The Briton Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) created a surprise on Wednesday by winning the Flèche Wallonne ahead of the Frenchman Kevin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hôtels) at the top of the Huy wall. Several favorites including Tom Pidcock, winner of the Amstel Gold Race last weekend, and Mattias Skjelmose were eliminated halfway through the race when a deluge of sleet fell on the peloton. The deluge forced many riders to abandon and others to postpone their ambitions for Liège-Bastogne-Liège next Sunday.
This victory for Williams is the first for a Briton in 88 editions of the Belgian classic. The 27-year-old runner made the difference in a small peloton of around thirty runners by starting 300 meters from the line in the formidable Huy wall (1.3 km at 9.6% average), climbed four times on Wednesday.
Five French people in the top ten
He beat Kevin Vauquelin, who almost overtook him, and the Belgian Maxim Van Gils. Four other French people finished in the top ten with Benoît Cosnefroy (4th), Romain Grégoire (7th), Dorion Godon (8th) and Guillaume Martin (10th).
"What a day ! I am so happy. I watched this race so often on television and I dreamed of coming with good legs to try to win it. I’m on cloud nine
,” Williams said.
In the end, only 44 riders were classified as riders like Marc Hirschi, Juan Ayuso, Joao Almeida, Brandon McNulty, Dylan Teuns and David Gaudu threw in the towel along the way.