Tadej Pogacar’s stunning spring Classic campaign continued with victory in La Flèche Wallonne on Tuesday, the Slovenian proving imperious on the Mur de Huy to claim victory.
Pogacar waited until the final metres of the final climb of the 194.2km race to launch his winning attack, comfortably holding off the field to claim his second Ardennes Classic after victory in the Amstel Gold Race on Sunday and his third big win of the month having started April by taking Ronde van Vlaanderen.
Britain’s Tom Pidcock was among the leaders on the final climb but faded to finish 18th, 15 seconds behind the winner. Denmark’s Mattias Skjelmose Jensen was second with Mikel Landa rolling back the years in third.
“I left it all on the climb, it was super hard,” said Pogacar. “It gives me a lot of boost when the team does such an amazing job … I needed to pull it off otherwise all the work was for nothing.”
Earlier in the women’s race Demi Vollering of the Netherlands proved equally dominant, adding La Flèche Wallonne Femmes to her wins in Strade Bianche, Dwars door Vlaanderen and the Amstel Gold Race.
“I’ve wanted to win here for a few years but I was never good enough,” said the SD Worx rider. “It’s a very hard climb and I could not believe I finally did it today.” Britain’s Elinor Barker finished 16th, 34 seconds down, and the returning Lizzie Deignan was well back in 88th, more than seven minutes behind the winner.
Both Vollering and Pogacar will look to add Liège-Bastogne-Liège to their growing 2023 collection on Sunday.
