Spring classics 2026

[team fl]

As threatened, here is the full list of winners of this year's AGR:

19.04.2026: Amstel Gold Race (Cat. 5)
11h - 1 Jorge Icaza (SouthWest Packers)
11h - 2 Arno Dewolf (Phoenix cycling)
15h - 1 Emil Elsner (Ansach)
15h - 2 Tvrtko Novakovic (Cupra Sports)
20h - 1 Magnus Jensen (Falcor)
20h - 2 Sajit Shrestha (Bahrain-Merida)
20h - 3 Guido Buchwald (Quickstep)
23h - 1 Carolina Navarro (Alpacas)

GW to all of them!

[Robyklebt]

Where is our Flèche introduction? Yes, Amstel shit race sort of depresses everybody that has some semblance of common sense, excitement over classics gone, but still, now we prepare the Flèche Wallonne!!! That deserves the usual intro! Where is it
Donkey can't post his awesome team without that... (not that it's needed I guess, Iskanderov leader, rest probably pretty clear. Hm, better go and check though, with the new serial inscription sometimes I end up having unfit guys)

[team fl]

Where is our Flèche introduction? Yes, Amstel shit race sort of depresses everybody that has some semblance of common sense, excitement over classics gone, but still, now we prepare the Flèche Wallonne!!! That deserves the usual intro! Where is it
Donkey can't post his awesome team without that... (not that it's needed I guess, Iskanderov leader, rest probably pretty clear. Hm, better go and check though, with the new serial inscription sometimes I end up having unfit guys)

Today: Flèche Wallonne, Big Donkey's favourite classic.

Happy?

[Robyklebt]

No!!! We want more! A proper presentation, history, character and all the cool stuff!

[team fl]

okay okay, here it is, before the race (or the day) is over:

Next up (or already under way): La Flèche Wallonne

Although some people in the internet argue that AGR is the start of the Ardennes Classics it's La Flèche Wallonne (FW) actually, as AGR is not in the Ardennes and not in Belgium in the first place. And not an important race, contrary to FW, which is regarded as just below the five cycling monuments. But that's another story. Fun fact: Did you know that at one time, La Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège were run on successive days as "Le Weekend Ardennais"? Anyway, only 8 riders achieved the Ardennes double, last was Tadej Pogacar last year.

As many of these Belgian classics, also FW was founded to boost a newspaper. This time, it was Les Sports in 1936. I won't go much into detail about the course and its changes over the years, but the most important part of the race is the the Mur de Huy. Interestingly, it's been that way only since 1984.

Record winner is Alejandro Valverde with five victories. Record winner in C4f is, how could it be different, Big Donkey with 7 wins. Last year's winners were: Maik Eberhart (Chemnitz Pro Cycling Team), Baptise Firiam (then r TAKA, now Uomo Nero), Stefan Mare (Team Trojer Velau) and Bas Kools (Medical Service). So usually, climbers are the stars of the race, if you don't let an attack (early or late or inbetween) get too much time. Guess the favourites this year are also the best climbers, but as I am late, the 9h edition has already been won not by a climber but a classic rider .

[Robyklebt]

Thanks for nothing, too late

Clearly a conspiracy. First FL sabotages the team by not doing a timely presentation. Also it's still not a proper one, it fails to mention that the Flèche Wallonne at some point in the fifties was regarded as the more important of the 2 Ardennes classics, the more prestigious one. I know that, my riders don't, we fully relied on FL to inform the forum and our riders of all these important facts, and then he fails. So all those young guys in our team had no clue about how important this was!

And then Falcor. Who does he think he is (I hope the answer is Falcor, otherwise he's mistaken) I assume he and/or BW will be there, easy race for me, look, watch, observe, help a bit when it becomes necessary, win. And then neither is there, ok BW saw earlier he was in the morning, good, he looked like possible Flèche form, 87, so not there is fine. Falcor for sure 100 form, but 85, 86, he'll work, I'll help my leader, why not. And then he runs away, and Iskanderov and Kokol are the strongest climbers. Full panic from the start!

Didn't bring a team to control really. (ok, actually couldn't bring a much stronger team anyway, Lüthi in, Bonjour in, then Lafuente maybe out, but otherwise...) In the train, that means just tempo from the start. Full panic... not expecting that at all, best climber... good Medical was there, with him better chances, but with the masses of classics and some 80-70... wasn't too optimistic. Anyway, tempo with Lanfredini from the start. Cost energy, but actually think was right. The Flèche is an absolute farmers paradise, without tempo risk of everybody farming from the start, tempo was ok. Sieb by Allagen (that only dropped him a rider actually) catches the early group, from then on it was a sieb, helpers back contest.
Uomo Nero then prepares an attack..by keeping helpers away, goes, very very little chances to go through. Not enough followers, even if it was super obvious he was going to go. That's when I finally could relax a bit, attack gone, not very dangerous. just don't feel too sure and keep going and don't forget to increase the pace at some point. The perfidious thing about the Flèche is that false sense of security if you have a strong classic team (which I didn't), you feel you can get the escapes back easy with hard tempo. Problem is it's mostly flat, with a few single km climbs. But here it's under control. The danger comes later, when the second or third sieb-attack comes. Allagen did it, sieb, ride, we're back, then attack, rider change, go, Gallego in, only 2" perfect. And nerves were calm again, it's the threat of attacks that makes you nervous, once they are gone, done, you just have to do what you have to do. Gallego did well, then on the 7 Bierhals goes. Lafuente blue, should have gone red, but because Gallego was used, lower energy than Lafuente (despite me weakening him a bit so he could go red in such cases, but not enough (ok more he becomes useless too) so stayed blue, Bierhals goes, 10" in front never to be seen again. He did well. Donks then talked Medical out of riding with his classic... well, it was Iskanderov, the guy didn't know how important the race is, nobody told him... this FL better hide, we're trying to contact Dragos Pitu who is famous for the füdlebrätsch he hands out. So over 30" soon, Chesterfield in alone probably would have brought it down a lot, a bit again, or in earlier, doesn't go to 29" from 25" in a -2... but the problem with that is that then we can't hold the Aomine attack anymore, He only ended up 3 seconds behind us... and that's thanks to Chesterield how caught up again and rode 1 km in the peloton. Ryba, the second Medical climber, future 80-70, enemy of the masses, enemy of good taste, alone loses these 3" and more. Ok, we don't know if then the attacks happens in the same way, like this was just for placement. so everybody rode (exaggeration) after Hölzel attacked in the last downhill, with Aomine and others in the wheel, if it's for the win maybe not. So thought keeping Chesterfield fittish better, but of course if it means Bierhals is through... pointless. Medical and others right, should have gone in earlier. But wouldn't have guaranteed we get Bierhals. And wouldn't have guaranteed that we end up in fron of Aomine either. Bigger mistake that blue km that allowed Bierhals to jump to the group ahead. . Then we're 5" or so seconds less far back... things look better.
Anyway, Bierhals won, 15", some Sweet Lemmon classic 3" back, Kolol and Iskanderov at 15", Korol winning the sprint (which was unimportant)

Actually don't think we rode badly, interesting race. And as I already knew from the past difficult one to control. Today IMO generally we did well, actually less dangerous attacks than I thought, the first one was small, so ok, the Allagen one then... too much. But expected earlier attempts to sieb-ride our helpers away, mostly mine, earlier attacks to catch for Donks-Meds too, that was ok. In the end we missed one more classic... Lüthi, but not so strong that guy. More Bonjour and Lüthi maybe.

Surprising that I was actually one of the favorites here, started the month thinking I would have less chances here than in Liège, and I don't expect to have big chances there anyway.. But ok, climbers drought (which I knew, but with Smart and co there Iskanderov is mostly chanceless)
Next year then, but we won't rely on FL anymore, and Falcor can go ride that weird 18h or 19h or whatever race for eternity, those 2 are on the black list for their conspiracy!!!!

[Falcor CC]

Falcor for sure 100 form, but 85, 86, he'll work, I'll help my leader, why not. And then he runs away

Stop spreading this fake news!! Redrocks was inscribed in 18h for days now!

[team fl]

GW to all winners of FW!

22.04.2026: La Fleche Wallonne (Cat. 5)
09h Rolf Wimpfheimer (r FSCL)
14h Alkmund Bierhals (RV Allagen)
18h Michael Redrocks (Falcor)
21h-1 Juan Miranda (Chemnitz Pro Cycling Team)
21h-2 Oswaldo Mosquera (God v Godess)

[team fl]

Because of all these wishes, accusations and insults, the next next up is early. So...

...next up: Liège-Bastogne-Liège

Usually i would write that LBL, the 4th monument of the year, is the worthy end of the spring classics campaign in cycling. But somehow it isn't, because Frankfurt-Eschborn is. But that comes later. So first, let's write about La Doyenne, the oldest of the five monuments.

Well, how old is it then, you ask. The answer is easy: It's old. Its first edition was held in 1892. Hence the name "la Doyenne" which means "the old lady". Aaaaand, it was first organised by a.... you might guess it... correct: a newspaper! This time it was L'Express, a French-Belgian newspaper. Because of its length and demanding course, it is widely regarded as one of the hardest one-day races in cycling. Wikipedia uses the word "arduous". Never heard of it, but you live and learn I guess.

The race is not only old, also its route is. While other classics tend to change it quite a bit over time, LBL has stayed mostly the same. You might have guessed it, it leads form Liège to Bastogne and back. But wait, that wasn't always the case. First it was from Spa to Bastogne and back. Fun fact: the race turned at the train station in Bastogne, which was very convenient for the race officials. And tired riders that decided to take the train back to Spa (!). Anyway, after three editions, the race took a break of 14 years and was resumed in 1908, this time with a start and finish in Liège for the first time. And you know who one this edition? André Trousselier. Seems like Alkworld has some old cyclist fetish .

Other than f.e. RVV, LBL hat interruptions during the two World Wars. After WWII the race attracted more and more international attendance, including Swiss cycling savage Ferdinand Kübler, who won the race in 1951 and 1952. Since then, LBL has been part of all great race series that concluded in the UCI World tour eventually, making it one fo the main cycling events of the year.

At this point of the text, I have to admit: I was lying to you. Because the course of the race changed again in the 1990s, when the Pesant Club Liégeois partnered with the Société du Tour de France. The start and finish moved and new climbs were introduced. The steep Côte de Saint-Nicolas was included in the final kilometres, along with a final climb to the finish in Ans. The route usually has some minor changes every year, with some climbs skipped and others added, but the traditional finale containing the Côte de La Redoute, Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons and Côte de Saint-Nicolas was a fixture for 27 years. In 2019 the finish moved back from Ans to Liège with a flat run to the finish, like it's know today. Both the Côte de Saint-Nicolas and the final climb to Ans were thereby removed from the route. The Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons is the final named climb, while the final uphill part after a short descent topps out at ca. 10.5 km from the finish line.

But the most well-known hill at LBL is is the Côte de La Redoute, the 2.0 km climb in Aywaille at an average gradient of 8.9% with slopes of over 20%. For a long time, La Redoute was of the place for decisive breakaways like in 1997, when Michele Bartoli and Laurent Jalabert attacked (Bartoli won that edition). In recent years, that wasn't the case anymore and the favourties often wait longer for an attack. But together with the Côte des Forges and Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons it's still one of the the decisive climbs.

And Big Donkey was right: As part of the Ardennes classics, the Flèche Wallonne (FW), although younger than LBL, was longtime considered the more prestigious of the two races, particularly between the 1950s and the 1980s. The reason LBL is now considered as one of the five monuments and not FW occoured in 1989 to 1990, when FW was excluded fromt he new UCI World cup, because it was a mid-week race. Furthermore, when ASO took over the organisation of LBL around 1990, it established its place at the pinnacle fo the spring calendar, while FW became more of a specialized race on the Mur de Huy. Follwing these changes the route of FW was shortened to roughly 200 km, while LBL maintained it's long, and "arduous" course with around 260 km length.

While I've already written about riders that won both race, in 2011 Philippe Gilbert completed a historic quadruple of classic victories, winning the Brabantse Pijl, Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne and LBL. LBL record winner is Eddy Merckx with 5 wins, followed by Moreno Argentin and Alejandro Valverde with 4 wins each. Winners that will ride this year's edition are Remco Evenepoel (2 wins) and Tadej Pogacar (3 wins).

In C4F, last year's winners were Ryomen Sukuna (Pokemonogatari), Sofiane Zidane (Elaska), Chaim Topol (Schartner Bombe) and Jonah Zamunda Fabisch (RV Allagen). Record winner is Pokonmonogatari with 7 wins, followed byi IHEU (former Skullz, not active anymore) and Alkworld with 5 wins each. The winners rider types vary a lot, from climbers to 80-70s and strong classics. What definitely helps is a good sprint skill, due to the flat last 10 km, while until the route change in 2019, the mountain skill seemed to be much more important. As the race is a lot up and down, a good downhill skill may help a lot, esp. if you don't want to wait until the final km for a decisive move. Perhaps at La Redoute?

[Robyklebt]

Donkey is a bit happier now, even if of course having to live without a long Flèche preview will make us suffer for a whole year.

1 P. Gallego
Rest without any suprises, at least I think will have to go and check myself in a minute. So Gallego leader, but could also be Lüthi, Gallego has more mountain, less sprint, no downhill... so yeah, we're not going into this with lots of hopes. Not cannon fodder, too negative, Interested outsider sounds positive enough, that's what we are, an interested outsider. Or insider since we're in the race and not outside of it?