Dwars: The Ganna Express & Girmay in fourth

Dwars door Vlaanderen was high-speed contest that built steadily towards a dramatic finale, with Filippo Ganna overpowering Wout van Aert’s long-ranged attack in the final metres to take victory in Waregem.

Inside the final 10 kilometres, Van Aert maintained his narrow advantage to keep the chasers at bay. It dropped from 15 seconds, then closer as Ganna led group was behind. In the closing metres, Ganna launched his sprint surging past Van Aert, with the Belgian forced to settle for second place. A year on from being beaten in a three-against-one finale, he was again denied victory late despite being the rider who shaped the race, this time caught in the final metres.

“A podium would have been nice, but at least we’re back in the game. That’s important. It was a tough race from the start. It was not easy to control because everybody wanted to make the race hard. In the end, most attacks came back, but we saw how strong Wout and Ganna are. We tried for the podium by winning the sprint, but fourth is OK.’

-Biniam Girmay