April 2, 2025
Dwars door Vlaanderen offers the final chance for riders and teams to tweak strategy before the big showdown at the Ronde van Vlaanderen on Sunday. The race starts in Roeselare with over 65KM of flat roads before the cobbled climbing starts with the Volkegemberg. The route is a mix of the Ronde van Vlaanderen with the Eikenberg, Hotond, and Berg Ten Houte as well as the Nokere Koerse with the Nokereberg and the Doorn cobbled sector. The final obstacle is the Herlegemstraat cobbles which come just 7KM before the finish in Waregem after 184KM of racing. Wout Van Aert of Visma-Lease a Bike returns to the race after his terrible crash last season here and will want to show more than he did in E3 last Friday.
There was clear blue sky and abundant sunshine for the start. Eight riders got away after a long and sustained fight to make the break. The riders included Taco van der Hoorn of Intermarché-Wanty, Joshua Giddings of Lotto, Lewis Askey of Groupama-FDJ, Mikkel Bjerg of UAE-XRG, Fabio Christen of Q36.5, Rasmus Søjberg Pedersen of Decathlon AG2R, Cériel Desal of Wagner-Bazin WB, and Petr Kelemen of Tudor Pro Cycling. Alexander Kristoff of Uno-X Mobility tried to bridge across and got within 30 seconds but he was caught around 100KM to go as the bunch were fighting for position on the run towards the Knokteberg. Wout Van Aert took on the pace on the Knokteberg and, by the top, had closed the gap to the break down to just a handful of seconds and split the bunch into two halves.
Bjerg and Søjberg Pedersen broke clear of the rest of the break on the downhill after the Hotond and the rest of the break were swept up by the first split with 88KM to go. Peloton one and two came together with 85KM to go and counter attacking immediately started as Josh Tarling of Ineos, Neilson Powless of EF-Education EasyPost, and Fabio Van den Bossche of Alpecin-Deceuninck got away. Calm came over the peloton until 73KM to go when Visma-Lease a Bike ramped up the pace to get into position before the twisting roads on the lead in to the Berg Ten Houte. Tarling, Powless, and Van den Bossche connected with Bjerg and Søjberg Pedersen at 71KM but their gap was only 30 seconds to a Visma-Lease a Bike team time trial. A gap near the front of the peloton opened which left four Visma-Lease a Bike riders off the front including Van Aert, Matteo Jorgenson, Tiesj Benoot, and Edoardo Affini. By the top of Berg Ten Houte, the complexion of the race had changed. The front group was now seven riders, Van Aert, Jorgenson, Benoot, Bjerg, Søjberg Pedersen, Powless, and Van den Bossche. Tarling and Affini drifted back to the peloton who were just 15 seconds behind.
Ineos and Lidl-Trek were chasing with Intermarché-Wanty and by the start of the second ascent of the Knokteberg at 57KM to go, the bunch were just 10 seconds behind. Van den Bossche, Bjerg, and Søjberg Pedersen were dropped from the front group on the Knokteberg and, by the top, the peloton was shredded making a chase difficult to organize. Wind battered what was left of the peloton and put the race into echelons with 48KM to go. Groups had come back together to form a main peloton for the start of the Mariaborrestraat with 45KM to go but the gap had gone out to 35 seconds. The four leaders went over the Doorn and Huisepontweg cobbled segments, passed the Schietjampettermolen, with an ever expanding gap. Stefan Küng of Groupama-FDJ, Alec Segaert of Lotto, and Mads Pedersen of Lidl-Trek all tried to get away but could not manage to break the elastic to the group.
There were some moments of frustration, but the leaders worked reasonably well together. A selection was finally made behind in the peloton with Mads Pedersen, Segaert, Küng, Arjen Livyns of Lotto, Tibor Del Grosso of Alpecin-Deceuninck, and Dries De Bondt of Decathlon AG2R but hey were still 50 seconds back with 18KM to go and seemed to be out of the game at this point. Powless continued to take turns with the other Visma-Lease a Bike riders to keep peace between them. Visma-Lease a Bike were content to take it to a sprint without a single attack. Jorgenson led through 1KM to go with Benoot, Van Aert, and Powless in that order behind. Benoot picked it up at 300M and Van Aert started his sprint 100M later on the barrier side. Powless went immediately around Benoot the other way. He got on terms with Van Aert and, incredibly, came past the Belgian. Powless crossed the line in disbelief with Van Aert in second, head hung low, with Benoot taking third. Memories of Ian Stannard came running back when he beat Niki Terpstra, Tom Boonen, and Stijn Vandenbergh of Etixx Quickstep in the 2015 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. This scenario seemed more like a tactical blunder than in 2015 given that Visma-Lease a Bike did not send a single attack in the finale.