Alejandro Valverde of Movistar has won the La Fleche Wallonne race in Belgium.
This 196km World Tour race from Marche-en-Famenne to Huy saw 199 riders minus Sergio Henao of Team Sky who has been pulled so his biological passport can be re-assessed, take part and Steve Cummings (Dimension Data), Koen Bouwman (LottoNL-Jumbo), Silvan Dillier (BMC), Vegard Stake Laengen (IAM), Kiel Reijnen (Trek-Segafredo), Matteo Bono (Lampre-Merida), Tosh Van Der Sande (Lotto Soudal), Sander Helven (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Mads Pedersen (Stolting Service Group), Quentin Pacher (Delko Marseille Provence KTM) in the first main break of the day.
With 69kms to go, they had a lead of 2.41 which was down to 1.53 when they crested the Côte de Bellaire with now Cummings, Bono, Dillier and Tosh Van Der Sande clear.
There was a big crash with 44.3kms left which saw three riders from Trek Segafredo go down. Frank Schleck was one of them and it looked like he had broken his collarbone in the fall.
Steve Cummings decided that with the pack only fifty seconds behind and some twenty seven kilometres left, the time was right to put in an attack.
He dropped Dillier and set off but on the Côte d'Ereffe, his lead was down to twenty one seconds.
With 17.6kms to go, Cummings was brought back to the bunch then on the Côte de Cherave, Jungels and Izagirre attacked before Lotto Soudal's Tim Wellens joined them on the front.
The final climb was the Mur De Huy and Movistar had a rider on the front going under the flam rouge with Dan Martin well placed.
In front of big crowds, Valverde and Martin led but Joaquin Rodriquez attacked. Dan Martin got his foot down and led until Valverde went again and won in 4.43.57 for his third successive win in this race ahead of Julien Alaphilippe, Dan Martin, Wout Poels and Enrico Gasparotto.
"Hats off to the team. I was just following, " said Valverde. "I had a great train and I knew I could win. I did whatever I could to be there at the end. This is a great race for me and everything suits me."