GP de Wallonie x 2 LIVE

Goodbye Canada, hello Wallonia! As we prepare for Worlds, we got a couple of tasty races to look forward to. Both the men and the women are racing over the bumpy Wallonian terrain to be the first up to the top of the Citadel in Namur.

Both races are roughly similar with the women’s race being 139km long and finishing first with the men trailing behind on a 202km course. Unfortunately, the women’s race will not be televised (please correct me if I am wrong) btw, per umwolverine, at least stateside, Max has the woman’s race with coverage starting at 14.00 local.

The full name of the women’s race is St Feullien Grand Prix de Wallonie and so…beer.

Honestly I had never looked into the origins of the brewery until now and yikes! From The Beer Connoisseur:

St. Feuillien Brewery draws local history for its name. In the 7th century, an Irish monk named Foylan traveled to spread his gospel, staying in nearby Fosses-la-Villes, where artifacts of his can still be found today. Foylan met a gruesome end – while travelling near Le Roeulx, he was robbed, tortured and decapitated.

Gone but not forgotten, his disciples built a chapel where he was martyred, and in 1125, the same ground bore what would become the Premonstratensian abbey of St. Feuillien (the name evolved over time into the more French form we see today), which developed a fine tradition of brewing abbey beer until it was destroyed in 1796 during the French Revolution.

St. Feuillien Brewery was founded a century later by Stephanie Friart, along with her husband. Though not on the same ground as the original abbey, the Friarts saw themselves as keepers of St. Feuillien’s storied history, passing down what they learned of brewing to their son Benoît Friart in 1910, who would be brewmaster for 40 years, before passing the torch to his son, also named Benoît.

https://beerconnoisseur.com/articles/story-st-feuillien-brewery-and-its-world-class-beers

Let’s give this win to Longo Borghini as she preps for Worlds.

The men’s race name is not associated with beer nor torture and well, here’s the course:

Usually this race comes down to the final climb up to the Citadel (2.9km @ 4.1%) leaving the win to be contested among sprinters who can climb a little and the likes of Tim Wellens, winner in 2017. Gonzalo Serrano won last year’s race but won’t be here to defend.

And there are loads of likely winners here. There’s Biniam Girmay who looks to be in fine form. Arnaud De Lie, who will be dining out on his being able to stay near Tadej Pogacar in Quebec for the rest of his life (gather round grandkids while I tell ya how I raced Pogacar!) stands a good chance. Aranburu, Zingle, Adria, Laperia, and Christien are just a few of the riders who think they have a good chance at the win. Me? I’m picking this guy, who is doubly perfect in that he is not on Jens’ Eds league team. No need to overthink it:

Photo by Alex Broadway/Getty Images

Enjoy.