79th Dwars door Vlaanderen - A travers la Flandre ME (1.UWT) April 2nd 2025

[Alien Performance]

An excellent opportunity for us to find out who's favorite for the final podium spot in Ronde

Race Details

• Date: Wednesday, April 2, 2025, start at 12.40PM CET
• Distance: 184.2 km
• Start – Finish: Roeselare to Waregem
• Route: The course features ten climbs and seven cobbled sectors, with significant changes from previous editions. Notably, the Kanarieberg climb has been removed following last year's crash involving top contenders. The revised route includes double ascents of Berg Ten Houte and additions like the Eikenberg climb.

Live Coverage

• Europe: Eurosport/GCN (Discovery+)
• Belgium: Sporza (VRT)
• USA/Canada: FloBikes

Favourites
- Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) – ★★★★★
Fresh off his third Gent-Wevelgem victory, where he executed a dominant solo attack, Pedersen is in stellar form. Can win this race many different ways and has one of the strongest teams.

- Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) – ★★★★☆
Sprint real fast, difficult to drop, will be leading a strong Alpecin team. Looked fresh on the climbs back in opening weekend.

- Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) – ★★★★☆
A win would be great for his confidence before the near inevitable defeat this weekend.

- Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) – ★★★☆☆
The defending champion, Jorgenson secured a solo victory in the 2024 edition. Lets see how well him and Van Aert can work as a pair and if the latter will work for the former.

- Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) – ★★★☆☆
What a better way to celebrate a baby than a big win?

- Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) – ★★★☆☆
One hopes that his consistency will eventually pay off with a big victory.

Other Notable Riders
Dylan van Baarle (Visma-Lease a Bike)
Tiesj Benoot (Visma-Lease a Bike):
Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates)
Yves Lampaert (Soudal-Quick Step)
Tim Merlier (Soudal-Quick Step)
Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility)

 

[Samamba]

weak parcours

 

[Tim Cahill]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1641084671512530949

https://twitter.com/x/status/1907125002077429916

 

[Alien Performance]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1641084671512530949

https://twitter.com/x/status/1907125002077429916

the world would be a better place with more classics riders on Movistar

 

[scribers]

Let’s go!!

 

[scribers]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1907063591452152192

View: https://x.com/johanbruyneel/status/1907063591452152192?s=46&t=X4NqNG7J5ZQ-MxPOi53ECQ


Not often bruyneel ventures out into no man’s land like this

 

[jono]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1907063591452152192

View: https://x.com/johanbruyneel/status/1907063591452152192?s=46&t=X4NqNG7J5ZQ-MxPOi53ECQ


Not often bruyneel ventures out into no man’s land like this

Am I missing something? Is that not the official name of the race? Take it up with the organizers.

In any case, my darkhorse pick for a good showing is Tibor del Grosso.

 

[E_F_]

Am I missing something? Is that not the official name of the race? Take it up with the organizers.

The race is called Dwars door Vlaanderen, meaning Across Flanders Bruyneel is angry with people using just "Dwars" as an abbreviation. I suspect people do this because they're used to "Omloop" and "de Ronde". But whereas those make semantic sense, because they're nouns, this one doesn't. "Across" is a weird name to be fair.

 

[Potomac]

Jorgenson for a repeat

 

[scribers]

I suspect it has something to do with Benji who tweets bump-stock. I’ve muted two people on twitter. Benji and musk.

 

[RedheadDane]

Bruyneel can complain as much as he wants. I'm way too lazy to write "Dwars door Vlaanderen" all the time.

 

[Berniece]

WVA with a resurrection, but Philipsen will win

 

[Devil's Elbow]

This race remains overdue for the first bunch sprint since Coquard gifted the win to Debusschere. Five actual hills, the final at 40k to go, is nothing, and in my view it's a statistical anomaly that Flanders Classics have kept getting away with it here when they very much haven't with the new Omloop route.

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

In the last couple of editions Lazkano and Abrahamsen have finished second from the early break, so I expect a lot of teams wanting to take similar advantage this year.

 

[search]

Bruyneel can complain as much as he wants. I'm way too lazy to write "Dwars door Vlaanderen" all the time.

I think for abbreviations the Belgians usually go by the name of the town. So this is "Waregem", while we had Harelbeke and Wevelgem last week.

 

[tobydawq]

I suspect it has something to do with Benji who tweets bump-stock. I’ve muted two people on twitter. Benji and musk.

What has to do with Benji?

Many people call it Dwars which is an adverb - Bruyneel is right about it being a stupid abbreviation for a race. Boomers call the race Waregem. DdV would be more acceptable but also annoying. It's a pickle.

 

[Balthazar]

Am I missing something? Is that not the official name of the race? Take it up with the organizers.

In any case, my darkhorse pick for a good showing is Tibor del Grosso.

I am looking forward to how del Grosso performs here as well. Not a lot of Dutch up and coming talent around these days. Did read somewhere he’s been sick after Catalunya though so that doesn’t help.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I call it Door.

Will Potterssen go all out once again or will he save his matches for Sunday? Will Philipsen be able to avoid bad luck? Does Van Aert have the balls to win? Multiple questions will get answered today.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

The race is called Dwars door Vlaanderen, meaning Across Flanders Bruyneel is angry with people using just "Dwars" as an abbreviation. I suspect people do this because they're used to "Omloop" and "de Ronde". But whereas those make semantic sense, because they're nouns, this one doesn't. "Across" is a weird name to be fair.

But as the name of a race, "Dwars door Vlaanderen" is a proper noun, regardless of its etymology or original parsing. As such, it can be abbreviated and retain its form as a proper noun. Many forenames are, in their original form, adjectives or abstract nouns; surnames such as "van der Poel" are adjectival phrases: does he object to them being used as proper nouns too.

Or maybe he objects to being called "the brown one" without specifying what it is that is brown.

 

[staubsauger]

I call it Door.

Will Potterssen go all out once again or will he save his matches for Sunday? Will Philipsen be able to avoid bad luck? Does Van Aert have the balls to win? Multiple questions will get answered today.

So now we need to call it Across Flanders / Quer durch Flandern / Tværs gennem Flandern again!? 😄

 

[E_F_]

But as the name of a race, "Dwars door Vlaanderen" is a proper noun, regardless of its etymology or original parsing. As such, it can be abbreviated and retain its form as a proper noun.

Yeah, I'm happy to call it Dwars door.

 

[gavia88]

This race remains overdue for the first bunch sprint since Coquard gifted the win to Debusschere. Five actual hills, the final at 40k to go, is nothing, and in my view it's a statistical anomaly that Flanders Classics have kept getting away with it here when they very much haven't with the new Omloop route.

It's quite a performance to manage to avoid any hill between Hotond and Eikenberg. Even if you want to avoid the most classic ones in that part of the race, like Paterberg/Koppenberg/Kortekeer/Taaienberg, there would have been some other possibilities. Besides, an Eikenberg + Wolvenberg combo would have been obvious. The extra lap at the end of the race (as ddv always do) seems of very little added value, because the race before is just to easy. Herlegemstraat never ever has forced any split (not in this race, not in Nokere).

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

Ballerini looked mighty good on Sunday.
And my CQ team wonders if Narvaez and Pithie are in the mood for a top ten.

 

[scribers]

Same as tour, giro, oomloop, vuelta, etc in abbreviated form. Who got time for the extra words

 

[Pantani_lives]

It used to be "Dwars door België", when the race literally went through the middle of Belgium, close to the language barrier.

Nowadays the race is completely on Flemish territory, but it would have to go from Roeselare to Hasselt or something to be truly "Across Flanders".