Last year’s Dwars door Vlaanderen winner, Niki Terpstra, will lead the Omega Pharma-Quick Step team in today’s 199.7 km race that serves to kick off three weeks of Belgian races on cobblestones in (presumably) wet and windy conditions and will attempt to do what nobody has achieved since the race’s inauguration in 1945: to win back-to-back titles.

Dwars door Vlaanderen launches the real start to the Belgian classics season that culminates with the Tour of Flanders on the final day in March with the Paris-Roubaix on 7 April serving as dessert.

"My victory last year was fantastic," Terpstra told Het Laatste Nieuws. "I'm going to try again and it will undoubtedly be special as Dutch champion and while wearing number one."

Like all the other riders, Terpstra will hope that the numbingly snowy circumstances of Milan-San Remo, where he failed to make it to the finish, does not impair his chances in his first race since competing in the season’s first monument. The weather has been forecast for rain and near sub-zero temperatures which will no doubt make for an entirely different race from last year.

Sylvain Chavanel, Terpstra’s best-placed teammate from Milan-San Remo, has elected to miss out on the 1.HC race in order to rest before the upcoming WorldTour round E3 Harelbeke. Chavanel was decisive in Terpstra’s win at last year’s Dwars door Vlaanderen and the Dutchman will undoubtedly miss the strength and services of the current French time trial champion.

Cyclingquotes.com will be bringing you live coverage from Dwars door Vlaanderen starting at 15.15