Hirschi conquers Mur de Huy to win La Flèche Wallonne

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Marc Hirschi (Team Sunweb) continued his phenomenal season with victory in La Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday. The 22-year-old from Switzerland powered clear with around 50 meters to go on the Mur de Huy to beat Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R La Mondiale) and Michael Woods (EF Pro Cycling) to take the biggest one-day win of his young career.

As expected the race came down to the final slopes of the Mur de Huy, despite an additional climb being added to the race, with Richie Porte (Trek Segafredo) the first potential winner to hit the front with around 1,000m to go. 

The Tour de France podium finisher was able to string out the leading group before Woods pushed forward for what briefly looked like the winning move. But lurking on his wheel was Hirschi, who timed his acceleration perfectly to win the race with a healthy gap on those behind.

Woods' move with 200m to go came just too soon, with Hirschi leaving it late and coming around the Canadian’s left-hand side. Cosnefroy came through the finishing pack to take a well-deserved second place ahead of Woods, while Warren Barguil (Team Arkea Samsic) and Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) rounded out the top five on the day.

For Hirschi, the successes keep coming. At his maiden Tour de France – his first three-week race of any note – he won a stage and walked away with the combatitivity prize. He followed that with third in the road race at the UCI Road World Championships in Imola, Italy. 

"It went perfect for us with a small group of four guys and my team did a really good job, we put one of the guys to control the race," Hirschi said. "In the final laps, it was so fast anyway, that the guys came back, and on the last climb I had the legs. 

"It was so hard … It’s a steep but steady and you don’t have to go too early, but you are fully lactic acid, and it’s about what’s in the head, you have to be strong in the head to get through the pain."

Earlier on there was heartbreak for 21-year-old Mauri Vansevenant (Deceuninck-QuickStep), who was part of the early break of the day. Making his WorldTour debut, the Belgian survived until just the final 4km before crashing on the run-in to the final climb. He was unlikely to have held on for victory but the fall cruelly cut short his race in dramatic fashion. He was caught by Rigoberto Urán (EF Pro Cycling), who had attacked on the penultimate climb, before the rampaging bunch swallowed up both riders with 2km remaining.

Deceuninck-QuickStep set the pace at the foot of the climb as teams looked to position their leaders, before Porte came from almost the back of the group to draw out the main contenders.

How it unfolded

Typically La Flèche Wallonne comes in the middle of the Ardennes but with the rescheduled season, and the recent news of Amstel Gold’s cancellation, teams and riders will take what they’re given when it comes to racing, and after Anna Van der Breggen stormed to the win in the women’s race earlier in the day, it was up to the men to follow.

Mauri Vansevenant (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Aaron Van Poucke (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Mathijs Paaschens (Bingoal WB) and Marlon Gaillard (Total Direct Energie) broke away and formed the early move, with the foursome establishing a nine-minute lead over the peloton after 50km of racing.

The final 85km was be ridden on a 32km circuit that includes three climbs: the Côte d’Ereffe (final pass 19km from the finish), the Côte du Chemin des Gueuses (9.5km from the line) and, of course, the Mur de Huy, and saw Alessandro de Marchi (CCC Team) and Ide Schelling (Bora-Hansgrohe) clip off the front of the peloton.

On the second ascent of the Muy, the pace in the peloton lifted with de Marchi going clear of his Bora companion. However with 25km to go the Italian was caught, while on the Côte d’Ereffe the young Vansevenant pushed clear of his last breakaway companion. Rui Costa and Tim Wellens were both active at the front of the peloton, but with 14km to go Vansevenant still had a minute on those behind.

At the foot of the Côte du Chemin des Gueuses the Colombian rider Rigoberto Uran put in a huge effort to go clear and the EF Pro Cycling rider had 30 seconds as he crested the climb, but even when he caught Vansevenant before the climb the pair only had a marginal lead over the peloton.