Yves Lampaert will write history in case of a third victory at the Belgian Classic.
The only rider to have won Dwars door Vlaanderen in back-to-back years, reigning Belgian Champion Yves Lampaert will be at the start of the 74th edition which will once again roll out from Roeselare and conclude in Waregem after 182.8 intense kilometers, containing a total of twelve hills and three cobblestone sections – all bar one of these featuring in the second half of the race.
Philippe Gilbert, who two years ago finished runner-up behind his teammate, is also on the team for Wednesday’s classic, where Bob Jungels – who so far this spring has won Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and played an instrumental role in Zdenek Stybar’s victory at E3 Harelbeke – will continue his cobbled Classics campaign, which he kick-started at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.
Kasper Asgreen, Alvaro Hodeg, Iljo Keisse and Florian Sénéchal are the other Deceuninck – Quick-Step riders taking on Dwars door Vlaanderen, a race where our squad has triumphed on six occasions so far with four different riders.
“For many riders, Waregem is important because they want to test themselves ahead of Flanders; we too want to see what we can do again as a team in this last appointment before De Ronde and get a good result at the end of the day”, said sports director Tom Steels, himself a winner of the race, back in 1998. “The first 80 kilometers are flat and we will try to control things there, as we have the riders capable of doing that, even if it’s not going to be an easy task. Once we’ll hit the hilly section, it will be quite hard, especially with the cold and rain which are sure to make a selection, so we can expect quite an attritional race on Wednesday.”
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele/ Getty Images
