Gianni Vermeersch takes 2024 Dwars door het Hageland victory in feisty finale with Jonas Abrahamsen

Gianni Vermeersch has claimed victory at another thrilling day at the Dwars door het Hageland, taking the 2024 edition ahead of Jonas Abrahamsen and Hartthijs De Vries.

Despite an intense pace and numerous riders attempting testy attacks, with 60km to go, the peloton were all together, with Intermarché - Wanty doing the pulling on the front of the bunch. After the next traversing of the Demerdijk however, a five rider group broke free from the peloton with some very notable riders included such as Kaden Groves, Laurenz Rex, Jonas Abrahamsen, Alec Segaert and Guillaume Boivin.

Despite managing to build a lead of around 30 seconds, the cohesion in the lead group began to fracture with around 35km to go as Boivin attempted a testing attack. With 28km to go though, the break had been caught, with Groves completely pulling the plug an dropping further back.

With 15km to go, a counter-attacking trio of Gianni Vermeersch, Abrahamsen and Hartthijs De Vries went clear of the chasing group. Again though the cohesion was poor with Abrahamsen not working, with Dr Vries and Vermeersch both attempting solo attacks. Nevertheless, with 5km to go, the leading trio still had a 15 second advantage, with Abrahamsen attacking and dropping De Vries. Vermeersch was not dropped however, and as he pulled up to the Uno-X Mobility man, words were exchanged between the pair.

As both riders refused to work for the other, De Vries managed to get himself back in contact ahead of the final kilometre. With the chase group nowhere in sight, victory was for one of the trio and Abrahamsen was the first to attack. Vermeersch though again reacted strongly and matched his rival. Around the final corner, the Alpecin-Deceuninck man secured the victory.

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