Matteo Jorgenson powers to victory at Dwars door Vlaanderen 2024 after late attack as pre-race favourites crash out

On a day marred by a mass crash that wiped out many of the pre-race favourites, it was Matteo Jorgenson who excelled in their absence to take a brilliant victory at Dwars Door Vlaanderen 2024 after a late solo attack.

With 11 men forming the breakaway of the day including riders such as Casper Pedersen, Dries De Bondt and Jonas Abrahamsen, a lot of different teams were represented at the front.

Lidl-Trek weren't however, and as such the team boasting the likes of Mads Pedersen, Toms Skujins, Jonathan Milan and Jasper Stuyven took control of the front of the peloton through Tim Declerq.

At the halfway mark in the race, the leading group were holding their advantage over the peloton at around 2:15.

As the peloton began to step up their chase however, disaster struck as a massive crash wiped out many in the bunch, including some of the pre-race favourites. Wout van Aert and Jasper Stuyven left the race in an ambulance, with Mads Pedersen and Biniam Girmay also hitting the deck incredibly hard.

Understandably following such an incident, things turned rather chaotic in the race afterwards as a group including Alberto Bettiol, Matteo Jorgenson, Joshua Tarling and Stefan Kung attacked the peloton and began to chase down the break.

With 38km to go, the breakaway and chase group merged with the peloton behind including Michael Matthews and Jasper Philipsen now 1:31 down.

After a few testing attacks from Kung, Bettiol made a big move with 22km to go, attacking hard on the penultimate rise of the day. Sadly his attack was rather quickly brought to a halt by what was seemingly an untimely bout of cramp.

That left Matteo Jorgenson, Tiesj Benoot, Stefan Kung, Dries De Bondt, Jonas Abrahamsen and Joshua Tarling to battle for victory.

With over a minute's lead heading into the final 10km, the group could afford to play games somewhat. But too far out or risk being sensationally caught.

With Team Visma | Lease a Bike having the numbers game, an attack by Benoot was countered by Jorgenson and as the chase behind stalled, the American powered ahead.

That pause proved fatal for the chase too as Jorgenson was not seen again, soloing to a fabulous victory. Completing the podium behind, Jonas Abrahamsen and Stefan Küng.

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