Bad luck for Astana’s Fraile at La Fleche Wallonne 2020

NUR-SULTAN. KAZINFORM - 84th edition of Ardennes classic La Flèche Wallonne finished today with a traditional climbing at the famous Mur de Huy after 202 km of racing at the Belgian roads, Kazinform has learnt from the club’s press service.

With a mechanical problem just 10 km before the finish, Astana Pro Team leader Omar Fraile couldn’t participate at the tough final of the race atop of Mur de Huy, where Swiss rider Marc Hirschi celebrated the victory ahead of Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R La Mondiale) and Michael Woods.

Astana Pro Team riders Hugo Houle and Gorka Izagirre finished 18 seconds after the race winner, taking 20th and 23rd place, respectively. Fraile crossed the finish line 10 seconds behind his teammates, taking 27th place.

«It was a bit unlucky day for our team. We build all our job around our leader at this race Omar Flaile, but, unfortunately, he had a mechanical problem at 10 km to go and was forced to change the bike. He was able to join the peloton only at 3 km before the finish and spent too much energy to be able to compete at that tough final. In general, he has good legs and we will see what we can do at the next Ardennes classic Liege-Bastogne-Liege this Sunday,» сommented sports director Dmitriy Fofonov.