Our riders will race Dwars door het Hageland and Elfstedenronde this weekend.
Held annually since 2001 and elevated to 1.1 status on the UCI calendar in 2016, Dwars door het Hageland is one of the most exciting non-World Tour one-day races of the season, its combination of cobbles and short climbs providing plenty of spectacle each year. This should be the case again this weekend, when the riders will line out in the small town of Aarschot for the start of a 178km journey over an undulating route that will take them to Diest, where the traditional uphill finish awaits.
Iljo Keisse, Yves Lampaert, Michael Mørkøv, Florian Sénéchal, Pieter Serry and Stan Van Tricht will be in action for the Wolfpack at Saturday’s race, whose demanding course will lend itself to the attackers. Two days later, Fabio Jakobsen – the most successful rider of the year so far, with eight wins to his name – will replace Stan for Elfstedenronde, a 192.3km-long mainly flat race starting and finishing in Bruges.
“Hageland is a tough event, with some gravel roads, some cobbles, some uphill sections and a fight from the beginning of the race for positioning, all these elements meaning it will be difficult to control things. We have several cards that we can play and we are determined to do our best there. One day later, if there won’t be any wind, then the sprinters will be in contention at the finish in Bruges, and if this will be the scenario, we’ll go all-in for Fabio”, said Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl sports director Rik Van Slycke.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images
Yves Lampaert 
