UAE Team Emirates brace for new challenges

With hills aplenty across both races, UAE Team Emirates-XRG is pleased to confirm its lineups for both La Flèche Wallonne and the Vuelta Asturias.

First up on Wednesday, will be La Flèche Wallonne, with its trademark finish atop the Mur de Huy, before the four-day Vuelta Asturias gets underway on Thursday.

At La Flèche Wallonne, UAE Team Emirates-XRG returns to a race it has won on two occasions through Tadej Pogačar, and finished third with Diego Ulissi in 2019. This time out, the team will be led by Sports Directors Andrej Hauptman and Marco Marzano.

The pair will call on the services of Mikkel Bjerg, Benoit Cosnefroy, Luca Giaimi, Rune Herregodts, Vegard Stake Laengen, Pavel Sivakov and Tim Wellens. The latter continues his return to racing after De Brabantse Pijl and the Amstel Gold Race.

With the Belgian national champion’s jersey on his shoulders, Wellens was a winner of this year’s Clasica Jaen before his season got interrupted by a fractured collarbone.

Six weeks on from his crash at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, the 34-year-old will hope to use Fleche Wallonne as another opportunity to sharpen his legs for the Emirati squad.

In both Cosnefroy and Sivakov, Wellens has two teammates more than capable of securing a good result on Wednesday afternoon. The former claimed third place at the Amstel Gold Race on Sunday, and can be confident of taking these strong legs into Wednesday’s uphill finish.

It will be on the Mur de Huy that the winner is decided at La Fleche Wallonne, with its cruel ramps of up to 20%.

Before this, however, the race will take its toll with the usual route of punchy climbs in the Ardennes. Beginning in Herstal, the race will head over the Trasenster and Les Forges, before taking in the finishing circuits that have come to define the modern race.

Now in its 90th edition, La Fleche Wallonne ends on a circuit that includes the Cote d’Ereffe (2.1km at 5%), the Côte de Cherave (1.3 km at 8,1%), and the Mur de Huy (1.3km at 9.6%).

The peloton will face this circuit on three occasions, with the third and final ascent of the Mur de Huy taking the riders to the finish line.

Earlier, Cosnefroy continued his run of form in the Ardennes, delivering a solid ride to take third place at the Amstel Gold Race, securing a podium finish for UAE Team Emirates-XRG in one of the jewels of the Ardennes classics campaign.

The 257km race from Maastricht to Valkenburg, featuring 33 climbs across the Limburg hills, was raced at a relentless pace throughout the day, with a large early breakaway establishing a lead before the peloton gradually increased the tempo heading into the decisive final circuits, with Marco Frigo (NSN Cycling) the last survivor to resist being caught.

The race exploded in the final 70 kilometres on climbs such as the Loorberg, Gulperberg and Kruisberg, where a select group of favourites including Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull Bora hansgrohe) and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl Trek) forged clear.