Florian Vermeersch and UAE Team Emirates-XRG ready for Dwars door Vlaanderen

Dwars door Vlaanderen awaits UAE Team Emirates-XRG on Wednesday, with the midweek race the final test ahead of this weekend’s Tour of Flanders (Ronde van Vlaanderen). Coming hot off a great run of form, Florian Vermeersch will lead the team on Wednesday, 1 April.

The Belgian rider has recently claimed podium positions at both the Omloop Nieuwsblad and the E3 Saxo Classic, before putting in another spirited performance at In Flanders Fields.

Taking this confidence into Wednesday, Vermeersch will be hopeful of racing on the front foot once more. To this end, the rouleur will be helped by his powerful teammates, Nils Politt and António Morgado.

Both riders have shown their faces at the front of Classics racing over the past couple of weeks, and Dwars door Vlaanderen offers an opportunity to take another step forward. The same can be said for the pair’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates, Mikkel Bjerg, Benoît Cosnefroy, Rune Herregodts, and Julius Johansen, all of whom will round out the seven-man squad on Wednesday.

The Emirati team, led by Sports Directors Fabio Baldato and Marco Marcato, will be faced with a route of over 180km, with twelve climbs and seven different sectors of cobbles.

Among those climbs lay notorious Flandrien bergs such as Berg ten Houte, the Eikenberg and the Nokereberg. The latter will feature twice in the finale, with the second and final ascent of 750m at 5.7% falling just 9.2km from the finish in Waregem.

Despite sometimes being overshadowed by the looming Tour of Flanders, which takes place on the Sunday following, Dwars door Vlaanderen has long proved a formidable test for the Classics specialists. Not since 2019 has a group of five riders or more come to the finish line, emphasising the attritional nature of this race.

Indeed, the last mass sprint at Dwars door Vlaanderen came some 10 years back, with Jens Debusschere coming up trumps for Lotto Soudal.

Last year, the race ended in a memorable victory for Neilson Powless of EF Education-EasyPost last season, with the American getting the better of a trio of Visma-Lease a Bike riders for the honours. With the defending champion not taking to the start line this year, a new winner is waiting to be crowned in Waregem.

For the 80th edition of Dwars door Vlaanderen, UAE Team Emirates-XRG will hope to be right in the fight for victory.