{"id":907989,"date":"2026-04-21T02:23:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/907989\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T02:23:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:23:30","slug":"no-pogacar-no-problem-uae-turn-to-benoit-cosnefroy-for-la-fleche-wallonne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/907989\/","title":{"rendered":"No Pogacar, no problem? UAE turn to Benoit Cosnefroy for La Fleche Wallonne"},"content":{"rendered":"

UAE Team Emirates – XRG<\/a> have already confirmed their line-up for La Fleche Wallonne<\/a>, which will take place on Wednesday 22 April with its usual explosive finish on the Mur de Huy.<\/p>\n

The Emirati team approach a race they have already won twice with Tadej Pogacar, as well as claiming a third place through Diego Ulissi in 2019. For this edition, sporting direction will be handled by Andrej Hauptman and Marco Marzano, who will rely on a well-balanced squad suited to the Ardennes terrain.<\/p>\n

The team will consist of Mikkel Bjerg, Benoit Cosnefroy, Luca Giaimi, Rune Herregodts, Vegard Stake Laengen, Pavel Sivakov and Tim Wellens<\/a>, who continues his gradual return to competition following injury.<\/p>\n


\nWithin the team, Cosnefroy stands out as one of the main options after his third place at the Amstel Gold Race, a performance that has boosted internal confidence in his form. The team itself underlined that \u201cBenoit Cosnefroy is arriving at La Fleche Wallonne<\/a> in excellent form\u201d, placing him among the riders to watch on the Mur de Huy finale. Alongside him, Sivakov and Wellens offer alternative options for a strong result in a finish where everything is decided in the final metres.<\/p>\n

The team also highlighted that \u201cwith a large number of climbs in both races, UAE Team Emirates-XRG is pleased to confirm its line-ups for La Fleche Wallonne and the Vuelta a Asturias\u201d, reflecting the importance they place on this part of the calendar.<\/p>\n

The route will once again include the classic circuit featuring the Cote d\u2019Ereffe, the Cote de Cherave and the Mur de Huy, whose extreme gradients of up to 20% will decide the 90th edition of the race.<\/p>\n

UAE Team Emirates – XRG line-up for La Fleche Wallonne 2026:<\/p>\n\nRider<\/td>\nNationality<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nMikkel Bjerg<\/td>\nDenmark<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nBenoit Cosnefroy<\/td>\nFrance<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nLuca Giaimi<\/td>\nItaly<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nRune Herregodts<\/td>\nBelgium<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nVegard Stake Laengen<\/td>\nNorway<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nPavel Sivakov<\/td>\nFrance<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nTim Wellens<\/td>\nBelgium<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UAE Team Emirates – XRG have already confirmed their line-up for La Fleche Wallonne, which will take place…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":907990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4104],"tags":[201490,4230,254895,79,89125,181698,16,15],"class_list":["post-907989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-benoit-cosnefroy","tag-cycling","tag-la-fleche-wallonne","tag-sports","tag-tim-wellens","tag-uae-team-emirates-xrg","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116440321642025618","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=907989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/907990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=907989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=907989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=907989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}