Kasia Niewiadoma timed her attack on the Mur de Huy to perfection to win La Flèche Wallonne and take her first road victory for five years.
The Canyon-SRAM rider launched her effort with 200m to go, defeating defending champion Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek).
Niewiadoma starts every race as one of the favourites, but had not stood on the top step of a road race podium since the Women's Tour in 2019; her attack on Wednesday saw this unfortunate record finally be broken.
The elite trio broke clear on the final ascent of the Mur, with all eyes on Vollering, before Niewiadoma attacked on one of the steepest parts of the final climb to take the win.
As well as Niewiadoma's first win for five years, it was Canyon-SRAM's first victory of the season. Vollering finished in second, unable to keep up with the Pole, with Longo Borghini narrowly behind.
"It means a lot," she said post-race. "I really hope that with that victory I inspired a lot of people who are pursuing their dreams for so long. Because I’ve experienced a lot of failures, a lot of second and third-places, but I never stopped believing that as a team we could win another race.
"I do really hope that race will inspire a lot of people to keep believing, to keep pursuing their dreams, cos the rewards are always there waiting for us."
Niewiadoma is the reigning gravel world champion, but had finished on the podium 30 times since her last victory in June 2019, including third at the Tour de France Femmes twice.
The race was dominated early on by the weather, with rain and snow impacting the riders, as it had the men's race earlier in the day.
"The race was super brutal, because as we started it rained so hard and the temperature dropped very low, but I knew it was my day," Niewiadoma continued. "The weather conditions were on my side, because I always benefit from races like this. As a team we kept positive, even though we were all shaking from the cold. Everyone was there for each other, my teammates werre amazing taking care of me."
She also referenced Lorena Wiebes' early celebration on Sunday, at the Amstel Gold Race: "After Sunday I was like I’m not going to celebrate even a centimetre before the line, I didn’t want to waste energy looking around, I just gave my best because I wanted to sprint for the victory."
How it happened
The longest-ever women's edition of La Flèche Wallonne began in the apocalyptic weather conditions that had shaped the men's race earlier in the day.
Given the rain and snow faced by the peloton in the first 20km, it was not a surprise that it took until 40km in for the day's break to be established. Sara Martín (Movistar) Julie Van de Velde (AG Insurance-Soudal) and Elena Hartmann (Roland) managed to escape just after the second classified climb of the day, the Côte de Courriere.
The gap between the peloton and the trio out front slowly grew, but it seemed the bunch were content to allow the gap to extend to over three minutes. As the riders hit the Mur de Huy for the first time - and penultimate - Hartmann struggled to hold onto the break, and she was dropped by about 30km to go.
Behind, Grace Brown (FDJ Suez) and Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) attacked from the peloton, in a move which could have been dangerous but was never allowed much leeway by a peloton who were keen to regain control of the race.
With 16.2km to go, Brown and Rooijakkers were caught, with the gap to the two riders out front at just 1:27.
The peloton really started to dramatically reduce in numbers on the penultimate climb of the day, the Côte d'Ereffe, and the time to the duo out front was reduced to under a minute for the first time in almost 90km.
Some of the day’s favourites were alert to a brief push off the front by Riejanne Markus (Visma-Lease a Bike), including Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek). Rooijakkers then went off the front alone again, as her Fenix-Deceuninck team attempted to stop counter-moves from the peloton.
She was joined by Longo Borghini and Elise Chabbey (Canyon-SRAM) with 8km to go, just after they had caught Martin and Van de Velde out front. They were chased by Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime). They were reeled in by the peloton.
Markus was the next to attack, the Dutchwoman heading off the front with just over 5km left. She went alone into the final kilometre, but was then caught by the thinned-out bunch behind.
With Markus caught, Vollering surged to the front, followed by Longo Borghini and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM).
Results: La Flèche Wallonne Féminine 2024 (146km)
1. Kasia Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM, in 3:55:39
2. Demi Vollering (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, +2s
3. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Lidl-Trek, +4s
4. Évita Muzic (Fra) FDJ-Suez, +7s
5. Ashleigh Moolman Pasio (RSA) AG Insurance-Soudal, +11s
6. Pauliena Rooijakkers (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck, +15s
7. Juliette Labous (Fra) dsm-firmenich PostNL, +19s
8. Fem van Empel (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike, +24s
9. Marta Cavalli (Ita) FDJ-Suez, +27s
10. Ane Santesteban (Spa) Labora Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi, st
