La Flèche Wallonne, the Walloon Arrow, is the midweek Ardennes Classic decided on the cruel ramps of the Mur de Huy. First run in 1936, it climbs the Mur three times, saving the steepest pitch, where the road bites to nearly twenty per cent, for the finish. Everyone knows exactly where the race will be won, which only makes the waiting game on the lower slopes more tense. Alejandro Valverde mastered that game like no one else, winning a record five times. In 2026 the young Frenchman Paul Seixas timed his effort on the Mur to perfection. It is the most ritualised finish in cycling, and one of the hardest to get right.