Dwars door Vlaanderen: Van Dijk wins women's race

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Ellen van Dijk (Trek-Segafredo) repeated her victory from a year ago at Dwars door Vlaanderen, a UCI 1.1 mid-week race that is traditionally used as preparation ahead of the weekend's Tour of Flanders. The Dutch time trial specialist made her winning move with less than 15km to go and held off a chase group to take a solo victory ahead of Marta Bastianelli (Virtu Cycling) and Lucinda Brand (Sunweb).

The women's Dwars door Vlaanderen was 108.3km between Tielt and Waregem that included some junctions with the WorldTour men's 182km route.

The women's race started later than scheduled, and to add to the delay, a crash in the women's field happened during the neutral start. The main field stopped and waited for the riders who were involved in the crash.

Those involved in the crash were Arlenis Sierra (Astana), Lotte Kopecky (Lotto Soudal), Janneke Ensing (Sunweb), Maaika Boogard and Hanna Nilsson (both BTC), among others.

Organisers restarted the race, but the neutralisation set the timing of the women's race back significantly, roughly 10 minutes or more behind the expected slowest time of arrival in Waregem.

Three riders cleared the field early on: Nathalie Bex (Rogelli-Gyproc) Saartje Vandenbroucke (Doltcini-Van Eyck Sport) and Kseniia Dobrynina (Servetto-Piumate-Beltrami TSA), and then chaser Chiara Consonni (Valcar-Cylance).

The field came back together as they approached three sharp climbs over the Kluisberg, Knokteberg and Hotond, located at the mid-point of the race. The same 15km stretch of road was used in the men's parcour.

The men's peloton was competing at the fastest-expected time of arrival, while the women's race, because of the early delays, were now racing at the slowest ETA.

The women's peloton reached the three climbs, beginning with the Kluisberg, just ahead of the men's field. In addition, two crashes that happened almost simultaneously in the women's race required emergency medical services.

Orgnaisers neutralise the men's race to avoid the two categories merging but more so, to allow for an ambulance to drive on the course to get to the crashed riders. 

The women's race continued over the Kluisberg and then the Knokteberg with the front end of the field coming back together.

The decisive breakaway of the day set off ahead of the Hotond and included Annemiek van Vleuten and Gracie Elvin (Mitchelton-Scott), Liane Lippert and Lucinda Brand (Team Sunweb), Marta Bastianelli (Virtu), Elisa Longo Borghini and Ellen van Dijk (Trek-Segafredo), Kasia Niewiadoma and Elena Cecchini (Canyon-SRAM), Sofie De Vuyst (Parkhotel Valkenburg), and Sheyla Gutierrez (Movistar).

They raced over the Hotond with a 45-second lead.

As the lead group approached the final climbs, van Vleuten attacked over the Vossenhol, but she was quickly brought back into the fold. Attacks continued until Van Dijk made her winning move before the Nokereberg and with roughly 15km to go.

At first, she gained 20 seconds on the Nokereberg, and that pushed out to 30 as she raced over the Herlegemstraat cobbles sector with 6km to the finish line. Not even the relentless string of attacks from the chase group could put a dent in Van Dijk’s victory as she crossed the line in Waregem.

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