Flanders Classics boss Wouter Vandenhaute has no doubt: from 2018 Dwars door Vlaanderen will be the last warm-up for the Tour of Flanders. Last week the organizers of the Three Days of De Panne-Koksijde - for years the last race before De Ronde – expressed their dissatisfaction with the idea.

Despite the protest of the organizers of the Three Days of De Panne-Koksijde, the three-day stage race will therefore have to find a new place on the cycling calendar from 2018.

"In 2018 Dwars door Vlaanderen will be held the Wednesday before the Tour of Flanders. There is no discussion about that,” Flanders Classics boss Wouter Vandenhaute told Het Laatste Nieuws and Het Nieuwsblad at the press presentation of Dwars door Vlaanderen.

With the adjustment to the cycling calendar, Vandenhaute hopes to have the Ronde contenders at the start already a few days earlier at Dwars door Vlaanderen.

"I think of a scenario like the Walloon classics where Fleche Wallonne is held on the Wednesday before Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

"Perhaps the time is ripe to go to a World Tour race of less than 200 kilometers. A shorter course is a way to keep the same riders here in that period."

Surprisingly, Wouter Vandenhaute was also skeptical about the proposal of having only seven riders in the main classics and 8 riders in the grand tours in 2017. The plan was launched by organizers ASO, RCS and ... Flanders Classics.

"It is a shame," Vandenhaute said. "This was a decision with which the organizers showed incompetence.

"I am a supporter of more safety, but that can only be decided by the UCI after consultation between the organizers, teams and riders."