Ben Tulett podiums at Flèche Wallonne after less than ideal preparation

Ben Tulett pulled off one of the day's more unlikely results on Wednesday, finishing third at the Flèche Wallonne for Visma | Lease a Bike. The Brit had been in two minds about whether to start at all following the setbacks of a bruising spring — but he did, and he delivered.

Tulett had earmarked the Ardennes Classics as a major target as far back as the team's January training camp. Twice in recent years, bad luck at the Tour of the Basque Country had left him short-changed heading into the Hilly Classics.

This season, history seemed to be repeating itself: a crash in the Basque Country forced him off the bike and out of the Amstel Gold Race, where illness then compounded his problems. On Sunday morning, he was still in enough doubt to pull out of Amstel entirely.

But he lined up in Huy on Wednesday. And on the Mur de Huy, he held firm on the steepest slopes, eventually edging out Benoît Cosnefroy (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) for third place behind winner Paul Seixas and Mauro Schmid. "This is my first WorldTour podium," Tulett said afterwards, "so I'm very happy."

"We had a long discussion about whether I should even start," he admitted. "After the crash in the Basque Country things hadn't gone smoothly for me — but this is a good end to that difficult period. I could still feel the effects of the crash in my body, but honestly, it didn't affect my legs at all."

Visma | Lease a Bike went into the race without their intended leader. Matteo Jorgenson had broken his collarbone in a crash at the Amstel Gold Race, ending his spring in an instant. "Losing Matteo just before these Ardennes Classics was a big blow. The original plan was for him to be our leader here, so it was hard to watch him go down at the Amstel."

"We were pretty disappointed on Sunday evening — but by Wednesday morning we were motivated again. Fortunately, Matteo is already on the mend. He's had his operation and he's on his way back." With Jorgenson out, Tulett knew the race was squarely on his shoulders.

"The Flèche Wallonne has a brutal finish," Tulett continued, "but we also knew that positioning going into the Mur was everything."

That positioning was the work of Owain Doull and Axel Zingle early in the race. Co-leader Jørgen Nordhagen had a difficult day, and Anton Schiffer was taken out by a crash involving Marc Hirschi. From there, it fell to Menno Huising and Filippo Fiorelli — and both riders delivered impressively, keeping Tulett near the front all the way into Huy.

It was particularly welcome news for Huising, the young Dutchman who has had his own share of misfortune this spring. He broke his collarbone at the Tour Down Under in January — in the now-infamous kangaroo crash — and then came down again at the Amstel Gold Race on Sunday.

"After that, it was a case of letting the legs do the talking on a climb like that," Tulett said. "And they turned out to be good. That's a great sign ahead of Liège-Bastogne-Liège. We weren't exactly optimistic going in — which makes standing on the podium all the sweeter."