the road. The Norwegian made it to the Cherave before he was finally tracked down, leaving the favourites to take over for the final 7km.

Ewen Costiou (Groupama-FDJ United) took a flyer on the run-in to the Mur de Huy, but the peloton was all together at the base of the climb, with Seixas at the head of affairs alongside Tulett in the early metres.

Schmid and Cosnefroy followed closely behind, with few other contenders in the picture on the way up. Indeed, the order continued almost the whole way up the climb, with Seixas pushing on close to the top to clinch the win.

The victory makes Seixas the youngest ever winner of the race by a full two years. He takes the title of youngest La Flèche Wallonne champion from the race's inaugural champion, Philémon De Meersman, who triumphed in Liège in 1936.

Behind him, Tulett faded as the road flattened towards the line, with Schmid taking advantage to burst through for second. Cosnefroy followed, while Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) rounded out the top five a distant five seconds further back.

Results

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