Absolute Visma DISASTER! Neilson Powless wins Dwars door Vlaanderen as he outsprints Wout van Aert and Visma trio
Cycling
Team Visma | Lease a Bike put all their chips on Wout van Aert today at Dwars door Vlaanderen. They had the race fully under control but risked everything for a sprint with Wout van Aert, and although they had a 3-to-1 advantage, they lost the race to Neilson Powless.
The start of the race was quite fast and it took a long time for the breakaway to set off, whilst many riders abandoned even before the difficult part of the race. Joshua Giddings, Rasmus Sojberg Pedersen, Fabio Christen, Lewis Askey, Petr Kelemen, Ceriel Desal, Mikkel Bjerg and Taco van der Hoorn eventually went up the road.
The race opened up with over 90 kilometers to go, with Wout van Aert and Visma hitting the front of the peloton and splitting it to bits. Although there were many riders in play, the Dutch team today thrived in positioning whereas that had been their main issue in the spring thus far.
Bjerg and Pedersen survived up front and were joined by Neilson Powless, Joshua Tarling and Fabio van den Bossche. And then, the five-rider group were joined by Visma's van Aert, Matteo Jorgenson and Tiesj Benoot. Visma absolutely broke through the peloton before and during the Berg ten Houte climb. They linked with the front group, and in the next climb the trio set off with Neilson Powless.
Mads Pedersen and Magnus Sheffield were the main riders trying to bridge across, but unsuccessfully, and whilst behind the battle for the Top5 would become very tactical, in front the victory was between four riders in a scenario that reminisced the 2015 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (where Sky's Ian Stannard was joined by three Quick-Step riders).
Although this time, the Visma riders did not try to attack. A risky strategy, but it seemed clear the team wanted Wout van Aert to win, and in a sprint he was the strongest on paper. Jorgenson and Benoot did not attack and try to take the win, but instead led out Van Aert... But in the final meters the shocking scenario they feared has happened and the American beat van Aert in the final sprint to take the biggest win of his career.
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POWLESS WINS!!! 🤯 🦅
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WHAT A CRAZY VICTORY AFTER AN INSANE RACE!!
INSANITY!
This should have never been able to happen, Powless did the IMPOSSIBLE!!!
Chapeau!!
It is looking like a leadout for Van Aert 🚴♀️💨
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Jorgenson and Benoot have taken position in front of Van Aert, with Powless in last wheel.
Van Aert is not taking over anymore and neither is Powless. This could be becoming a sprint between Powless and Van Aert.
On paper Van Aert should be winning this of course, but it has been a real hard race, could Powless be more fit and pull of a crazy win here?
Last Five Kilometers 🏁
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How will this play out?
One thing we do know, this has certainly been one of the most entertaining races of this year.
Can Powless pull off the impossible? 😈
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With every kilometer it is looking more and more like the 4 at the front are not going to get caught. The break has 3 of Visma in there, so there would probably not be much looking around that will lose them loads of time. It is safe to say that they are going to make it.
Powless his chances are not looking that great right now with Van Aert in there. Although he could take them by suprise from far away, which would make for certainly the craziest and maybe even the most beautiful victory of this year.
Serious chase now!
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Although it seems to late, but the front could always start looking at eachother as long as Powless is in there.
Updated situation 📊
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At the front:
- JORGENSON, Matteo
- VAN AERT, Wout
- BENOOT, Tiesj
- POWLESS, Neilson
Group 2 +50"
- PEDERSEN, Mads
- LIVYNS, Arjen
- KÜNG, Stefan
- DEL GROSSO, Tibor
- SEGAERT, Alec
- BONDT, Dries de
Group 3: +1'25"
Benoot playing tactical games with Powless 🧠
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He leaves a gap to the other 2 with Powless in his wheel, but Powless sees it and closes the gap again.
Benoot is probably trying to tire out the American or he could be pissed off from him maybe skipping a few turns.
22 kilometer to go 💨
Cees Bol now on the chase
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Can Powless sneak the win?
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With 3 of the four at the front being from Visma | Lease a bike, Powless could do something incredible here if he pulls it off. That is if the break manages to stay in front ofcourse.
25 kilometer to go 💨
EF at the front of group 2?
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It now looks like EF - Educuation is chasing the break, but that would mean that they are chasing down their own teammate.
Maybe they feel like they have better chances with Marijn van den Berg.
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- Exactly, that easily makes for a minute at the front. You don’t see Pog cracking often either (less often than MVDP even) but when he does it’s lights out and over too. This is completely normal and to be expected, at the level of competitiveness all these guys are they only crack once they’ve pushed beyond their manageable limit and there’s no coming back from that. When your rival forces you into the red to keep or catch up, it’s over, in that respect, well done to WVA who seems to be world champion in staying just outside the red for as long as he can.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- If I remember well, Pidcock slowed, whether out of respect or strategically or just happy he could ease off a bit, only he knows. Your point?Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- I believe Mathieu rather gets beaten by a stronger rider than one who raced smarter. That is why he wanted to team up with Pogacar to drop the JV riders and Mads who were not helping in the chase of the first group since they had a teammate up front.JoostMehrtens08-04-2025
- Just shows that LA is not truly repentant. JUSTICE was served. No winner, no second , no third on the podium for those 7 years. No real winners could be determined, ever. Lance got to keep most of his money , he really should can it . He is toxic to cycling.dave08-04-2025
- Tricky one as while I agree Pogi and UAE are simply faster over a long distance which means Visma and MVP need to be as smart with energy use as can, it's also been proven in the past that one way for Pogi to be beaten is relentless attacks, to put him into the red. However that does require a rider to as good as sacrifice themselves for that one move which makes riskHoopoeChai07-04-2025
- Even if not technically against the rules, this is just bad etiquette and frankly I hope the rest of pelaton remembers Arkea don't care about etiquette or honoring tradition which means they shouldn't benifit from it.HoopoeChai07-04-2025
- The other issue is that Mad Petersen and Wout would have let MVDP do most of the work, as he kept showing he was stronger. MVDP did the strategy with the highest likelihood of victory, he just wasn't strong enough.acem8207-04-2025
- Crash did not help, Out of position for first attack did not help, illness did not help, pacing was not the best either. MVDP has never raced to his limits against other riders but this is his characteristics when he cracks, he cracks big time just like his first elite men WC RR. Against Pogi he needed to be optimized and he is notabstractengineer07-04-2025
- Yes, I completely agree! Before going to a doctor, I give my immune system time to react. If a reasonable amount of time passes and I'm not cured, then I go to the doctor. Fortunately, I haven't needed a doctor in years!
maria2024202407-04-2025 - A lot of medicine does nothing more than speed up recovery time 4-5 days instead of 7-8, 10-12 instead of 2 weeks. It is questionable if it’s really a good thing for healthy people to rely on it as it also makes your immune system lazy and less responsive next time round, making you more and more reliant on medication (surprise, surprise). A bit like glasses, the less you succumb to adapting their strength, the slower the deterioration. Unfortunately many bacterial infections are not so easy to fight without help, your body should manage in the end but it can take really long, I once had strong fever for 3 months trying to fight an infection without reducing work or lifestyle (the antibiotics at the beginning didn’t help).Mistermaumau07-04-2025