Van Vleuten outsprints Niewiadoma to win Dwars door Vlaanderen Women

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Annemiek van Vleuten took her first victory of the season for Movistar Team Women at Dwars door Vlaanderen. The European Champion used a long-range sprint to beat her breakaway companion Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM). Alexis Ryan (Canyon-SRAM) finished third in the reduced bunch sprint.

"It was an awesome race and awesome weather, but also, I want to shout-out to Flanders Classic because they put on such a beautiful, small Tour of Flanders today," Van Vleuten said. "I think they improved the course, and that was the reason that I was here on the start line, and I'm happy with how the race went."

Dwars door Vlaanderen is known as the dress rehearsal for the bigger Tour of Flanders held in and around Oudenaarde on Sunday. 

The women's field raced 122 kilometres that started and finished in Waregem, and the race included 10 climbs - Kruisberg (47km), Kortekeer (58km), Steenbeekdries (62km), Taaienberg (64km), Berg Ten House (69km), and followed by Kruisberg-Hotond (80km), Knoteberg-Trieu (116km), Vossenhol-Teigemberg (99km), Holstraat (109km) and lastly Nokereberg (111km).

Trek-Segafredo looked in control of the race with 60km to go over the Kruisberg climb. There were several attacks including Leah Thomas (Movistar), and although the group had begun to split apart, it was back together coming into the Kruisberg-Hotond.

The peloton was reduced to just 30 riders in the final of the race when Van Vleuten launched the winning attack, followed by Kasia Niewiadoma, with 36km to go over the Knotenberg. The powerful duo quickly opened a gap, and although it was only a matter of 20 or 30 seconds, it was enough to hold off a chasing small field.

Ellen Van Dijk (Trek-Segafredo) made several attempts to cross the gap to the leading pair, once with Alison Jackson (Liv Racing) and again with Yara Kastelijn (Plantur Pura), but it wasn't enough to reel in Van Vleuten and Niewiadoma.

The reduced main group could see the leading pair as Trek-Segafredo led the chase, and in the closing kilometres they were only 12 seconds behind, but that was all that the breakaway needed to seal a victory.

Van Vleuten started her sprint early, with 300 metres to go, and held off Niewiadoma to take the win.