PREVIEW | Dwars door Vlaanderen 2025 - Wout van Aert's final chance to make an impact before Flanders
Cycling
Dwars door Vlaanderen takes place on the 2nd of April. This Belgian World Tour classic is the final warm-up race ahead of the Tour of Flanders; a very important step and race that tests many of the world's best classics riders. We preview the race ahead.
Between two historical cycling cities, Roeselare and Waregem, takes place the 2025 edition of Dwars door Vlaanderen. It's a big day for the classics specialists specially now that it's a World Tour event. It's the one major cobbled classic where endurance won't play a meaningful role as it's only 183.5 kilometers long. It's one that is very open for outsiders and sprinters to fight for victory, but simultaneously should see the experts on their best legs.
The last 120 kilometers will see the entry in the bergs. They won’t be overly hard, mostly climbs that can put on the hurt in some but mostly just that, possible to open up some attacks early on. The action should open up in the Knokteberg (1Km; 7.6%; 54Km to go). The cobbled Eikenberg (1.2Km; 5%) will be another key point in the race, being the final climb to tackle with 38.5Km to go.
With 28.5, 25, 22, 18 and 5 kilometers the riders leave five consecutive sectors (with a small ascent ending with 9 kilometers to go). They will not be selective sectors, however attacks can come at any time specially right after the sectors as many domestiques will not have the legs to close down the moves right away.
The final 5 kilometers will be flat. It’s not a long run-up to the line so to reel attacks in won’t be easy, however it’s possible. The final straight is short, 250 meters long so if it does come down to a sprint positioning will be crucial going into it.
The Weather
Strong eastern wind throughout the day will be felt, meaning that in several points echelons are very possible and collective strength will be key for this race. Without big climbs, definitely it is a race for attacks and tactics will be key. The final 25 kilometers will also mostly have a tailwind which greatly favours attackers.
The Favourites
Visma - Positioning has been a great struggle for Wout van Aert, and although Flanders and Roubaix are the goal, he has to do something here to at least psychologically boost himself. He needs the confidence and the positioning hunger... In this field he can attack, he can win, and there will be pressure for him to do so. The team can absolutely win with defending champion Matteo Jorgenson, whilst Tiesj Benoot is also a great card. They can play with tactics, but I'm sure van Aert will want to take initiative and early on.
Lidl - Trek - The exact same tactics as in Gent Wevelgem. Mads Pedersen is present and as he always does, he will go all-out with attacks. And in his current form, he can actually make the difference and win alone once again, however even in a small group sprint there's very few who can actually beat him. Jasper Stuyven is a brilliant card for attacks but may not even be necessary, whilst Jonathan Milan will likely be able to just follow wheels and fight for a strong result in a final sprint - or even a win, if the decisive attacks goes away outside the climbs.
UAE - Juan Sebastián Molano provides a card for a sprint, but this is a team that wants - and needs - to attack. but they do have the men for it, with certainty Tim Wellens and Jhonatan Narváez will do all-out efforts on the climbs to try and split things up as much as possible to create a small group fighting for victory. If not too much damage is done, both Nils Politt and Mikkel Bjerg can be extremely dangerous in the flat and cobbled finale where they have the engine and the raw power. An extremely dangerous team, if they get positioning right and don't lose riders unnecessarily.
Jasper Philipsen - The Alpecin rider did not have luck on his side at Gent Wevelgem, and punctured when Mads Pedersen attacked. We never got to see what he could potentially do, but it looked certain that he is in prime form, even attacking on the climbs. The Belgian won't get dropped with a direct attack here, but legs won't be everything and the team may struggle to race tactically against the above teams.
Tim Merlier - The European champion is likely going to struggle, but he is a man with a lot of resistance and as long as he can hang on to some groups on the climbs, he will have the power to be there or thereabouts in the fight for a strong result. Regardless of which group he comes in at the end, he's got good chances of winning the sprint for it. Quick-Step also have interesting cards in Paul Magnier and Casper Pedersen who brilliantly outsmarted the competition at E3.
This is a race specially where the solo attacks will be very dangerous and potentially deadly. INEOS specially are a huge threat to everyone else I recon, they have been racing aggressively and with their top riders in great form and I believe that with both Joshua Tarling and Magnus Sheffield present they not only have the cards to play but they have a legitimate chance of taking a win. Men like Stefan Küng, Alec Segaert and Stefan Bissegger can also be incredibly dangerous and can't be given space in such terrain. The likes of Neilson Powless, Aimé de Gendt, Arjen Livyns, Matej Mohoric, Fred Wright, Laurence Pithie and the Mick van Dijke from BORA will be riders that will likely try to make it within the key moves of the day and have a good chance of fighting for a podium in such way.
The race is not going to end in a bunch sprint, the weather conditions make it hard to chase in the finale and honestly with some of the riders we have present we know we'll have plenty attacks. Still lots of the top positions can indeed be decided in a sprint and there are some very strong riders present. The likes of Jordi Meeus, Soren Waerenskjold, Alexander Kristoff, Biniam Girmay and Luca Mozzato are specialists in these kinds of races; men like Astana's Davide Ballerini and Mike Teunissen have looked in tremendous form over the past week; and we add to them the likes of Jake Stewart, Marijn van den Berg, Madis Mihkels, Bryan Coquard, Sam Bennett, Arnaud Démare, Maikel Ziljaard and Rick Pluimers who can sprint and also have their teams work to keep things compact.
Prediction Dwars door Vlaanderen 2025:
*** Mads Pedersen, Jasper Philipsen
** Matteo Jorgenson, Wout van Aert, Magnus Sheffield, Tim Wellens
* Jonathan Milan, Jasper Stuyven, Tim Merlier, Joshua Tarling, Stefan Küng, Jordi Meeus, Soren Waerenskjold, Alexander Kristoff, Davide Ballerini, Biniam Girmay, Jhonatan Narváez, Nils Politt, Mikkel Bjerg
Pick: Mads Pedersen
How: Small group sprint.
Original: Rúben Silva
The ideal spot to watch a bike race! 👀 #DDV25 #FLCS pic.twitter.com/SXbngF2tSn
— Dwars door Vlaanderen (@DwarsdrVlaander) March 28, 2025
Just in
Play for FREE! Fantasy Tour of Flanders
Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter today!
Popular news
Latest comments
- When Roglic beat Geraint Thomas on the last day's TT at the Giro, I remember just how unbelievably emotional his team was. One guy, I forget who, German rider I think, was interviewed and was nearly speechless with a really drawn out "fuuuuuuuuuck it's incredible" comment. And then something even more amazing happened. Geraint Thomas came through the ranks of the Jumbo Visma riders and congratulated them all. True, honest, sincere, sportsmanlike, and celebratory of what had been achieved. Here he was, getting second, and he meant it. And cycling these days is like that, as you say - the way Pogacar hugged Matthews in Quebec, the way Matthews congratulated Pogacar in Montreal, on and on they honor and respect each other. It's pretty great.RidesHills04-04-2025
- Not sure exactly what you are saying, but if you're implying that being heavier is helpful if you're going against the wind or sprinting, then no, it isn't. Ceteris paribus (all else held equal) being a lighter cyclist is always better, save downhill. The reason why heavier cyclists do relatively better than lighter ones on flatter courses is because they will have to have a higher power than the lighter cyclist in order to have any chance at all against them, and flatter courses mean that the lighter cyclist has nowhere to display the better power to weight ratio, meaning that significant ratio is power to CdA, which is usually an advantage to the heavier cyclist.acem8204-04-2025
- Going over bumps is equivalent to going over many small climbs. Lower weight is always a good thing (ceteris paribus) except when going downhill, and even then it's not that advantageous if the downhill is at all technical.acem8204-04-2025
- my formative years in racing were in the 80s and 90s. back then the tone of the peloton was HARSH, aggressive, unfriendly and often mean. amateur racers just modeled what they saw from the pros, so many of the guys a raced with and against were outright a$$hole$, by choice. my great hope is that the amateur ranks now model the tone of kindness and support and compassion that we see in the pro peloton NOW. the greatest stars — tadej, wout, mathieu, demi, kasia, and on and on, never say an unkind word about their brothers and sisters in the peloton, and are often the first even in defeat to hug and congratulate the winner. these are better times in my opinion. maybe some fans miss the “get your hate on” tone of the older days. i do not.OCexile04-04-2025
- That was one of the best interviews. Coming from the best guy in the world Pogi has so much class. Of course he wants to beat MVDP And sees him as the biggest rival. I kind of felt it was a set up to ask Pogi about Wout being a rival. If he was truly honest, he might have said Wout isn’t a threat at this point. Instead, he just laid out the facts and added some opinions that didn’t diminish the respect he ultimately has for Wout or any competitor for that matter even if they aren’t a threat. Pogi is a master at showing sportsmanship. When he loses to MVDP It’s not a big deal and he’s laughing and goofing around and all giddy as if he did win. He just truly loves racing more than he loves winning. Truly a delight to see him on the podium No matter what step he’s on.Onepiece04-04-2025
- The cherry-picked headline makes it sound like MvDP is making an arrogant statement, but reading his statement in full reveals that it's more of a cautious optimism.
KerisVroom04-04-2025 - Pride and overconfidence strike again. Come on Wout! What a bonehead. They had a royal flush in spades and folded the hand. He knows he’s not in his best form after recovering from all the injuries. These are not normal circumstances for a sprint. They should have played tactics and put Powless to the sword by individually attacking thus wearing him out to cover all the attacks. If they wore him out wout MAY have won. It’s sad to see a guy go from insane pride to whimpering dog like that. Yes Wout is under immense pressure, so make some wise and shrewd decisions buddy! Standing there on the podium in 2 or 3 spot he always has the look of a sourpuss sore loser. Show some class buddy! Better success next timeOnepiece04-04-2025
- Well said, Pogi!!!!!!Al04-04-2025
- Why do Ineos want him.? He cannot challenge the big four and they already have a ton of strong domestiquesabstractengineer04-04-2025
- As Wout said on Srava today "Things don't always go your way... but a flat white and peanut butter brownie can make up for a lot" Puts it in perspective!VgnRider04-04-2025