Welsh rider Stephen Williams won the Fleche Wallonne Spring cycling classic run across the rain-drenched Ardennes hills and plains on Wednesday as the race delivered its usual nail-biting climax.
The Israel-Premier Tech rider burst from the remaining clutch of contenders on the steepest section of the imposing final Mur de Huy climb opening a 30 metres gap before running out of steam and just clinging on.
This revered race was won in 2023 by Tadej Pogacar but the 2024 event saw all the top contenders caught out in a peloton split engineered by the lashing rain.
Weather often causes chaos in the spring classics and contenders in the Fleche need to be adept at racing in rain whilst also possessing the right physical build to tackle the final climb.
Williams rode against convention, attacking slightly early.
"I saw the 300m to go line and I thought if I could put five seconds into the group and get near the line, then I could hold on," said the exhausted 27-year-old at the finish.
🏹 🇬🇧Stephen Williams remporte La #FlecheWallonne 2024 !
— La Flèche Wallonne (@flechewallonne) April 17, 2024
🏹 🇬🇧Stephen Williams wins the #FlecheWallonne 2024! pic.twitter.com/g8v835Mqvq
There are no cobbles along the Fleche route but constant undulating hills, culminating in the 1.3km Mur de Huy with its 9.6 percent gradient, is prone to delivering a last-gasp winner like Williams.
But the 199km race from Charleroi to Huy was marked by regular bursts of heavy rain in the exposed open plains where Tom Pidcock, Mattias Skjelmose, Tiesj Benoot and the other fancied riders missed the key split.
At that point another rain specialist Danish rider Soren Krach Andersen opened up a 2min gap on the reduced peloton, but as the sun came out and riders began to throw their rain jackets into the roadside ditches he was caught and passed.
"What a day. I've been watching this race for years and wanted to come and race it in this kind of weather. I like to race in this kind of weather," Williams insisted.
Fellow outsiders Kevin Vauquelin and Maxim Van Gils completed the podium, cheered on by huge crowds along the roadside barriers who had braved the nasty seasonal showers to witness a thrilling finale.
POLISH WIN IN WOMEN'S RACE
In the later women's race Poland's Katarzyna Niewiadoma beat Dutch giant Demi Vollering and Italy's Elisa Longo Borghini at the same finish line.
"I knew it was going to be my day, it's my greatest win," she said.
On Sunday, fans will again turn out in droves to see the last of the early season classics Liege-Bastogne-Liege where Pogacar, Pidcock and Mathieu van der Poel are amongst the fancied starters for the 254km event that was first staged in 1892.