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Flèche wallonne: Pogacar-Alaphilippe, ants in the legs at the foot of the Wall

2022-04-20T07:07:45.514Z


The winner of the Tour de France, the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, tackles the Mur de Huy, Wednesday, in the Flèche wallonne, the preserve until now of the world champion Julian Alaphilippe.


Absent last year due to cases of Covid-19 in his UAE team, Tadej Pogacar faces Julian Alaphilippe the outgoing winner, three times winner in his last three participations (2018, 2019, 2021) in a race he masters Perfectly.

To win the chemin des Chapelles, in other words the summit of the Wall which overlooks the town of Huy, a sense of “timing” is as necessary as the qualities of explosiveness.

"You shouldn't leave too early," explained the Frenchman last year, after having dominated the Slovenian Primoz Roglic, the big absentee this time.

As the Spaniard Alejandro Valverde knew so well, the great specialist (five victories) who will say goodbye on Wednesday, at almost 42 years old, to his favorite garden.

Pogacar, an elite puncher, twice came up against the Wall (53rd in 2019, 9th in 2020), his chicane in the final at 19% (and even 25% at the rope).

But he evokes in priority the “Doyenne” Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the main meeting next Sunday, which he had removed last year.

"The form is good," said the Slovenian (23), who has not run since his show of force in the Tour of Flanders (4th).

“I think I can do well, the team is very strong”, with also the 2020 winner, the Swiss Marc Hirschi, who won that year in the absence of Alaphilippe.

Absent from the list

Waiting race and also placement after the Côte de Cherave (reintroduced on the course) located only 5.7 kilometers from the finish, the Flèche unravels in the last 1,300 meters at more than 9% slope.

Alaphilippe knows these parameters by heart.

But does the tradition, unfavorable to attackers, still prevail in a cycling that turns its habits upside down and favors the offensive?

In this hypothesis, the rating of his teammates Remco Evenepoel and Mauri Vansevenant would be on the rise.

For the Quick-Step team, outclassed and moreover unlucky in the Flandrian classics, recovery is imperative before its boss Patrick Lefevere draws the conclusions from a start to the season far from satisfying him.

Alaphilippe, who has only one success this year, a stage of the Tour of the Basque Country, has an important card for his group, four days from the Doyenne, which he is aiming for above all else.

Benoît Cosnefroy (2nd in 2020) and Warren Barguil (4th in 2020, 5th in 2021) can also wear the French colors high in the open-air stadium that is the Wall, one of the emblematic places of cycling for four decades.

For its part, the Ineos team, euphoric in Paris-Roubaix, presents several suitors.

Among them the Briton Tom Pidcock and the Colombian Daniel Felipe Martinez, recent winner of the Tour of the Basque Country.

Great Britain and Colombia are absent from the list, Slovenia too.

At least, again, for a few hours.

Source: lefigaro

All sports articles on 2022-04-20

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