There's just 364 days to go until the next Uphill Cheese Roll

Contains Flèche Wallonne spoilers, so read after you've watched the race or listened to the podcast if you don't want to know the result

by Lionel Birnie

After we finished recording our episode of Arrivée following Flèche Wallonne yesterday, it suddenly occurred to me we’ve been calling the race the ‘Uphill Cheese Roll’ for so long we forgot to explain the origins of the phrase.

Daniel came up with the comparison years ago, inspired by an annual event held on Cooper’s Hill in Brockworth, Gloucestershire, England, which apparently has its roots in a Pagan festival to mark the beginning of summer. Competitors ‘chase’ a large wheel of Double Gloucester cheese down a steep grassy bank, which is very much the Mur de Huy of Gloucestershire. It’s a brutal spectacle, with bodies tumbling head over heels in pursuit of the cheese. People get injured along the way, which seems to be part of the point. Having spent longer than is sensible watching videos on YouTube, it seems the cheese always ‘wins’ too.

Yesterday’s race marked the 40th anniversary of the first edition of Flèche Wallonne to finish at the top of the Mur de Huy. In 1985, reigning world champion Claude Criquielion broke away to win in the rainbow jersey. For the next 15 or so years, the finish was far from formulaic but for the past couple of decades we’ve been treated to an annual slow motion sprint up the 1,300-metre Mur, or ‘wall’.

It was an enjoyable episode trying to put into context a race I almost called the most enjoyable three minutes of the season (that takes place on a Wednesday afternoon in the second half of April). By now you’ll know why I described Tadej Pogačar’s win as like watching the reverse of a giant wheel of Camembert racing 25 or 30 Mini Babybels. (Yes, I know I should have researched Slovenian cheeses, or at least given Double Gloucester its due!)

My opinion of Flèche Wallonne flip-flops year-to-year but I’ve come to the conclusion (for the time being) that it doesn’t need ‘fixing’. Yes, the Mur de Huy finale has become predictable – it’s 22 years since Igor Astarloa last prevented a ‘sprint’. Pogačar’s acceleration was so violent that he opened up a 10-second gap on Kévin Vauquelin by the time he reached the line, so I suppose it wasn’t a sprint either, but nor was it a race of fascinating tactical subtlety.

There have been calls to shake-up the course, vary the challenge, perhaps by finishing a few kilometres after the Mur and making the final ascent more strategic. We didn’t get fully into the weeds of this debate in Arrivée, but I can’t see how it would change things much. There’s not really a descent to speak of after the Mur – there’s a plateau and although it would be possible to loop back round on the main road and follow the Meuse back into the centre of Huy, having ridden that route I have to say it’s pretty underwhelming. The descent is too shallow and the route too long to make a thrilling finale but perhaps it would at least be different.

I do think that if the finish moved from the top of the hill there’d soon be calls to reinstate it.

Perhaps the answer is to double down and make the Mur de Huy even more of a feature of the race. The Côte d’Ereffe and Côte de Cherave are not especially difficult or charming climbs so perhaps Flèche Wallonne should become less of an arrow and more of a loop – a circuit race with five or six ascents of the Mur de Huy might shake things up a bit, but then again it might not. After all, they could have climbed the hill on repeat all day yesterday and the winner would have been the same.

Anyway, it was fun recording the episode, detouring into discussions about cheese, New Year’s Eve celebrations in New York, and more whimsical nonsense about sunglasses.

You can listen to the men’s episode with me and Daniel, and the women’s episode with Rose Manley and Denny Gray wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Latest from The Cycling Podcast

• KM0 – The Beast In The East
Marking the 20th anniversary of England’s spring classic. This bonus episode of KM0 about the Cicle Classic, which takes place on Sunday (April 27). The episode features Matt Stephens, Conor Dunne, James McCallum and the race organiser Colin Clews, and it’s on the regular feed for everyone to listen to.

• Marginal Dane
In this week’s regular episode, Daniel, Lionel and Rob Hatch discussed Remco’s return and Mattias Skjelmose’s stunning upset at the Amstel Gold Race. Plus there was all sorts of nonsense about sunglasses following Giulio Ciccone’s novel approach to recycling when he won the opening stage of the Tour of the Alps.

Coming on Sunday
Two episodes of Arrivée covering Liège-Bastogne-Liège will wrap up our series for the spring Classics. Follow The Cycling Podcast in your preferred podcast feed and those episodes will drop automatically as soon as they are published.

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Moreno Argentin in his 80s-style, stonewash rainbow jersey, stuns Stephen Roche and Claude Criquielion. Photo by Graham Watson

‘A bullet in rainbow colours’

The final part of my Classic Tales series tells the story of the 1987 Liège-Bastogne-Liège when a rider in the rainbow jersey pulled off a stunning shock at the finish. You can read the full story here.

Richard Moore Youth Race Series gets underway

Celebrations with Nosecco on the podium after the

The first round of the Richard Moore Youth Race Series took place at the West Lothian cycle circuit in Linlithgow on Tuesday night.

The series of five rounds is named after our friend and co-founder Richard, who died suddenly in 2022. All five rounds will be held at the circuit, which has a corner named Buffalo Bend where there is a plaque honouring Richard that was made by Friend of the Podcast Stacy Snyder.

Pictured above is Sarah McCormac of Richard’s old club, Edinburgh RC, celebrating her win in the Youth B Female race with a bottle of Nosecco.

Edinburgh rider Callum Thornley, who rides for the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe Rookies, was back home following a crash in the under-23 Paris-Roubaix and took the opportunity to visit the circuit for the first time and watched the racing.

The first round was organised by Roddy and the team at Stirling Bike Club / Wallace Warriors. Round two is on Tuesday, May 13 and riders can enter on the British Cycling website.

Round one winners
Youth C Girls: Lucy Dixon (Falkirk Junior BC)
Youth C Boys: Ellis McAusland (Falkirk Junior BC)
Youth B Female: Sarah McCormac (Edinburgh RC)
Youth B Open: Gregor McNaught (Glasgow Riderz)
Youth A Female: Lucy Sweeney (Edinburgh RC)
Youth A Open: Andrew Levinson (Edinburgh RC)

You can find out more about the series on Facebook.