Dwars door Vlaanderen Women 2026: Kopecky and Vollering sharpen Flemish form before Flanders

Dwars door Vlaanderen Women 2026 is the sharper midweek Flemish test before the Ronde, and that usually changes the way the race is ridden. Lotte Kopecky, Demi Vollering, Puck Pieterse, Marlen Reusser, and Marianne Vos give this edition far more than a generic pre-Flanders warm-up, because each of them can force the race open well before the final kilometers.

The route stays compact around Waregem, which makes initiative almost as important as pure control. That normally turns Dwars into a race where the strongest teams are willing to spend earlier than they would on Sunday. Kopecky is still the natural reference point on this terrain, but Vollering and Reusser both have the engine to make the race harder than a waiting game for the final sprint from a reduced group.

Pieterse and Vos matter because they give the race different tactical endings. Pieterse can jump on the steepest efforts and still finish fast, while Vos remains dangerous anywhere hesitation creeps into the finale. The best version of this race is not a clean procession into the last kilometers. It is a chain of decisions that tells you which riders are really ready for Flanders.