Dwars door Vlaanderen
Wednesday 1 April
Distance: 185km (men’s), 129km (women)
Finish: 3:05pm (men’s), 4:30pm (women’s) BST
The final rehearsal before the big show that is the Tour of Flanders takes place on Wednesday, Dwars door Vlaanderen, or ‘Through Flanders’, which is quite a nice name.
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Demi Vollering and Marlen Reusser return
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Not seen since Strade Bianche almost a month ago, Demi Vollering returns to action at Dwars, a race she won in 2023. The last time Vollering raced in Belgium, she won Omloop Nieuwsblad, so clearly has form for this time of thing. Her FDJ United-SUEZ team are the queens of one-day racing this year, so will be aiming to set her, or one of her teammates up for a win.
Also returning is another SD Worx-Protime alumnus, Marlen Reusser of Movistar, who last rode at the UAE Tour in February. She crashed out of that race, but is back and “ready to go” for this weekend.
Wout van Aert aims to bounce back
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Last year, Dwars ended rather embarrassingly for Wout van Aert and Visma-Lease a Bike. The team had three riders in the finale, joined by Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost). Somehow, they managed not to win from that situation.
This season, Visma and Van Aert will be aiming for a different scenario. The Belgian is yet to win this year, despite looking good, and this is a big chance to make a statement before Flanders.
A sprinter’s race?
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Not since 2016 for men and 2022 for the women has Dwars finished in anything resembling a bunch sprint, but there are still a lot of fast finishers in the races, from Tobias Lund Andresen (Decathlon CMA CGM) and Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) to Chiara Consonni (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) and Cat Ferguson (Movistar).
Obviously, it doesn’t have to be a bunch sprint for a sprinter to win, as Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) proved at In Flanders Fields. It does, however, give teams a different card to play.
The missing big hitters
(Image credit: Getty Images/Marco BERTORELLO)
While there are many big names lining up on the start list, some are significantly absent. There are favourites for Flanders not racing Dwars, including Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech), and Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime).
It means we can’t predict too much ahead of Sunday, although a win is surely better than nothing. That said, it was at Dwars two years ago where Wout van Aert crashed out, ruining his Classics season; everyone will be hoping to avoid incident.
Full-strength teams
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Despite the absentees, there are teams with a lot of strength in depth at Dwars. In the women’s race, FDJ, SD Worx, UAE Team ADQ and Movistar all look close to full strength, with a plethora of options.
In the men’s race, Visma-Lease a Bike look almost there, with the return of Matthew Brennan giving their team another angle, while Lidl-Trek are well rounded too, with Mads Pedersen and Jonathan Milan.
A WorldTour race
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For the first time in its nine year history, Dwars is now a Women’s WorldTour race, meaning mandatory participation for all the elite teams, live television coverage, and a better field. This is good to see for a race which always provides great action – and fans can finally watch it, too.
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