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Fleche Wallone Discussion
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| whitejersey |
Posted on 20-01-2024 15:04
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Classics Specialist
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Welcome to Fleche Wallone, a storied hills classic with plenty to offer for our stacked field today. It is also a race with historic significance and while it is not quite Liege – Bastogne - Liege it is still a race most managers yearn to win at some point in their management career.
The route is the classic one that we all know and love. 197 kilometres from the start in Charleroi until we finish on the fabled Mur de Huy, a feared climb by many that has created legends for as long as it has been raced. Some of those legends are racing today, so let us look at the favourites to take home the victory here in Belgium.
The big dog that everyone will be out to beat here is going to be Superman  Lopez, the Colombian has every skill needed in the book, but as we saw in LBL sometimes he can whiff.  De Bie had an amazing time and claimed a magnificent monument win but can he reclaim the throne in Fleche from Lopez? Time will tell. The field continues to have absolutely amazing names to contest for the win.  Mohoric.  Lutsenko,  Gidich,  Kinoshita & Skujins are just 5 of the next 10 names that could be said to have a very real chance to win this race should everything fall in line. The Kazaks both present very scary skillset with Gidich pretty much being a slightly worse version of Lopez and Lutsenko has the most aggressive punch of any rider in the favourites field only slightly matched by  Yates who is much better on the line though. Skujins and Kinoshita massive endurance ability might not come into play with the slightly shorter race, but it will be interesting to see how they tackle the finale once we get there.
| Rider | MO | HI | ST | RS | AC | FT | | Lopez | | 84 | 76 | 74 | 78 | 80 | | De Bie | | 84 | 77 | 76 | 75 | 74 | | Mohoric | | 83 | 78 | 72 | 77 | 71 | | Lutsenko | | 83 | 76 | 73 | 81 | 69 | | Gidich | | 83 | 78 | 77 | 75 | 76 | | Kinoshita | | 83 | 80 | 77 | 77 | 73 | | Skujins | | 83 | 80 | 77 | 76 | 66 |  McCarthy | | 82 | 80 | 75 | 74 | 71 | | Yates | | 81 | 77 | 70 | 80 | 74 |  Vakoc | | 81 | 75 | 71 | 74 | 61 |  Buchmann | | 81 | 73 | 74 | 73 | 67 |  Valter | | 80 | 76 | 75 | 78 | 73 |  Koretzky | | 80 | 75 | 68 | 77 | 72 |  Formolo | | 80 | 76 | 76 | 71 | 66 | | Müller | | 80 | 76 | 71 | 73 | 75 |  Borges | | 80 | 75 | 73 | 81 | 75 |
With that let’s take a look at the full startlist:
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 20-01-2024 15:25
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 16554
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Fleche suits Aranburu the least out of any hilly classic basically, so can't hope for much. Good positioning and another top 20 is the goal. Maybe sneak a depth guy into the top 50, but most of that will just be random luck.
Thanks for the preview!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 20-01-2024 16:29
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World Champion
Posts: 13561
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Getting top 10s in all Ardennes classics would be a pretty great result from Formolo
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| ember |
Posted on 20-01-2024 18:31
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Team Leader
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Fingers crossed for a great position for Mohoric when the Mur starts! If not, a good result could be impossible, I fear.
Thank you for the preview, looking forward to the report! |
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 20-01-2024 20:14
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 7773
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11th in AGR
6th in LBL
Thus, by the laws of mathematics, Kinoshita has to finish first in LFW 
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| Luis Leon Sanchez |
Posted on 21-01-2024 01:25
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Team Leader
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Borges has been improving going from 20th in AGR to 8th in LBL. My hope is that we see a similar race to LBL where it comes down to a reduced bunch sprint and just maybe we'll see a big result for Borges. Depth from Mas would also be appreciated.
Thank you for the preview wj! One hell of a start list as you'd expect so very difficult to know who's going to pull through for the win here. Looking forward to it
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| knockout |
Posted on 21-01-2024 10:00
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8235
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Lopez has quite room to improve after recent outings so ideally he starts doing now.
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 06-12-2025 17:03
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| Bikex |
Posted on 21-01-2024 11:21
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Team Leader
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Joined: 25-08-2012
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Do it like at AGR, Yevgeniy! Thanks for the preview! |
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| baseballlover312 |
Posted on 21-01-2024 16:51
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Tour de France Champion
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Ouch. Aranburu was near the front all day and then fell way back when it mattered most. Fair enough given the startlist, but 27th is pretty bad even in a deep field.
Congrats to Evonik and thanks for the report!
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy |
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| SotD |
Posted on 21-01-2024 18:52
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World Champion
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Oh boy. I can’t wait for the season to end, so we Can begin building a new puncheur setup. It’s just awful to be part of these races with Koretzky being an absolute Shadow of himself.
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| jaxika |
Posted on 21-01-2024 18:54
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Classics Specialist
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Finally some sparks from Ardila. Congrats to Evonik and thanks for the report! |
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| knockout |
Posted on 21-01-2024 18:55
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8235
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Yezzzzz, finally Lopez starts the season properly. Would have loved to see this version of him at the LBL but a win is a win and im glad to see him succesful here.
Also nice ride by Blums securing a second guy in the top 20. Much appreciated.
Thanks for the report 
A Big Thank You To All MG Reporters! |
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 21-01-2024 19:02
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World Champion
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Not so good from Formolo this time. I wonder if that attack affected his sprint or just he didn't have it today. But even with this result, his Ardennes campaing was a success.
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| Marcovdw |
Posted on 21-01-2024 19:59
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 7773
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Well, that was shit
Congrats knockout and thanks for the report whitejersey!
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| redordead |
Posted on 22-01-2024 07:26
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Team Leader
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Gaudu was back to normal here, too bad he couldn't do that in Liege where there were more points on offer. MAL is the expected winner here, but nice to see Ardila show his skillset on this finish. Maybe he can win the race once MAL retires.
"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
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| Luis Leon Sanchez |
Posted on 22-01-2024 10:14
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Team Leader
Posts: 5568
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Borges very active on the attack but that doesn't really suit him  21st in the end is certainly a little disappointing but still a few points. Mas doing better than him for 18th is great from Mas to add more points here.
Thank you for the report!! MAL living up to the favourite tag this time 
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| Bikex |
Posted on 22-01-2024 16:50
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Team Leader
Posts: 7385
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Good finish to the ardennes classics by Gidich with another podium. Congrats knockout! |
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| OlegTinkov |
Posted on 23-01-2024 04:39
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 2773
Joined: 31-12-2007
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Same story as Amstel; Skujins positioning is pretty good but he is lacking that uphill sprint this season, finishing outside of the top-10 is not good at all. Let's hope Liege will be better. The screenshots - as always - are very nice whitejersey.
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| cio93 |
Posted on 23-01-2024 18:25
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World Champion
Posts: 10616
Joined: 29-10-2007
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Hats off to Valentin Madouas! A brilliant Top 10 on the toughest puncheur finale of the year, that's a massive effort for any sub-80 guy, let alone a 77hill rider.
Yet again, I wonder if he's trying to tell me "I'm worth training" or "I'm actually great value for money as is"! 
Congrats knockout! And thank you whitejersey for impeccable reporting.
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| jph27 |
Posted on 16-03-2024 22:15
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Team Leader
Posts: 7374
Joined: 20-03-2010
PCM$: 900.00
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6th is fine given the rest of De Bie’s performances over the Ardennes week, especially as the PCM22 hill AI doesn’t lend itself to the strongest puncheurs breaking away. Thanks for the report! |
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