As the countdown to De Ronde truly begins, the big question still hanging in the Flemish air is whether Wout van Aert and Jumbo-Visma can be stopped. Well, throwing that pair into the ring isn't a bad way to find out.
While Van Aert has been strutting his stuff in the past few days, Pogačar and Van der Poel have been otherwise occupied but the 'big three' are now on a collision course. The direct clash will have to wait until Flanders on Sunday, with Van Aert resting up after his exploits at E3 and Gent-Wevelgem, but Dwars will provide the fuel that fires the build-up to De Ronde.
Van Aert has been a cut above the rest this Flemish spring, winning the opener at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and then stamping his authority on E3, where the strength of his Jumbo-Visma team was underlined not only by their picture-postcard 1-2 but also their placing of four riders in the top 12. They were denied at Gent-Wevelgem but Van Aert still gapped everyone over the Kemmelberg and Laporte still snuck away to take second, denied only by Biniam Girmay.
With Girmay now heading back to Eritrea, Tom Pidcock still below his best, and Julian Alaphilippe skipping the cobbles, there is a vacancy for the role of taking the fight to the team and rider who look several levels above the rest. Step forward Pogačar and Van der Poel.
Van der Poel is no stranger to these races. Indeed, he won Dwars door Vlaanderen during his break taking breakthrough spring of 2019, and he followed it up with the Tour of Flanders title the following year. His winter and pre-season were blighted by a lingering back injury but he made a sensational return at Milan-San Remo just over a week ago, placing third after not racing on the road for six months and after only deciding to ride a couple of days before the race. His stage victory at the Coppi e Bartali last week confirmed it was no one-off, and the short block of racing will only have helped his form.
He's a surefire contender for Wednesday, which in turn will tell us more about whether he's a surefire contender for Sunday.
As for Pogačar, there are more question marks given he's never raced on cobbles but then again, question marks feel a little lost upon the Slovenian. Winner of two Tours de France, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Il Lombardia, and Strade Bianche, he can, it seems, do anything he wants to, and it seems he wants to win all five Monuments in his career. At this point, it would arguably be more surprising if he didn't.
As such, all the clichés about the cobbled Classics and the importance of experience, debunked already by Girmay, feel even more redundant when discussing Pogačar. But still, his appearance at Dwars is something of a warm-up act and a stepping stone to Sunday - a chance to acquaint himself with the bumps and rhythms of the Flemish Ardennes before the big day.
173 other riders make up Wednesday's start list, but none will be watched and scrutinised with as much interest or excitement as Pogačar and Van der Poel.
The route
Dylan van Baarle (Ineos) (Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Dwars door Vlaanderen pushed out the Three Days of De Panne a few years ago so that the Flanders Classics organisation could get their hands on the mid-week pre-Flanders slot. Since then, the race has become more hilly and cobbled to emulate De Ronde but, so as not to put the favourites off so close to Sunday, it has boiled down to a more compact format, clocking in this year at 184km.
The 2022 edition has a familiar feel, starting in Roeselare, finishing 15km away in Waregem, and diving into the Flemish Ardennes in between. However, there is a touch of novelty as the organisers have decided to swerve a string of well-known climbs in favour of some new ones, not to mention a few extra cobblestone sectors.
After a flat 50km introduction, the 'hill zone' is condensed into the Ronse-Brakel-Oudenaard triangle. There's no Kruisberg, Kluisberg, Taaienberg, or Steenbekdries this time, replaced by the lesser-known Zeelstraat, Stooktestraat, and Ladeuze. The Knokteberg (aka Côte de Trieu), however, retains its central status.
There's a shake-up, too, in the finale, with the introduction of a finishing loop around Waregem. Previously the final climb was the Knokereberg with just over 10km to go, but now they'll do that old run-in, cross the line, then head back out for a 15km loop that features the final climb of the Holstraat.
After setting out from Roeselare, the climbing begins a little earlier this year, with the Nieuwe Kwaremont coming after 62km and signalling the true start of the action. The Zeelstraat, Knokteberg, Stooktestraat, Hotond and Kortekeer all follow in relatively short order to cap the opening 100km. After the brief respite, the Berg Ten Houte and Kanarieberg come in quick succession, where the race could really open up.
If not, then the second visit to the Knokteberg should do the trick, followed this time immediately by the Hotond. It's then downhill onto the Marieborrestraat cobbles and then up Ladeuze in what is a crucial 20km stretch of the race. The riders then head from Oudenaarde to the Knokereberg via the cobbles at Doorn, heading onto Waregem but then heading out for the finale over the Holstraat.
Of those other contenders, all eyes will be on QuickStep-AlphaVinyl as they look to change the course of a disastrous spring. Yves Lampaert surpassed expectations at Gent-Wevelgem in his first race back from illness and this will be an important hit-out for him ahead of Flanders. Kasper Asgreen, the one rider who has performed for the Belgian team so far, will take a break, as will Florian Sénéchal, but answers are needed from the likes of Zdenek Stybar and Davide Ballerini. Fabio Jakobsen is set to line up, and he took a valuable victory at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne that might go some way to saving their spring, but it was clear at Gent-Wevelgem that he's not going to hang on during a selective race.
Ineos Grenadiers line up with the defending champion Dylan van Baarle, who has looked solid this spring, while Tom Pidcock lines up again in search of form and in the hope that his stomach problems will disappear. Jhonatan Narvaez sits this one out after his crash on Sunday but Magnus Sheffield returns and Elia Viviani is there just in case there's a bunch sprint.
Jumbo-Visma have yet to confirm their line-up but are set to rest not just Van Aert but all their big names. Mads Pedersen flies the flag for Trek-Segafredo as a tired and somewhat dejected Jasper Stuyven takes a break after his fourth place at Gent-Wevelgem. Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) is another absentee from the list of top favourites for Flanders.
Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) haș looked impressive and will be out for a result and an open race, while Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies) - twice a podium finisher here - and Soren Kragh Andersen (DSM) are among the Flanders contenders tempted into racing.
There are plenty of riders who need to show signs of life on Wednesday, not least a Belgian contingent of Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal), Sep Vanmarcke (Israel-Premier Tech) and the AG2R duo of Greg Van Avermaet and Oliver Naesen.
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Patrick is an NCTJ-trained journalist, and former deputy editor of Cyclingnews, who has seven years’ experience covering professional cycling. He has a modern languages degree from Durham University and has been able to put it to some use in what is a multi-lingual sport, with a particular focus on French and Spanish-speaking riders. Away from cycling, Patrick spends most of his time playing or watching other forms of sport - football, tennis, trail running, darts, to name a few, but he draws the line at rugby.
