April 1, 2026
The distance between the start in Roeselare and the finish in Waregem is just 24 km but as is the case with the Flemish cobbled races, they twist and turn and loop around the countryside. The 80th edition of Dwars door Vlaanderen covers 184 km with 12 bergs to pass along the way. The first 60 km are nearly all flat as the riders make their way South from Roeselare, through Waregem, and into Oudenaarde, the gateway to the Flemish Ardennes. The main features of the race come in the middle third with the Berg Ten Houte, Knokteberg, and Hotond, each ridden twice. The second time up the Hotond comes with 52 km to go, followed by 12 km of flat between Ronse and Maarkedaal to the base of the Eikenberg. The bunch will then cross the Scheldt in Oudenaarde for a lap around Nokere that includes the cobbled Nokereberg as well as the paved climb up the back side of Nokere that is used in Nokere Koerse. The paved Nokere climb is the last of the day and comes 10 km from the finish in Waregem. The course is very similar to the one from 2025 that saw four riders coming to the finish, three of which were from Visma-Lease a Bike, and Neilson Powless with Powless winning in an extraordinary sprint.
Highlighted Riders:
Wout van Aert, Matthew Brennan, Christophe Laporte, Jasper Philipsen, Paul Magnier, Dylan van Baarle, Mads Pedersen, Jonathan Milan, Arnaud De Lie, Florian Vermeersch, Tim van Dijke, Romain Grégoire, Biniam Girmay, Tobias Lund Andresen, Alberto Bettiol, Jonas Abrahamsen, Milan Fretin, Luca Mozzato, Lukáš Kubiš, Anthony Turgis
Race Summary
A haze that you only get in Spring time in Belgium hung over the riders and shrouded the sun as the race set off from Roeselare. The first 80 km of the race were lightning quick at 48.5KM/HR and a selection of 18 riders had already been made on the first ascent of the Berg Ten Houte. The peloton were forced into a panicked chase and by the time live coverage began with 100 km to go, they were 25 seconds behind the first group. Alpecin-Premier Tech and Ineos were the primary teams to have missed the move and they were chasing Mads Pedersen and Mathias Vacek of Lidl-Trek, Paul Magnier of Soudal Quickstep, Matthew Brennan and Christophe Laporte of Visma-Lease a Bike, Florian Vermeersch and Benoît Cosnefroy of UAE-XRG, Mick van Dijke of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, Alberto Bettiol of XDS-Astana, Jonas Abrahamsen and Søren Wærenskjold of Uno-X Mobility, and Daan Hoole and Tobias Lund Andresen of Decathlon CMA CGM.
The gap was down to 18 seconds when the leaders hit the first passage of the Knokteberg with 92 km to go. The bunch split in half over the top of the Knokteberg and the first half was able to close down the front group a few kilometers later at 84 km to go with the second part of the peloton around 20 seconds behind. There was a big fight for positioning on the wide downhill road going into the Mariaborrestraat. The speed was scary, especially as riders were swinging around to get some shelter from the wind, but everyone made it through the turn upright.
After the Mariaborrestraat, Sam Watson of Ineos went on the attack on the Onderbossenaarstraat at 79 km to go and a reaction came from Wout van Aert of Visma-Lease a Bike. Van Aert pulled a group of 16 away with a growing gap to the remnants of the first peloton. A complete lack of cohesion in the van Aert group allowed Alpecin-Premier Tech to bring the group back with 74 km to go, just a few hundred meters before the second passage of the Berg Ten Houte. Per Strand Hagenes of Visma-Lease a Bike set an infernal pace up the Ten Houte which dropped some of the sprinters, including Lund Andresen who looked cooked. Van Aert attacked over the top but enough riders latched that it slowed the move down and it was brought back. António Morgado and Nils Politt of UAE-XRG each made a few attacks but neither move stuck and everything was back together with 68 km to go.
Through the streets of Ronse, a group of six snuck away that included Max Walker of EF-Education EasyPost, Sandy Dujardin of TotalEnergies, Søren Kragh Andersen of Lidl-Trek, Matis Louvel of NSN Cycling, Jasha Sütterlin of Jayco AlUla, and Alberto Bettiol of XDS-Astana. Watson and Wessel Mouris of Unibet Rose Rockets bridged to make eight leaders but Alpecin-Premier Tech and Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe caught the group by the base of the Knokteberg at 56 km to go. Nothing went on the climb but van Aert tried again to make a selection over the top but the elastic never snapped.
Romain Grégoire of Groupama-FDJ United, Niklas Larsen of Unibet Rose Rockets, and Thomas Gachignard of TotalEnergies escaped at the foot of the Hotond and had about 8 seconds on the bunch by the time they started the downhill. There were countless attempts to break clear of the peloton on the 9 km run from the Hotond to the Mariaborrestraat but the moves only managed to slow the group down. When the three leaders reached the Mariaborrestraat with 45 km remaining, they had built a 30 second lead over the bunch which was between 50-60 riders deep. Gianni Vermeersch of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe and Hagenes each tried to get away on the cobbles but the group was still together at the base of the Eikenberg a few kilometers later.
It looked like the Eikenberg would be ridden at a moderate pace until van Aert throttled the group halfway up and he was clear by the top. Up front, Gachignard was dropped but Grégoire and Larsen remained as Van Aert joined up with the duo. The remnants of the peloton crested the Eikenberg 15 seconds later and were in single file. Through Oudenaarde and across the Scheldt, Magnus Sheffield of Ineos got out of the peloton and was joined by Tim van Dijke of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe in a bid to bridge to the van Aert group.
When the raced reached the cobble sector of Doorn with 30 km remaining, the leading trio had 20 seconds on Sheffield and van Dijke and 40 seconds on the rest of the peloton. Van Aert was the driving force but the gaps didn't blow out. At 22 km to go on the downhill approach to the cobbled Nokereberg, the gap was still 20 seconds to the first chase, which now included Florian Vermeersch, but the peloton had closed 10 seconds and were just 30 seconds behind. Surprisingly, Grégoire was dropped as the road went up through Nokere. Grégoire was a key ally to van Aert who was now forced to do the majority of the work.
With 17 km to go, Filippo Ganna of Ineos tried to bridge to the Sheffield group but, in doing so, brought Laurence Pithie of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe with him which then caused a reaction from the peloton. His effort only managed to close down the Sheffield group and, as a result, the peloton slowed. The gap to van Aert and Larsen increased to 25 seconds before Soudal Quickstep got organized for a chase. Ineos contributed to the chase as well and brought the gap down to 15 seconds by the start of the final climb on course of the Waregemsestraat up to Nokere. When van Aert hit the bottom, he got out of the saddle and increased the effort. Larsen was popped and van Aert only had to worry about getting to the finish line as quickly as possible.
The bunch of around 40 riders were 15 seconds behind van Aert as they passed through 5 km to go. Ganna went into ITT mode and powered into the void. A split formed behind and only Florian Vermeersch was there with him. The gap was down to 8 seconds under 3 km to go as Ganna and Vermeersch swapped turns but the bunch were also closing in behind. At 1,500 meters, Ganna and Vermeersch were just about caught by the peloton with van Aert not much more than 5 seconds ahead. Vermeersch ran out of legs and the last kilometer turned into a pursuit between van Aert, Ganna, and the bunch, all within just a handful of seconds. Van Aert led through the last corner and into the finishing straight. Ganna could smell the Belgian through the corner, he was so close. Ganna opened his sprint early at 300 meters and closed down the final gap to van Aert. Ganna hit him with speed from behind with just 100 meters to go and Van Aert and could not respond, he had given everything and was empty. Ganna crossed the line with arms aloft to take the victory on pure strength and guts. Van Aert took second two years in a row, both in excruciatingly difficult scenarios. Søren Wærenskjold of Uno-X Mobility won the field sprint for third, but he was so close that no official time gap was given between Wærenskjold, van Aert and Ganna.