If you Jumbo-Visma fatigue is inflating this spring, turn away. Christophe Laporte, “gifted” Gent-Wevelgem on Sunday by teammate Wout Van Aert, won Wednesday’s Dwars door Vlaanderen, the midweek portion of Flanders Classic week. The Dutch Bees have claimed half of the eight one-day WorldTour races, including the last three, and two of the five WorldTour stage races. It was a fine result for Canada’s Guillaume Boivin, who came ninth.
The results aren’t showing it but admin is pretty certain it was Guillaume Boivin who sprinted to 9th place 🤷♂️
Time to watch the replay 😅
In any case, we saw a solid race from the guys with G and Krists Neilands having good legs all day!
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🇧🇪 #DDV #DDV23 pic.twitter.com/KJJnmyKWyY— Israel – Premier Tech (@IsraelPremTech) March 29, 2023
Introduction
The “Three Tenors”—Wout Van Aert, two-time winner Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar—were absent, but Strade Bianche victor Tom Pidcock was back following a concussion suffered at Tirreno-Adriatico, as was 2021 runner-up Laporte.
The Canadian contingent was Hugo Houle, back from illness, Boivin and Nick Zukowsky.
Starting with the Volkemberg at the 64 km mark, there were 8 sectors of cobbles and 11 hills to climb. The toughest tests were two trips up the Knokteberg-Trieu (1.1 km of 7.4 percent) and the Kanarieberg (1.1 km of 8.5 percent) situated in the middle of the course. The final climb was Nokere, 800 metres of 4 percent, 9 km from the finish in Waregem.
🇧🇪 #DDV23@DwarsdrVlaander will be serving up more bergs and cobbles in Belgium today:
📍 Roeselare ➡️ Waregem
🚩 Start 12:05
🏁 Finish ca. 16:45
🛣️ 183.7km pic.twitter.com/QzZ8aLuJ9c— BORA – hansgrohe (@BORAhansgrohe) March 29, 2023
Zukowsky was one of six escapees who dashed away early. After four of the 11 hills, the sextet’s gap was under two minutes. Trek-Segafredo rode at the front of the peloton on the early hills.
The Berg Ten Houte fragmented the field, Julian Alaphilippe putting in the initial surge. Zukowsky was dislodged before the Kanarieberg, where Tiesj Benoot put in a strong acceleration in the peloton. With a breakaway foursome left out front, Benoot, teammate Laporte and six others galloped towards the second climb of Knokteberg-Trieu in between the escape and the peloton.
On Ladeuze, the longest climb of the race, the Benoot-Laporte group expanded its lead over the peloton, the remnants of the…
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