The Ardennes according to… Dan Martin

Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège come as a pair but are races with very different characteristics these days.

Lionel sat down with Dan Martin to talk about the nuances and peculiarities of the two one-day classics which criss-cross the Walloon Ardennes.

Flèche Wallonne has been called the uphill cheeseroll by Daniel Friebe but is there more to the Mur de Huy than meets the eye? For a race that is so predictable and formulaic it ought to be easy to crack the code of the final climb? But, as Dan says, if it was that easy he’d have worked out how to do it.

Liège-Bastogne-Liège is hard and a more sophisticated tactical challenge, albeit one that rewards risk but punishes mistakes. Dan won it a decade ago, on the day the panda made the race finish in Ans infamous.

Series: Friends of the Podcast 2023
Part one, Flèche Wallonne. Run time: 28mins
Part two, Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Run time: 34mins
Producer: Adam Bowie