The 2025 La Flèche Wallonne was a

road cycling Road cycling is the most widespread form of cycling in which cyclists ride on paved roadways. It includes recreational, racing, commuting, and utility cycling. As users of the road, road cyclists are generally expected to obey the same laws a ...

one-day race that took place on 23 April from the Belgian city of

Ciney Ciney (; ) is a municipality and city of Wallonia located in the province of Namur, Belgium. As of 2018, Ciney had a total population of 16,439. The total area is 147.56 km2 which gives a population density of 111 inhabitants per km2. Admin ...

to the municipality of

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 ...

. It was the 89th edition 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 ...

and the 18th event of the

2025 UCI World Tour The 2025 UCI World Tour is a series of races that includes thirty-six events throughout the 2025 in men's road cycling, 2025 cycling season. The tour started with the 2025 Tour Down Under, Tour Down Under on 21 January, and will conclude with t ...

. The winner was Slovenian rider

Tadej Pogačar Tadej Pogačar (; born 21 September 1998) is a Slovenia, Slovenian professional road bicycle racing, cyclist who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . His victories include three Tour de France, Tours de France (2020 Tour de France, 2020, 2021 Tou ...

of , who attacked on the final climb of 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 ...

and finished 10 seconds ahead of runner-up

Kévin Vauquelin Kévin Vauquelin (born 26 April 2001) is a French cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . Professional since 2022, Vauquelin has most notably won a stage of the 2024 Tour de France. Career His first professional win was a stage of and th ...

. It was the largest winning margin since 2003 and marked Pogačar's second victory at the race.

Pre-race favorites

La Flèche Wallonne is known for its steep final climb up the

, featuring gradients over 20%, which typically favors

puncheur A puncheur or puncher is a road bicycle racer who specialises in rolling terrain with short but steep climbs. The ideal races for this type of rider are one-day spring classics (making them classics specialists), which are characterized by multi ...

s. In pre-race analysis,

was considered the leading favorite, having won the race in

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

and coming off a strong classics season where he won the

Tour of Flanders The Tour of Flanders () may refer to the following cycle races: * Tour of Flanders (men's race) The Tour of Flanders (), also known as ''De Ronde'' (''"The Tour"''), is an annual road bicycle racing, road cycling race held in Belgium every spri ...

. Also among the top contenders were

Mattias Skjelmose Mattias Skjelmose Jensen (born 26 September 2000) is a Danish professional cyclist who rides for UCI WorldTeam . A promising youth rider, Skjelmose finished in top positions in junior categories of major races, and won the Tour du Pays de Vaud ...

, who defeated Pogačar in a sprint 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 ...

days earlier, and Olympic champion

Remco Evenepoel Remco Evenepoel (; born 25 January 2000) is a Belgian professional cyclist and Olympic gold medalist who rides for UCI WorldTeam . Evenepoel is widely regarded as one of the best Individual time trial, time trialists of his generation; he is a t ...

, coming off his win at the Brabantse Pijl. Defending champion Stephen Williams returned to the race, but was not considered among the main favorites due to poor results in early 2025. Other notable riders mentioned in pre-race coverage included

Thibau Nys Thibau Nys (born 12 November 2002) is a Belgian cyclo-cross and road cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam on the road and for UCI Cyclo-cross team in cyclo-cross. Nys is the son of Sven Nys, one of the most successful cyclo-cross rider ...

Tom Pidcock Thomas Pidcock (born 30 July 1999) is a British cyclist who competes in the cyclo-cross, mountain bike and road bicycle racing disciplines of the sport for the Swiss . Prior to his release in December 2024, he rode for UCI WorldTeam . After a p ...

Romain Grégoire Romain Grégoire (born 21 January 2003) is a French road cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . Career Grégoire had a successful junior career, being crowned both the national and European junior road race champion. He also won the si ...

Maxim Van Gils Maxim Van Gils (born 25 November 1999) is a Belgian cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . Career (2021–2024) Professional since 2021, Van Gils took his first pro win at the 2022 Saudi Tour, winning stage four and the general cl ...

, and three-time champion

Julian Alaphilippe Julian Alaphilippe (; born 11 June 1992) is a French professional road cyclist, former cyclo-cross racer and two-time UCI World Road Champion, who currently rides for UCI ProTeam . He is the brother of racing cyclist Bryan Alaphilippe. Career E ...

Teams

26 teams took part in the race, including all eighteen

UCI WorldTeam A UCI WorldTeam (2015–present), previously UCI ProTeam (2005–2014), is the term used by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to name a cycling team of the highest category in professional road bicycle racing, road cycling, the UCI World Tou ...

s and eight UCI ProTeams. UCI WorldTeams * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * UCI ProTeams * * * * * * * *

Result

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:La Flèche Wallonne, 2025

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