Dwars door Vlaanderen 2021

Van Baarle parlays 50km solo attack into Dwars door Vlaanderen victory

Dylan van Baarle (Ineos Grenadiers) won his team's first WorldTour one day race since 2017, taking out Dwars door Vlaanderen with a massive solo attack that spanned over 50 kilometres.

The Dutch rider came across the line 26 seconds ahead of the chasing group led to the line by Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) and Tim Merlier (Alpecin-Fenix).

It was a fast edition, covering 184km in less than four hours in temperatures more suited to midsummer than late March. The heat withered pre-race favourites Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) and Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep).

But Van Baarle, who chased behind the leaders in the E3 Saxo Bank and Gent-Wevelgem Classics, opted to push his chips early and go away solo. The chasing group featured Classics favourites like Greg Van Avermaet (AG2R Citroën) and powerhouses Victor Campenaerts (Qhubeka-Assos) and Luke Durbridge (BikeExchange) but even working together they could not being the flying Dutchman back.

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