La Flèche Wallonne 2024 will be remembered for years to come thanks to the most extraordinary climatic variations in living memory for many cycling fans.
Bahrain Victorious’ Colombian climber Santiago Buitrago crossed the line in 5th place, three seconds behind winner Stevie Williams (IPT).
“One of the toughest, coldest, days I have ever had on the bike,” says the 24 year-old. “In the end this was a Flèche fought out in the head. As a team we did really well – we were in good position when we needed to be, helping one another where we could. But it was so cold I even had issues putting my jacket on.”
Of 175 starters, only 44 riders made it to the finish at the end of the fourth ascent of the legendary Mur de Huy, with its 10% average gradient maxing out at 26%.
The day began bathed in sunshine in Charleroi, and after 27 flat kilometres a break formed, and stayed away for the next 100km. The rain started to fall with increasing intensity, and the temperature fell as low as 3ºC. With the Côte de Cherave absent this year, the peloton had to cross both the Côte d’Ereffe and ‘the Mur’ four times each on a 31.6km circuit. The escapees were caught on the second loop, as the rain turned first to hail, and then to snow. Lead Sports Director Roman Kreuziger reflects:
“The conditions were so bad that the whole team was basically frozen, and by the last 70k we only had Zamba and Santi left. It didn’t matter how many hot drinks we gave them or how much they ate, they just froze, and in the end even Edoardo couldn’t continue.
Although Santi was in the right place at the right time, he was so cold that he physically wasn’t able to put his jacket and gloves on, so he had to stop. Me, Enrico [Poitschke, the other Sports Director] and the mechanic from car 1 had to go out and put them on for him, which meant he dropped from the chasing bunch to group 3 and had to use precious energy getting back on.“
20 minutes later, Søren Kragh Andersen launched an audacious attack nearly 60km out, and with the bunch decimated by the cold and wet weather the Dane stayed clear for over an hour before being caught by those contenders who hadn’t yet succumbed to hypothermia, frostbite or plain fatigue.
With 10km remaining, SKA was reeled in by a group of 34 who fought it out for the victory the last time up the Mur de Huy. Williams went with 300m to go, and no-one was able to respond, with Buitrago following the first four over the line.
“We tried to make a difference with one lap of the circuit left, but others came back, and I gave everything to be in the fight. I really did my best but there was simply nothing left in the tank after everything that had happened before. But I have to be content with fifth place here, and now it’s all about Sunday.
For his part, Kreuziger has no regrets about our strategy at the climax:
“I wouldn’t change how we played the finale – it was absolutely the right thing to follow the four guys up ahead, with UnoX extremely strong today. I am so proud of Santi because he really showed his courage out there in really a very extreme situation.
After our results in recent years with Dylan and Mikel, you may think we’d be disappointed with Santi’s 5th place, but it’s the exact opposite. It really was a super hard race, the like of which I haven’t seen for a long time.”
The Czech’s attention now turns to the penultimate ‘Monument’ of 2024, Liège-Bastonne-Liège:
“My job now is to prepare the boys mentally for Sunday in case we have the same again. As a team we did good things today, and we just need to work on how to prepare for, and cope with, another day like this. I know that Pello, Santi and the boys are hungry for success on Sunday, and what happened today will just motivate them even more. It was by no means a perfect day, but we have got better in each of the Ardennes races so let’s hope we take another step up at Liège”
