At some point along the 198 kilometers of the 88th Walloon Arrow it even snowed on the route from the Belgian cities Charleroi and Huy. And the platoon suffered those inclement weather. Under intense rain throughout the four hours and 40 minutes of the race, only 44 cyclists reached the finish line of the 175 who started the classic.
One of the many who dropped out was Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek). The Danish champion could not bear the cold that penetrated to his bones. Second last year in this same test after Pogacar, Skjelmose couldn’t take it anymore and stopped. In the rain he was shivering. His hands and arms were shaking so much that he couldn’t grip the handlebars or even get off the bike.
With clear symptoms of hypothermia, the third placed in Itzulia and fourth in Paris-Nice this year had to be picked up by an assistant and with the help of a second person they took him to the team bus to try to get his body inside. in heat.
Lidl-Trek confirmed that the cyclist was fine after taking a refreshing shower and drinking some hot drinks.
In those same images you can also see how Marc Hirschi (UAE), another of the favorites, left. Emirates, which, in the absence of Pogacar, had several important cyclists in the race, including Juan Ayuso, chose not to take risks and none of its seven cyclists finished.
The race was won by the British Stephen Williams, 27, of the Israel team, who was the strongest in the last of the four climbs to the imposing wall of Huy. He beat Vauquelin (Arkéa) and Van Gils (Lotto) and did so while dressed warmly, with long legs and a raincoat on.