La Flèche Wallonne Femmes

La Flèche Wallonne Femmes, formerly La Flèche Wallonne Féminine, is a one-day bike race, the women's WorldTour edition of the Belgian classic, established in 1998. It is defined by its finish atop the Mur de Huy, a climb so steep it turns the final 500 meters into a slow-motion test of nerve and timing.

La Flèche Wallonne Femmes is the women’s Ardennes classic that has finished at the top of the Mur de Huy since its first edition in 1998. The organizer called it La Flèche Wallonne Féminine until the 2017 edition. Anna van der Breggen won it seven years in a row, from 2015 to 2021.

Luperini, Cooke and Vos: the first winners on the Mur de Huy

Fabiana Luperini, a small Italian climber, won the first edition and won again in 2001 and 2002. Nicole Cooke followed with wins in 2003, 2005 and 2006. Marianne Vos then won five: three in a row from 2007 to 2009, and again in 2011 and 2013. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot won in 2014, the last winner before Van der Breggen’s run.

The road they all won on is the Chemin des Chapelles, the path of the chapels, which climbs out of Huy for 1.3 kilometers at an average of 9.6 percent.

How the women’s route to the Mur has grown

The early editions were short. The organizer’s list of winners gives 91 kilometers for 2000 and 93.5 for Luperini’s wins in 2001 and 2002, and the race first passed 100 kilometers in 2005. By 2024 it was 146 kilometers, and the 2026 edition covered a record 148.2 kilometers, with 2,250 meters of climbing.

The finale has changed less. In 2025 and 2026 the riders climbed the Côte d’Ereffe, the Côte de Cherave and the Mur twice each, the second time on a closing lap of 37.2 kilometers. The Cherave is 1.3 kilometers at 8.1 percent, and in 2025 its top was 5.7 kilometers from the finish. The 2026 route put three climbs in the first 50 kilometers, one of them new, and had nine in all. After those, race director Gilles Maignan said, “it’s up to the riders to decide how hard the race becomes.”

Anna van der Breggen’s seven wins in a row

Van der Breggen did not win all seven the same way. In 2017, in the 20th edition, she went clear with her teammate Lizzie Deignan and Kasia Niewiadoma at the foot of the Cherave, 5 kilometers from the line. She attacked at the bottom of the Mur and won by 16 seconds from Deignan and 25 from Niewiadoma. It was her third win in a row, and she had won the Amstel Gold Race the Sunday before.

The seventh was closer. In 2021 Ruth Winder was alone in front with 30 seconds in hand 6 kilometers from the finish, and Demi Vollering led the chase for Van der Breggen to the foot of the Mur. Van der Breggen, in the world champion’s jersey, set the pace up the climb, dropped Kasia Niewiadoma after the last corner and won, with Elisa Longo Borghini third. “It’s a strange thought that I’m sitting here for the last time in this race,” she said. “I’m really happy to finish it off like this with seven straight wins, it’s incredible.”

Niewiadoma’s 2024 win in rain and snow

The next four editions had four different winners: Marta Cavalli in 2022, Vollering in 2023, Niewiadoma in 2024 and Puck Pieterse in 2025. Vollering’s win was part of a sweep of the three Ardennes classics that spring.

In 2024 rain, hail and snow began just before the start of a 146-kilometer race. On the Mur Niewiadoma sat on Vollering’s wheel until the last 200 meters, went when Longo Borghini accelerated and won by two seconds. It was her first individual road win since June 2019. Four months later she won the Tour de France Femmes, again ahead of Vollering, by four seconds.

Puck Pieterse passes Vollering in 2025

In 2025 Cédrine Kerbaol attacked with 55 kilometers to go, led alone by almost a minute on the last lap and was caught on the Cherave with just under 7 kilometers left. About 25 riders started the Mur together. Juliette Labous set the pace for Vollering until 350 meters from the top. Pieterse stayed on Vollering’s wheel, attacked in the last 150 meters and won by two seconds.

Longo Borghini was third, her fifth podium in a race she had not won. Van der Breggen, who had returned to racing, was due to start and withdrew on the morning of the race because of illness.

Demi Vollering’s second win in 2026

Vollering had finished second by two seconds in both 2024 and 2025. In 2026, in the 29th edition, she attacked 500 meters from the finish and held off Pieterse to the line. She was the first rider to win the race a second time since Van der Breggen.

Paula Blasi was third, three seconds back, on her first ride in the race, having won the Amstel Gold Race the Sunday before. Niewiadoma was fourth and Van der Breggen fifth, 11 seconds behind, five years after her last win. Four of the first five had won the race before.

The women's race is shorter than the men's, about 140 to 150 kilometers in recent editions, and attacks often go on the Côte d'Ereffe and Côte de Cherave before the Mur. The winner has still been decided on the final climb, by two seconds in both 2024 and 2025. Anna van der Breggen's seven consecutive victories set the modern standard here, proving that intelligence and timing matter as much as raw power when the gradient reaches its steepest pitches.