2020 ARDENNES CLASSICS:
SMALL NOVELTIES AND CLASSIC ESSENTIALS

Key points:
 The world’s best puncheurs, male and female, will race the Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday, April 22nd. Liège-Bastogne-Liège Hommes and Femmes will be held on Sunday, April 26th.
 La Doyenne’s finish is set on the boulevard d’Avroy, in the heart of Liège, after climbing the côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons.
 The riders participating in the Flèche Wallonne will face an unprecedented climb with the introduction of the côte du chemin des Gueuses in the final loop around Huy.

The Doyenne has returned to the heart of Liège in 2019 and is ready to come back in 2020. For the second year in a row, Liège-Bastogne-Liège Hommes and its feminine counterpart will end on the boulevard d’Avroy, where Jakob Fuglsang and Annemiek van Vleuten celebrated their solo triumphs last Spring. Fuglsang was the second Dane to take victory in 105 editions of the race while Van Vleuten got a spot in the winners list alongside her Dutch compatriot Anna van der Breggen, winner of the first two editions of Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes in Ans.
The riders aiming for such successes in 2020 will tackle familiar climbs. The route for the men’s race features 11 iconic ascents, from the côte de La Roche-en-Ardenne all the way to the côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons, before the champions storm to the finish in the ardent city. As they ride from the côte de Wanne to the côte de la Vecquée, the women will face for the first time the côte de la Haute-Levée, a classic of the men’s route.
Four days earlier, the world’s best puncheurs, male and female, will already battle it out in the Ardennes with the Flèche Wallonne. The ascent of the côte du chemin des Gueuses (1.8km with an average gradient of 6.5%) appears on the route for the first time both for the men and the women. It comes instead of the côte de Cherave in the final circuit designed around the Mur de Huy.

The Flèche Wallonne Hommes will start from Herve, where the peloton and the whole world of cycling will admire the spring of the Six Fountains, and quickly head for the côte de Trasenster. The other challenges of the route are well known by the reigning champions, Julian Alaphilippe and Anna van der Breggen. Everything is set for a thrilling battle on the Mur.
At the announcement of the routes for the Ardennes classics, the organisers revealed the names of the teams that will take part in the next editions of the Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. In addition to the 19 WorldTeams and the top two teams of the UCI ProTeams rankings in 2019, Team Direct Energie (Fra) and Circus – Wanty Gobert (Bel) have been selected:

2020 Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège
– Alpecin – Fenix (Bel)
– Sport Vlaanderen – Baloise (Bel)
– Team Arkéa – Samsic(Fra)
– Wallonie Bruxelles (Bel)

The races have two new partners
– The Italian National Tourist Board, founded in 1919 under the moniker ENIT, becomes an Official Partner of the Ardennes Classics in 2020. More information here: www.italia.it/en/
– Ardennes-Etape, a specialist in on-line location of holiday homes in the Ardennes, becomes an Official Partner of the Ardennes Classics in 2020. More information here : https://en.ardennes-etape.be/

The Dictée of Ardennes Classics
Following two editions of the Liège-Bastogne-Liège dictation, in 2020 this concept will also take in the Flèche Wallonne to become the Ardennes Classics Dictation. On Wednesday 18th March, in each school taking part (classes in the last year of primary school and the first year of secondary school in the Province of Liège are concerned), several hundred pupils will be trying to meet the challenge of making no mistakes. The Province of Liège will then organise an awards ceremony to be held at the official presentation of the teams in Liège, on Saturday 25th April, with awards for 200 children. The following day, the authors of the 14 best dictations will have privileged access to watch the race (seven at the start and seven at the finish)..

10th edition of the Liège-Bastogne-Liège Challenge: Saturday 25th April 2020
The day before the elite race, more than 8,000 amateur riders are expected to take the same roads as the professionals and test themselves on the legendary slopes of the Ardennes, with some of the climbs against the clock. Participants will be able to tackle three different distances in order to satisfy all levels of cycling ability: 266 km, 147 km and 70 km.
Information and registration on www.lblchallenge.be
@ASO