How to Watch Dwars door Vlaanderen, a Fun Midweek Semi-Classic
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Wednesday brings the final dress rehearsal for riders hoping to win Sunday’s Tour of Flanders: Dwars door Vlaanderen. With races for both men and women, this midweek semi-classic with a misleading and hard-to-pronounce name (we just call it “Dwars”) is worth carving out some time to watch.
First raced in 1945, Dwars door Vlaanderen (which translates to “across Flanders”) was originally called Dwars door België (“across Belgium”), because it went from Sint Truiden (in eastern Belgium) to Waregem (in western Belgium). From 1946 until 1964 it became a two-day stage race, with the first stage starting in Waregem and finishing in Sint Truiden or Liège, and the second stage taking the riders back “across” to Waregem. In 1999 the name changed to Dwars door Vlaanderen, perhaps to reflect the fact that the race didn’t really cut across the entire country anymore. (It doesn’t even cross Flanders.)
For decades, the race was held on the Wednesday after Milan-Sanremo and two days before the E3 Classic, making it the first Flemish race after the Italian Monument and a bit of a soft-opener for many riders building up for the cobbled classics. But in 2017 the event was added to the WorldTour calendar, and in 2018 it moved back one week, putting it right between Ghent-Wevelgem and the Tour of Flanders and making it the final chance for riders hoping to test themselves before Sunday’s Flemish Monument.
That’s put the semi-classic right in the crosshairs of some of the sport’s best cobbled classic specialists, and several of them have won Dwars (which still finishes in Waregem) and then the Tour of Flanders four days later. The Netherlands’ Mathieu van der Poel was the last to do so. The Dutchman made Dwars the first race of his cobbled classics campaign in 2022, winning in Waregem four days before winning his second Tour of Flanders. Overall, Belgians have won 54 of the event’s 77 men’s editions, and no one has won the race more than twice in his career.
A women’s race was added in 2012, and—as is the case with most of the spring classics (and heck, just about any race on the women’s calendar these days)—the Dutch have dominated the event, winning 9 of its 11 editions. Amy Pieters holds the record with three victories.
Here’s everything else you need to know about Wednesday’s Dwars door Vlaanderen semi-classic:
The Route
The 188K men’s race begins in Roeselare and takes a jagged southwestern route toward the first of the race’s eight cobbled sectors and twelve climbs. THings get harder once the race passes Oudenaarde, home of the Tour of Flanders museum and the finish of the Flemish Monument. From here the race covers two circuits of hills and cobbled sectors that usually break the race wide open.
After passing over the Knokteberg and the Hotond for the second time, the course heads back toward Oudenaarde, then keeps going northwest as the race makes its way toward Waregem. At this point the riders will pass over the Nokereberg twice as they complete a local finishing circuit that brings them through Waregem once before the finish.
The 130K women’s race begins in Waregem, then quickly joins the route taken by the men earlier in the day. After passing through Oudenaarde, the women complete one loop through the hills south of the famous city, then head back north toward Waregem, where they’ll complete the same finishing circuit as the men. Overall the women will cover seven sections of cobbles and twelve hills on the day.
Like Friday’s E3 Saxo Classic, the course of Dwars door Vlaanderen lends itself to aggressive racing–especially during the portion of the race that loops through the Flemish hills south of Oudenaarde. These roads are home to some of the toughest hills in Flanders, and while Dwars omits many of the key climbs from Sunday’s Monument, there’s no shortage of opportunities for riders and teams hoping to blow the race apart.
How to Watch
If you signed up for FloBikes ($150/year or $30/month) before Ghent-Wevelgem, then you’ve also bought yourself access to Dwars door Vlaanderen (and Sunday’s Tour of Flanders). Both the men’s and women’s events will be available live and on-demand via FloBikes.com, the FloSports IOS app, and the FloSports app for Amazon FireTV, Roku, and Apple TV.
In Europe, clocks won’t spring ahead until Sunday, so fans on the east coast are still five hours behind the race’s local time. We’ll probably tune-in around 9:30 a.m. EDT–just as the men hit the hills on their first loop south of Oudenaarde. The men’s race is expected to end around two hours later, and the women’s race should wrap-up by about 12:45 p.m. EDT.
What Happened Last Year
Taking advantage of a chance to lead the team himself, France’s Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma) attacked out of a breakaway 4K from the finish line in Waregem to win Dwars door Vlaanderen just four days after being”gifted” Ghent-Wevelgem by his teammate, Belgium’s Wout van Aert.
There were no gifts in Dwars, though. Laporte won the race with a mix of strength and tactical savvy. After spending much of the day on the attack, Spain’s Oier Lazkano (Movistar) took second. American Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) was third.
In the women’s event, after a series of attacks inside the final 20K, the Netherland’s Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx) finally escaped from a select group of favorites. Initially, Vollering’s compatriot, Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma), followed the move, but she proved unable to stay with Vollering all the way to the finish. The defending champion, Italy’s Chairra Consonni (UAE Team ADQ), was second and Vos finished third.
Riders to Watch
Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma)
Still trying to win the Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix, Van Aert has taken an unconventional approach to preparing for the cobbled classics by skipping stage races like Paris-Nice or Tirreno-Adriatico and the season’s first Monument, Milano-Sanremo. Instead the Belgian and several teammates went to Mount Teide on the Canary Islands to train at altitude.
Time will tell if it was the right decision. Van Aert looked good at Friday’s E3 Saxo Classic, but he crashed on the Paterberg just as van der Poel attacked. The Belgian then skipped Sunday’s Ghent-Wevelgem to give his body a chance to continue adjusting to being back at sea level. Dwars will be his final test before Sunday’s Tour of Flanders.
Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek)
Pedersen has been scoring victories since early February, but in winning Sunday’s Ghent-Wevelgem–by defeating none other than van der Poel in a two-up sprint–he’s shown no signs of fading. If Pedersen, who finished fifth here last year, takes a back seat in order to stay fresh for Flanders, look for teammates like Belgium’s Jasper Stuyven, Latvia’s Toms Skujins, or Italy’s Jonathan Milan to lead the way instead, perhaps profiting from the fact that Pedersen will be heavily marked after Sunday’s win.
Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
Philipsen was a victim of tactics in Sunday’s Ghent-Wevelgem. With van der Poel off the front for much of the second half of the race, there was little he could do other than sit in the peloton and wait to sprint for whatever spots were left by the end of the afternoon. He ended the day fourth. But van der Poel isn’t racing Wednesday, so Philipsen can ride for himself in Dwars. Fourth in Waregem last year, it will be interesting to see if he follows attacks or asks his team to try and bring the race back together for a field sprint.
Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx-Protime)
The defending champion, Vollering is making her Belgian classics debut in Dwars–just as she did last year. Her presence gives SD Worx–who already has no shortage of cards to play–another ace. She and her teammates–like Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky and Switzerland’s Marlen Reusser–can take turns attacking, using their collective strength to wear out the competition. And if the race comes back together–like it did at the end of Sunday’s Ghent-Wevelgem–they have one of the fastest sprinters in the world–the Netherland’s Lorena Wiebes–for a possible field sprint.
Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ)
Consonni clearly likes Dwars door Vlaanderen: she won the race in 2022 and was last year’s runner-up. Fourth in Thursday’s Classic Brugge-De Panne and third in Sunday’s Ghent-Wevelgem, she looks ready to score another high finish in Waregem but will need to find a way to overcome the strength of SD Worx-Protime to take her first classic victory.
Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma)
Vos has won just about every race on the women’s calendar, but surprisingly, she’s never won Dwars door Vlaanderen. In fact, last year was the first time she’s taken the start, and she ended the day third. The midweek semi-classic is the Dutchwoman’s first race since Strade Bianche in early March, and she’s hoping it kicks-off a successful ten-day run, one that ends with a victory in Paris-Roubaix two Saturdays from now.
Other Riders to Watch
Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Oier Lazkano (Movistar), Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates), Jhonatan Narváez (INEOS Grenadiers), Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl - Trek)
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