Three days after grabbing seventh in the Amstel Gold Race, and one year after his seventh place in La Flèche Wallonne, Romain Grégoire took the exact same position on Wednesday, atop the Mur de Huy. After a difficult race due to the weather conditions, and following a remarkable team effort right up to the final, the young Frenchman once again joined the fight with the big guns to secure another top 10 finish. Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet, also in strong form, finished just behind, in eleventh place. A promising day ahead of Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday.
After a first opportunity on the Amstel Gold Race on Sunday, it was time to really tackle the Ardennes climbs for the punchers on Wednesday, with La Flèche Wallonne and its famous and horrendous Mur de Huy (1.3 km at 9.7%). Three laps of the finishing circuit made up the second half of the race, which meant as many climbs of this iconic hill, but also of the Côte d’Ereffe (2 km at 5.5%) and the Côte de Cherave (1.3 km at 7.6%), which came back for this 2025 edition. Eight riders entered the first lap of the circuit, with about 90 kilometres to go, with a small margin over the peloton, while the weather got harsh. “The goal was to stay with our leaders, meaning Romain and Guillaume, and to support them for as long as possible,” explained Benoît Vaugrenard. “Due to the rain, positioning was crucial today. So that was the watchword today: keep them up there at all times.” Although the first two climbs of the Mur de Huy were done at a solid pace, no attacks shook the peloton before the start of the final lap. Yet, the bunch was already reduced by half with about thirty kilometres to go. “The team was really solid,” Benoît said. “We still had our seven guys coming into the last ascent of Côte d’Ereffe. It gave them motivation, a boost, and they helped each other. We can really be satisfied with that today”.
“A sense of unfinished business”, Romain Grégoire
With their teammates’ support, Romain Grégoire and Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet never dropped out of the first third of the bunch. Thanks to a pull from Kevin Geniets, they were even able to tackle the final ascent of the Côte de Cherave, seven kilometres from the finish, in the upper part of the pack. They were therefore able to follow the serious acceleration of Tadej Pogacar’s teammates, and still had Valentin Madouas alongside them. At the summit, the three men were even part of a small group of fifteen riders, which got a bit bigger on the descent leading to Huy. Before entering the Mur, however, the former French champion was forced to make a major effort to close a gap on a handful of men that slipped away. The final, extreme ramps then came quite quickly, and the two Groupama-FDJ leaders tackled them slightly in the back. UAE Team Emirates set a high pace from the bottom, after which Tadej Pogacar took off, 500 metres from the finish line. In around tenth place at that point, Romain Grégoire more or less held onto that position in the final few hundreds of metres, then made one last effort in the home stretch to claim seventh place.
“I still have a few regrets, because the team was really perfect today,” said Romain. “Everyone did a very good job to make sure that I could fight for the top positions. I know I can reach the top 10 in the WorldTour, but I can aim higher, and I wanted to aim higher. This seventh place has a bit of a sense of unfinished business. I don’t know if I wasn’t demanding enough with my positioning or if I didn’t dare push myself too hard at the bottom, but I feel like I still had something left at the top. I think I could have done better.” “He was perhaps a little bit far too far, and a bit conservative,” added Benoît. “He wanted to keep a bit of energy, and he’s still struggling to approach this Mur. I don’t know if the top 5 was possible, but sixth place was clearly within his reach.” A few seconds later, Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet took eleventh place. “We still showed that we were there, and we were in the mix more than ever,” claimed Romain. “That will give us the rage and the desire to really make a big splash in Liège.” “We were aiming for the top 5 today, and we’re not far off,” concluded Benoît. “That’s what we’ll try to achieve again on Sunday.”
