Moral blow to Van Aert and Visma ahead of the Tour of Flanders

Unusual outcome in Dwars door Vlaanderen 2025 with a tremendous Neilson Powless who was able to prevail in a three-on-one against the best of Visma-Lease a Bike who had everything in their favor to win the race. A tough blow for Wout van Aert in his final test before the decisive appointment next Sunday in the Tour of Flanders.

Neilson Powless steals the show from Visma-Lease a Bike in A Través de Flandes

Last race before the Tour of Flanders next Sunday, a Dwars door Vlaanderen that was supposed to show that Wout van Aert was ready for the magical week of cobblestones, facing his archrival Van der Poel and an unbeatable Tadej Pogacar, but instead only served to add another second place to Wout van Aert's defeated sprint in a reduced group where he would have been invincible in the past.

Race on a sunny but windy day through the fields of Flanders, marked in its first part by a breakaway of 8 cyclists, including names like Taco van der Hoorn or Mikkel Bjerg, whom the main group let go until, with less than 100 km to go, on the first ascent of the Knokteberg, Wout van Aert took the lead of the peloton and brought the breakaway within reach.

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This sparked hostilities and on the next climb, the Hotond, another favorite, Mads Pedersen, made an appearance, albeit unsuccessfully. The small skirmish led to a small group forming with Neilson Powless, Joshua Tarling, and Van den Bossche chasing the breakaway that was still holding on with a few seconds.

However, the best was yet to come. In the long flat section following this climb, a very exposed area to the wind, Visma as a team started to increase the pace slowly until, at a certain point, with 73 km to go, they attacked and one of the Dutch team members split the group, leaving 4 riders ahead: Affini, Jorgenson, Benoot, and Van Aert.

If Van Aert and @vismaleaseabike were looking for sensations in A Través de Flandes, they are finding them!

Full throttle against the wind at @DwarsDrVlaander to launch WVA and Jorgenson - defending champion - from very far away#LaCasaDelCiclismo | #DDV25 pic.twitter.com/0VoG9sK4Zc

— Eurosport.es (@Eurosport_ES) April 2, 2025

Affini worked hard to consolidate the breakaway and dropped back on the next climb, the Berg Ten Houte, joining the front group where both groups had already merged. Only Powless managed to hold on to the Visma-Lease a Bike train and immediately started collaborating with them, a move that would ultimately earn him the victory in this Dwars door Vlaanderen 2025.

However, it took several kilometers for the breakaway to solidify, with a small gap of only 15 or 20 seconds for many kilometers. Behind, everyone tried to make their own moves with attacks that led nowhere, causing the elastic to break and the gap to increase to around a minute.

Up front, nothing serious happened and despite some attempts to drop Powless, everyone took turns at a steady pace. And, despite the cycling rule that states that when you have numerical superiority, the best strategy is to attack your rival relentlessly, surprisingly the Visma-Lease a Bike riders did not make any moves to try to win the race in their favor.

They reached the last kilometer with Wout van Aert on the wheel of his teammates, leaving him in the ideal position to launch the sprint, but to the surprise of everyone, he was unable to use his speed and Neilson Powless managed to overtake him clearly, leaving both Van Aert and his teammates looking stunned.

The statements after crossing the finish line from the Visma-Lease a Bike riders left no room for doubt, with Tiesj Benoot stating that the decision to go for the sprint with Wout was made from the team car and he didn't understand why they didn't let him make a single attack to weaken the American's strength.

On the other hand, Wout van Aert, with a mix of concern and disappointment on his face, didn't hide and admitted that the decision to go for the sprint was his, taking on the role of team leader. The Belgian rider said he needed a victory to regain confidence, but in the end, the result was the opposite, leaving his morale very low for what were his major goals of the season.

Dwars door Vlaanderen 2025 Classification

1. Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) 3h57'14''
2. Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) +00''
3. Tiesj Benoot (Visma-Lease a Bike) +00''
4. Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) +05''
5. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) +45''
6. Tibor del Grosso (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +45''
7. Dries de Bondt (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +47''
8. Arjen Livyns (Lotto) +47''
9. Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) +47''
10. Alec Segaert (Lotto) +47''