{"id":541767,"date":"2026-04-20T22:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T22:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/541767\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T22:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T22:08:14","slug":"no-pogacar-no-problem-uae-turn-to-benoit-cosnefroy-for-la-fleche-wallonne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/541767\/","title":{"rendered":"No Pogacar, no problem? UAE turn to Benoit Cosnefroy for La Fleche Wallonne"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/uae-team-emirates-xrg\" title=\"UAE Team Emirates - XRG\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UAE Team Emirates &#8211; XRG<\/a> have already confirmed their line-up for <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/cycling\/profile-route-fleche-wallonne-2026\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">La Fleche Wallonne<\/a>, which will take place on Wednesday 22 April with its usual explosive finish on the Mur de Huy.<\/p>\n<p>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<p>The team will consist of Mikkel Bjerg, Benoit Cosnefroy, Luca Giaimi, Rune Herregodts, Vegard Stake Laengen, Pavel Sivakov and <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/tim-wellens\" title=\"Tim Wellens\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tim Wellens<\/a>, who continues his gradual return to competition following injury.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\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 <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/la-fleche-wallone\" title=\"La Fleche Wallonne\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">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<p>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<p>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<p>UAE Team Emirates &#8211; XRG line-up for La Fleche Wallonne 2026:RiderNationalityMikkel BjergDenmarkBenoit CosnefroyFranceLuca GiaimiItalyRune HerregodtsBelgiumVegard Stake LaengenNorwayPavel SivakovFranceTim WellensBelgium<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UAE Team Emirates &#8211; XRG have already confirmed their line-up for La Fleche Wallonne, which will take place&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[109467,4985,156725,101,123571,12183,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-541767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-benoit-cosnefroy","9":"tag-cycling","10":"tag-la-fleche-wallonne","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tim-wellens","13":"tag-uae-team-emirates-xrg","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}