Following the unveiling of the 2024 Paris-Roubaix and Paris-Roubaix Femmes wildcard invites on Tuesday, French race organisers ASO have done the same for their Ardennes races – the men’s La Flèche Wallonne and La Flèche Wallonne Femmes and the men’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes – also announcing the routes of both sets of races.
The headline news from the races is that the men’s La Flèche Wallonne will see the peloton tackle the famous leg-breaking finish up the Mur de Huy four times, while the women’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège will be the longest yet, sharing the same final 147.6km as the men’s race.
The men’s La Flèche Wallonne (April 17) will run from Charleroi for the first time since 2021, covering 199.1km as the riders take on nine climbs on the day, including ascents of the 1.3km, 9.6% Mur de Huy at 104.1km, 135.8km, 167.5km and at the finish.
The women’s race, run on the same day, will take on the climb twice, one fewer than in 2023, though the two ascents are among seven climbs packed into the 143.5km route.
At the men’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège (April 21), the route is a classic one for the 110th edition, with all the famous climbs such as the Saint-Roch, Wanne, Stokeu, Rosier, La Redoute and Roche-aux-Faucons lined up on the 259km run to the flat finish in central Liège.
The women’s race runs from Bastogne north to Liège as usual, taking on nine major climbs along the way including those listed above on the way to the same flat finish.
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As well as the routes for the pair of races, the wildcard invitations have also been set.
The men’s races see the top three ProTeams from the 2023 season – Lotto-Dstny, Israel-Premier Tech and Uno-X Mobility – race alongside the 18 WorldTour teams. Bingoal WB and TotalEnergies will also take on both races.
At Flèche, Euskaltel-Euskadi and Q36.5 fill the remaining two spots, while at Liège the last two invites go to Equipo Kern Pharma and Flanders-Baloise.
The 15 Women’s WorldTour teams fill out the field for both of the women’s races along with the top Continental team Cofidis. Six more Continental teams will be riding both races in the form of Arkéa-B&B Hotels, Laboral Kutxa-Fundación…
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