It’s a wild midweek race that defines the Ardennes trio of events. Flèche Wallonne.
Buncha pros ride hard for hours, then it’s nutso up the last climb. Sure, there’s a selection before, but it’s still a drag race up the Mur de Huy to take the dub.
And good news for us Canucks? There are a bunch of Canadians racing. The better news? A couple of them are definitely favourites for big results.
On the men’s side, Michael Leonard (EF Education – EasyPost) lines up alongside Pier-André Côté of NSN Cycling. Leonard has been riding well this year with his new American team, snagging some solid results.
The women’s race features a deep Canadian group: Olivia Baril (Movistar), Isabella Holmgren (Lidl-Trek), Magdeleine Vallières Mill (EF Education-Oatly), Alison Jackson and Clara Emond (St Michel – Preference Home – Auber93), along with Sarah Van Dam (Visma – Lease a Bike). This is only Holmgren’s third race of the year–clearly her squad is preparing her for bigger races later on this year.
Speaking of looking forward, Whitehorse’s Mara Roldan is also listed for Picnic PostNL, though she is still recovering from a concussion. She said she expects to be back soon, speaking to Canadian Cycling Magazine. (Fingers crossed, champ!)
The 2025 edition was, in the end, brutally simple. Tadej Pogačar waited, watched, and then rode away on the Mur like he was on a different gradient entirely. This year, no Pogi, but there are plenty of stars racing in both the men’s and women’s.
For the men, the route shifts slightly with a start in Herstal, but the finale stays familiar. Same for the women. Three laps around Huy: Côte d’Ereffe, Côte de Cherave, and then the Mur. Again, and again, and again.
There shouldn’t be any breakaways that take the dub. The hills leading up to the finale aren’t hard, and the roads aren’t the narrow ones you see in, say, Flanders.
It almost always comes down to a reduced group hitting the Mur together. From there, it’s about who dares to go first… and who can hold it. Or who can make a move in the final hundred metres. It’s just a brutal, brutal finish. And it’s a drag race.
The spotlight naturally falls on Remco Evenepoel looking for a response, but there’s a new name in the mix: Paul Seixas. What can’t this French superstar do? Mattias Skjelmose finished second behind Evenepoel at Amstel, maybe he will have the kick up the Huy? He’s a great climber on these punchy efforts, and we know he can sprint.
You’ll be able to watch both Flèche and Liège on FloBikes.com, and Canadian Cycling Magazine will have reports on both races in both categories. It’s sort of like a Belgian Milan-San Remo–but don’t tell any Belgian that. But it truly does come down to the last ramp. The difference is riders do it multiple times, not just like the Poggio once. But it makes for some exciting racing, for sure. One Canadian has won this race, 26 years ago, Geneviève Jeanson. Who knows, maybe we will see another Canuck pull something off on Wednesday?
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