Tinkoff-Saxo’s Matti Breschel was the team captain going into Dwars door Vlaanderen and its 200km of cobbles and bergs in the freezing Flemish Ardennes. Breschel ultimately finished 12th together with the chasing group after having felt the effects from his 293km stint in Italy. The race was won by Jelle Wallays from Topsport Vlaanderen.
 
After the Belgian semi-classic, which the Dane won back in 2010, Breschel duly noted that it had been “cold as hell” on the 200km road to Waregem.
 
“It was a hard day, especially due to the fact that it was so cold throughout the stage together with rain and all those factors that make these Belgian races so tough and appealing at the same time. The race was raced from the front with a big selection from the beginning of the race – more than usually in Dwars door actually. I managed to get into the first group at a moment, where everything was really disintegrating”, says Matti Breschel only occasionally interrupted by shivers that have followed the Dane to his hotel room after the race.
 
Shrugging off the cold remnants of Dwars door Vlaanderen, Matti Breschel continues to explain how the race developed for Tinkoff-Saxo.
 
“Right after Taaienberg with around 50k to go, we had several Tinkoff-Saxo guys still up there but then Michael Kwiatkowski attacked. I tried to follow him but I was pretty fried in the moment of the attack. Etixx had many guys at the front so it was the right thing to send out a rider in attack. I was then a part of the group of around ten guys that tried to pull Kwiatkowski and the three other guys back in. We came close but we sort of ran out of fuel with 10k to go and I didn’t have enough to go past in the sprint”, tells Matti Breschel and notes that he could feel the effect of Sunday’s 293km Milano-Sanremo in the legs:
 
“I was up there in the race but missed the last power in the end. I think that all of us, who rode Milano-Sanremo could feel it today and the weather didn’t make opening up for the power any easier”.

Into the last kilometer, the breakaway had reaffirmed their advantage over the chasing group. Here, Jelle Wallays (Topsport Vlaanderen) seized a quickly fading opportunity to avoid a sprint against Michael Kwiatkowski by launching a surprise attack. Wallays crossed the finish line two seconds ahead of his teammate Edward Theuns.
 
Judged from the faces crossing the finish line, Dwars door Vlaanderen had made its mark. Tinkoff-Saxo’s DS Tristan Hoffman explains why:
 
“It was a typical Flemish race with bad weather, cobbles and climbs. From the gun, the race was full gas with 48km/h in the first hour of racing, I mean really tough. Matti was our leader, he was up there, he did well but he could feel Milano-Sanremo in the finale. However, there’s no doubt that he has the legs”.
 
“At one point it seemed as if, the group with Matti would chase down the four guys in front but that didn’t happen. Even tough the guys did a good job to protect Matti, we had expected someone alongside him in the chasing group to assist. Now we look ahead to E3, where Sagan will join the Belgian squad for the next several cobbled races”, finishes Tristan Hoffman.