La Fl�che Wallone - History

History - Important Facts -Teams - Winners - Results

Back in 1935, two cyclingsport journalists Paul Beving and Albert van Laethem, published the cycling yearbook 'Le Cyclisme', as never before all the results of a cycling year had been published in a book.

In fact, 'Le Cyclisme' (1935-1960) is the predecessor of the Belgian cycling yearboor 'VELO' (1956-2005) and the Dutch 'WIELERJAARBOEK' (1985-2005). These 2 Walloon journalists wanted to support the first edition of their Yearbook by organizing a cycling classic race straight through Wallonie, basically from the South (Tournai/Doornik) to the North (Li�ge/Luik) and so the Fl�che Wallone was founded.

The first edition of La Fleche de Wallone took place on Easter Monday April 13th 1936 and it had a distance of over 236 km. The route was between Tournai and Li�ge, more or less all the important Walloon cities and mountains were covered in the parcours.

First winner was Phil�mon de Meersman, a 21 year old Belgian neo-pro who was riding for the French team La Francaise-Labor. He won the sprint - � deux - from Alfons Verniers (Bel) after more than 7 hours. The Fl�che Wallone became one of the most successful Belgian classic races in the month of April, due to the support of magazine 'Les Sports' and the Walloon newspaper 'Le Derni�re Heure'.

In 1998 the Fl�che Wallone race became also a race for women. The race organizers since 1998 are the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO); which is also responsible for several other events; like the Tour de France, Parijs-Roubaix, Li�ge-Bastogne-Li�ge and others.

The first of two Belgian Ardennes classics; La Fl�che Wallonne is normally held mid-week between the Amstel Gold Race and Li�ge-Bastogne-Li�ge. At one time, these two cycling races were run on consecutives as "Le Weekend Ardennais".

During its history only six riders have achieved the "Ardennes double" winning both races in the same year: Ferdi Kubler in 1951 and 1952, Stan Ockers (1955), Eddy Merckx (1972), Moreno Argentin (1991) Davide Rebellin (2004) and Alejandro Valverde.