The Belgian town of Binche - which will play host to tomorrow’s Binche-Tournai-Binche/Memorial Frank Vandenbroucke race - is to host the start of la Flèche Wallonne in 2013, race organiser ASO has announced. The Ardennes race, which finishes on the precipitously steep climb of the Mur de Huy, has started in the city of Charleroi since 1998, but the depart will move 20km west to its new home next year.
La Flèche Wallonne forms part of the “Ardennes Triple”, along with the Amstel Gold Race on the Sunday before, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège the Sunday after. It was originally run on the day before Liège, where the two races formed “Le Weekend Ardennes.” Winning both Belgian races in the same year has only been achieved by Ferdi Kubler (1951 and 1952), Eddy Merckx (1972), Moreno Argentin (1991) and Alejandro Valverde (2006), while only Davide Rebellin (2004) and Philippe Gilbert (2011) have ever taken all three.
The 2012 edition of la Flèche Wallonne was won by Katusha’s Joaquim Rodríguez (pictured).
This morning Laurent Devin, the Mayor of Binche, along with the deputy of the Hainaut province Richard Willame, and representatives of the Liège province André Gilles et Christophe Lacroix, confirmed that the two would host the race start on Wednesday, April 17th next year.
Christian Prudhomme, the director general of the Tour de France, was also present, and congratulated Mayor Devin on his longterm involvement in Belgian cycling; the town of Binche is also scheduled to host the Belgian championships in 2018.
The women’s edition of the race has started in Huy, at the top of the famous Mur, since its inception in 1998, and is expected to continue to do so in 2013.