The start for the 80th edition of Dwars door Vlaanderen was given in Roeselare once again this year. Riders faced a 184-kilometer course, featuring two new climbs compared to last year: the Hellestraat and the Onderbossenaarstraat. Team Visma | Lease a Bike had former winner Christophe Laporte at the starting line.

The race began at a blistering pace, with multiple attacks failing to stick. After about an hour of racing, a breakaway from two riders saw sixteen riders joining, including Laporte and Matthew Brennan. This group held together until just past the Hotond, where the move eventually fell apart. It was young Per Strand Hagenes from Team Visma | Lease a Bike who launched a furious attack on the Berg Ten Houte. The peloton split apart, and riders were forced to drop one by one. There was never a real break, only a relentless attrition battle.

On the second passage of the Hotond, Niklas Larsen and Romain Grégoire managed to gain a small gap on the peloton, but on the flanks of the Eikenberg, van Aert showed that his form is on the rise. He had already made his presence felt earlier on the Onderbossenaarstraat, but on the Eikenberg, the Kempen native surged hard and quickly joined the leading duo. With a powerful acceleration, van Aert set a pace that many could not match. On the Nokereberg, he pushed again, forcing Grégoire to drop back, and in the final part of the race, van Aert went solo, leaving Larsen behind as well.

In the closing stage of the race, in the final 150 meters, the 31-year-old was caught by Filippo Ganna, who took the win just in time. Van Aert finished second, while Soren Waerenskjold completed the podium in third.

“Frustrating when you’re this close,” van Aert said after the race. “I absolutely believed I could win in the final half-hour, but then to see it slip away with only 150 meters to go is incredibly disappointing.”

“We worked well together when the three of us were up front, but I felt I was the stronger rider and the pace dropped too much. I heard on the radio that the peloton was still riding fast, so I had to try something. Once I dropped Niklas with 10 kilometers to go, there was no turning back, I focused entirely on my own effort and barely looked back. Unfortunately, the race was 150 meters too long.”

Still, van Aert took positives from his final test ahead of the Tour of Flanders. “I felt good all day and gave everything I could. I have to take confidence from that. Now I’ll take it a bit easier in the coming days and look forward to Sunday.”