Source : Biketo.com|美運网 Author: Haibao
At about 22 o'clock on April 17, Beijing time, the 88th Walloon Arrow Race came to an end, Williams (Israel Botai Racing Team) performed steadily at the last climbing point at the Yuyi Wall, shaking the car near 300 meters before the finish line to shake off all opponents and cross the line first to win the championship.
According to the UCI rules, a total of 25 teams will participate, including 18 World Tour teams and 3 highest-ranked continental professional teams in 2023.
(1) Straight-through convoy
Uno X Racing Team; Lotto Team; Israel Botai Racing Team;
(2) Outside the truck fleet
Bigo WB Racing, Basque Telecom Racing, Q36.5 Racing Team, TotalEnergies Racing Team;
▲ List of participants
The race is 199 kilometers long, starting from Charlerois, a coal and steel industrial city in southwestern Belgium, and cycling from west to east along the south of Namur to the Huey area for a lap (38 kilometers per lap, 3 laps, 114 kilometers), of which the two climbing points in the lap are Ivory Coast Ae (2.1 kilometers, average gradient of 5%) and Wall of Huy (1.3 kilometers, average gradient of 9.6%).
▲ Race route
Pre-game tidbits
Charleroy began as a defensive stronghold in the mid-17th century, but in the 19th century it was transformed into a small steel city with the discovery of coal mines. But with the industrial transformation of modern Europe, this small heavy industry city gradually declined and tried to transform into a tourist city.
The 1.3-kilometer climb with an average gradient of 9.6% became a nightmare for the runners, and the 19% slope of the last 600 meters made almost all the runners have to shake the car to maintain their speed. But in the 2023 season, the "Big Devil" used a sitting bike to teach all the players a hard lesson, but fortunately, this year is the Olympic year, and the "Big Devil" did not sign up for the Olympic Games in order to prepare for the Tour of Italy, which made many players breathe a sigh of relief.
▲ The Wall of Yuyi
Amid the cheers of the Charlerois crowd, the race began. After the end of the honorary cycling session, some runners continued to break through tentatively, until the race was more than 20 kilometers old, and a total of 6 runners from Q36.5, Astana, Wanti, TotalEnergies, Basque Telecom, and Bigo WB Team formed a breakthrough group, and the time difference of more than 30 seconds was opened with the big group behind them.
▲ Honor riding
▲Breakthrough Group
The large group, led by the EF, INEOS and Emirates teams, kept the time difference between the two sides within 5 minutes for the first 90 kilometers, ensuring that they were recovered roughly before the group first passed through the wall of Yuyi.
▲Large groups
However, the big group made a lot of calculations, but did not calculate that the low temperature and rainy weather on the road broke many team race "main players", including Shay Mose, Ayuso, Pidcock, Vlasov and other popular players in the big group through the Huey area of Côte d'Ivoire and the wall of Huy appeared to be out of shape and fell early, especially the Emirates team in the second lap no one could hold the main group, which made the team officials can't help but miss the good days of having the "big devil".
Matthews (Jacko Racing) and Brydon (INEOS Racing) climbed over the wall of Ineos on the first lap and trailed the main group by more than one and a half points, thinking about Matthews' invincible performance in the hilly stage of the Tour de France in the 2022 season.
The "Hope" of the Jacko team officials seemed to work, and the weather began to clear after the rain, and many riders tried to take off their raincoats and were eager to try.
After entering the second lap, the large group withdrew the early breakouts, but there was also a large-scale differentiation. At this time, there were still about 56 kilometers to go before the finish line, and Anderson (Obiqing Racing Team), who is good at breaking through the hilly stage, tried to break through, flying dozens of kilometers alone and once opened a one-minute gap, when the sky rained again.
▲ Anderson
The sky was sleet due to the cold, and the main group slowed down the pace of pursuit in the face of such volatile weather, and Anderson took advantage of the opportunity of the main group to take care of himself, and the time difference was widened to about 1 minute and 30 seconds.
At this point, the main group split again, with five runners, including Carapaz (EF Racing), Bratt Igo (Bahrain Racing) and Williams (Botai Racing Israel), trying to chase Anderson, and although they tried to chase 20km unsuccessfully, it prompted the determination of the main group to temporarily abandon the intrigue and work together to pursue Anderson.
With Anderson passing through the Wall of Yu Yi first, there were only 32 kilometres left to go, but flying alone left him feeling overwhelmed. At this time, the sky was clear after rain again, and the main group behind him seized the opportunity to quickly adjust the pace of the pursuit through the wall of Yu Yi to narrow the time difference to 20 seconds, and Anderson was already sure to be overcome.
With the main group recovering Anderson, who had broken through frantically on the climb near 15 kilometers before the finish, there were less than 30 players left in the main group, of which the Uno X team tried to rely on the five-man advantage to send players to break through and attack to lure competitors to follow. However, under the watchful eye of the competitors, everyone passed the 14km smoothly and was about to face the final battle of the wall of Yuyi.
When the main group entered the Yuyi Wall climb, the player in front of him just passed the 19% slope section and entered the relatively friendly 14% slope section, at this time everyone tried to adjust the anaerobic state to prepare for the last 300 meters of the decisive battle, Williams, who was ambushed behind the player in front, shook the car in advance and launched a strong attack from the left side, this position happened to be the place where the "Big Devil" launched the general attack in the 2023 season, and no one in the main group could stick to him for a while, watching Williams open a gap of at least 40 meters.
This left the rest of the group trying to catch up with him, with Walkland (Achaea) closing in on less than 10 metres at one point and seeing Williams' lack of stamina. Williams gritted his teeth and crossed the line first on the eve of Wackland's catch-up to win his second World Tour title of the season (the first being the Tour of Australia).
Speaking after the fight, Williams said, "This is the first time I've won a competition in this division, and my brothers have supported me along the way. I felt good on the second lap as I tried to warm up, and when I got to that position on the third lap, I didn't hesitate to go on a strong attack and after 15 seconds I felt like my body was hollowed out to build a big enough lead and win the race!"
On April 21st, the Liège-Bastogne-Liège Race will be held, and the United States Riding Network will continue to pay attention to it, so stay tuned.
Tournament Gallery
(Photo source: Walloon Arrow Organizing Committee)