The 2011 La Flèche Wallonne was the 75th running of
La Flèche Wallonne
La Flèche Wallonne (, French for "The Walloon Arrow") is a men's professional cycle road race held in April each year in Wallonia, Belgium. It is part of the UCI World Tour.
The first of two Belgian Ardennes classics, La Flèche Wallonne is ...
, a single-day cycling race. It was held on 20 April 2011 over a distance of between
Charleroi
Charleroi (, , ; ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It is the largest city in both Hainaut and Wallonia. The city is situated in the valley of the Sambre, in the south-west of Belgium, not ...
and
Huy
Huy ( ; ; ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. Huy lies along the river Meuse, at the mouth of the small river Hoyoux. It is in the '' sillon industriel'', the former industrial backbone of Wall ...
in
Belgium
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...
, and was the eleventh race of the
2011 UCI World Tour
The 2011 UCI World Tour was the third edition of the ranking system launched by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) in 2009. The series started with the 2011 Tour Down Under, Tour Down Under's opening stage on 18 January, and consisted of 14 ...
season.
As he had done in the closing stages of his winning performance at the
Amstel Gold Race Amstel Gold Race may refer to:
* Amstel Gold Race (men's race)
The Amstel Gold Race is a one-day classic cycle races, classic road bicycle race, road cycling race held annually since 1966 Amstel Gold Race, 1966 in the province of Limburg (Netherl ...
three days prior to La Flèche Wallonne, 's
Philippe Gilbert
Philippe Gilbert (born 5 July 1982) is a Belgian former professional road bicycle racer, who is best known for winning the 2012 UCI Road World Championships – Men's road race, World Road Race Championships in 2012, and for being one of two rid ...
attacked on the final uphill climb – the
Mur de Huy
The Mur de Huy () is a high hill located in Huy, Wallonia, Belgium. It is also known as ''le Chemin des Chapelles'' () because of the seven chapels along its route. This climb is famous for being part of the route of La Flèche Wallonne professio ...
– to the finish and accelerated away from the field, gapping them by three seconds to take victory and his third classics win in the space of a week, having also won the
Brabantse Pijl; the first rider to win all three in the same season. Gilbert also became the first Belgian to win La Flèche Wallonne since
Mario Aerts
Mario Aerts (born 31 December 1974 in Herentals, Belgium) is a former professional road bicycle racer, who competed between 1996 and 2011. He competed for three teams: Vlaanderen 2002, and the Lotto team through various sponsorships, competing ...
won the race in 2002. Second place went to – just like he did in the Amstel Gold Race –
Joaquim Rodríguez of , with
Samuel Sánchez
Samuel "Samu" Sánchez González (born 5 February 1978) is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally in the sport between 2000 and 2017 for the and squads. He was the gold medal winner in the Cycling at the 2008 ...
finishing third for , five seconds behind Gilbert.
Teams
25 teams were selected to compete in the 2011 La Flèche Wallonne.
All UCI ProTeams were represented as well as seven UCI Professional Continental teams. The teams that competed were:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Results
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fleche Wallonne, 2011
2011 in Belgian sport
2011
The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...
2011 UCI World Tour