Missing Cyclocross: Watch Dwars door het Hageland
Also, Missoula XC results and some Unbound content worth consuming
If you follow road racing beyond the grand tours and Spring Classics, when you hear “Dwars,” you probably think of Dwars door Vlaanderen, the Flanders tune-up race that happens the Wednesday before the Tour of Flanders. That race features many pro tour heavy hitters duking it out during Holy Week. This year, American Matteo Jorgenson and a resurgent Marianne Vos won the better known Dwars race.
There’s also another big deal road race going on in southeast France right now that may be swallowing up most of the media coverage this weekend. I want to recommend some counterprogramming for the Criterium du Dauphine. A lesser-known Dwars race, Dwars door het Hageland, which took place today in the Flemish Brabant region of Belgium.
This relatively new event started in 2001 ( a women’s race was added in 2021) and features tarmac, cobbles, gravel, and some dirt sectors. With its varied terrain and location in the heart of cyclocross-land, it’s not a surprise the roster includes many of the same riders who will compete down the road at Zolder this winter. Although it doesn’t boast the big road names who are at the Dauphine, the racing remains top notch.
For Kerstperiode this past season, the CXD squad rented a house in Scherpenheuvel. This race went through that town and included several roads our team trained on between trips to Hulst and Koksijde. So, for me, not only did this race include some familiar cyclocross names, but it also featured familiar roads.
On the start list for the women were Lucinda Brand, Thalita De Jong, Fleur Moors, Laura Verdonschot, Sanne Cant, Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado, Loes Sels, Anna Kay and Mario Norbert Riberolle. For the men, we had Eli Iserbyt, Joran Wyseure, Thijs Aerts, Toon Aerts, Ward Huybs, Emiele Verstrynge, Michael Vanthourenhout, Kenay de Moyer, Gianni Vermeersch, Lander Loocx, Pim Ronhaar and Quentin Hermans1.
Unfortunately, the women’s race was not televised, so I will post those results here. I’ll post the men’s results at the bottom of this post so as not to spoil it for anyone who wants to watch.
Lucinda Brand, the Baloise Lions gravel pro, showed she is a master of these multi-surface races, taking the win over another former cyclocross world champ, Thalita De Jong. I look forward to seeing Brand in Kansas next year for Unbound Gravel2.
The men’s race is available on Max in the U.S. The whole race is fun, but the last hour is definitely worth watching. We see moves, breakaways, and negative racing to protect Uno-X Mobility, the strongest team in the field and defending winners of the event. We also get to see Gianni Vermeersch show some of that piss and vinegar that made him a name in cyclocross a decade ago. I haven’t seen Vermeersch get this worked up since he was going at it with Sven Nys at the 2015 Bredene Cyclocross.
Here’s the link to the U.S. stream.
Speaking of gravel races in Kansas, this year’s Unbound featured two killer elite races. The Lifetime hour-long recap is well done and worth a watch:
To go along with LifeTime’s coverage, Amanda Nauman and I have a recap of the race on the Groadio podcast feed. We also chatted with former World Tour pro Chad Haga about his race. That episode should be up early next week.
Also, today was the final round in the USXC series. Here are the results from today’s UCI C3 XCO event in Missoula, Montana.
Missoula XC Elite Women
Missoula XC Elite Men
And, finally, here are the men’s results from today’s Dwars door het Hageland race. Seriously, go watch the last hour. Good stuff.
Dwars door het Hageland Men’s Elite
Several of these riders are on the results sheet as DNFs but I think they may have been DNSs. For Instance, I’m pretty sure Joris didn’t race this weekend after racing Unbound last Saturday, but I may be wrong.
Brand hasn’t said she’s racing Unbound. This is just a guess based on how these thing seem to go. And it would be super cool to see her racing in Kansas.
that was a fun finale to watch. Thx for the rec!
I can only wish I could watch that Dwars women's race! Sounds fun to ride as well, with the right tires anyway. :)