The last of the Ardennaises will take place this Sunday, over 250 km.
Men’s race is followed by women’s.
Outward journey in yellow, inward in red:
Global profile:
Last climbs and finish:
Last year, the Solo-venian Pogatchar (🇸🇮 UAE) won (far) ahead of Bardet (🇫🇷 DSM→Picnic), himself alone before a small bunch won by Van der Poel (🇳🇱 Alpecin).
The preceding years, there were 2 victories by Evenepoel (🇧🇪 Soudal-QS) and already one by Pogatchar. And both of them will compete this year…
Bardet🇫🇷 will run after a come-back on the Tour of the Alps (Trentino) he struggled a bit to finish. Van der Poel will not compete this year. Neither will Van Aert.
Other than that, we shall meet again the big classics riders and punchers we saw over the last weeks; I don’t feel that many climbers will join the party this year, except Bardet🇫🇷 and Mas (🇪🇸 Movistar) who didn’t finish the previous race on Wednesday. No Roglitch nor Vingegaard for example.
Among the French representation, Vauquelin (🇫🇷 Arkéa) who finished 2nd behind Pogatchar on the Flèche Wallonne, shall be present; as well as Grégoire🇫🇷 and G. Martin🇫🇷 for FDJ.
And indeed how fast they descend, I thought I was going have a heart attack when Fuglsang nearly crashed in the forest in 2019.