Annemieke van Vleuten finished second in Wednesday's La Flèche Wallonne Féminine, with Marta Cavalli (FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope) coming from behind to win.

Van Vleuten has been beaten to the win twice before by Anna van der Breggen, and Fresh is one of the few major races in her illustrious career to be omitted from the 88 wins.

After the race, Van Vleuten said that she ran the final climb of the Mur de Huy as planned, taking advice from Movistar teammate Alejandro Valverde, a five-time winner of this race.

"I used to always start too far back," he said. Here I just followed the plan I made yesterday with Alejandro's help. I did exactly what he told me to do."

"Super hard tempo, especially after the two hardest corners. With Cavalli coming in, I had to give it my all. We didn't leave any fireworks unused on this climb."

"I can't feel disappointed today," said Cavalli. There was a moment with 200 meters to go when I thought I could win. It's not something I can control."

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Van Vleuten created a clear space between her and the rest of the peloton in the last 500 meters of the brutally steep 1.3km climb to the finish. While Demi Vollering (SD Worx), Rian Lippert (Team DSM), and others were unable to keep up with her pace, Cavalli was able to advance to the other side.

Cavalli faithfully steered Van Vleuten on the final climb and made a decisive move when the road flattened out in the shadow of the Notre Dame de la Sarthe church.

Despite missing out on the win again, Van Vleuten said she and her team raced a nearly perfect race.

"We didn't use any energy anywhere along the way. The lead-out to the Côte de Chélève was perfect. And in the final, Arlenis Sierra and Paula Patiño were with me, so I had a perfect leadout. For the first time in my life - and age is no barrier to learning - I did a perfect mule."

"It was a perfect race as a team. I'm so honored that everyone ran 100% for me."