Dwars door Vlaanderen men live - Final tune-up before Tour of Flanders

Two-time world champion and three-time Tour de France points winner (among many other achievements) Freddy Maertens is caught by the TV camera stood by the road watching the action.

Benoot has Laporte and the Alpecin-Deceuninck duo of Quinten Hermans and a very strong Jasper Philipsen with him.

Tiesj Benoot pushes the pace at the front up the climb!

Lotto-Dstny joining Jumbo in the lead of the main group.

1:40 to Lazkano, Kristoff, Vanhoot and Heinschke as they hit the non-cobbled Kanarieberg.

Another group gets across and it looks like it's around 50 or so in there now. Jumbo-Visma take to the front to control it.

Trentin, Mohorič, Alaphilippe, Pascal Eenkhoorn all rolling through at the front.

Only around 30 men in that lead 'peloton' now as a smaller group looks to get across.

Kanarieberg (1.1km at 8.5%) is coming up next. Groups all over the road here.

70km to go

Gidich is caught by the peloton.

Smaller groups rolling through the feed zone just after the hill. Quite some damage done in the peloton on Berg Ten Houte.

Alaphilippe had plans there but that gearing problem prevented him from making a big move. He's still up there with Laporte, Narváez, Küng, and the other main favourites.

72km to go

The likes of Jhonatan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma) up at the front.

Belgian champion Tim Merlier has fallen on the cobbles, meanwhile. A big hold-up midway through the peloton.

The Frenchman pushes the pace but has a gear problem on the way and has to slow down to sort it.

Soudal-QuickStep on the front for the climb. Alaphilippe is second wheel and quickly moves up front!

Zukowsky losing contact with the break on Berg Ten Houte.

Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost) holding his arm after crashing on his own in the peloton.

Two minutes for the breakaway.

Lawrence Naesen (AG2R Citroën) and Ryan Gibbons (UAE Team Emirates) caught in a crash in the peloton.

This next cobbled climb is 1.1km at 5.5%.

76km to go

Jumbo-Visma and Alpecin-Deceuninck also getting up front as the riders race towards the next climb at Berg Ten Houte.

Now Groupama-FDJ are at the front of the peloton. A large group off the back are chasing to get back to the peloton.

Off the cobbles and Pedersen pushes on to get a few metres on the peloton.

82km to go

Trek-Segafredo continue to push the pace on the Marieborrestraat cobbles.

Sheffield has stopped to get a new bike from the Ineos Grenadiers team car following his crash earlier.

Once again it's Degenkolb alert and up there with the Trek riders. Behind them, the peloton is strung out in one line.

Bert Van Lerberghe (Soudal-QuickStep) hops out the front of the peloton briefly and now Trek have turned the pace up again over the top!

Once again a very slow pace on the climb. 2:30 to the breakaway. Countdown to another Trek-Segafredo acceleration...

The Marieborrestraat cobbles immediately follow Kortekeer, with a flatter section of 10km or so coming up after that.

86km to go

The break hits the Kortekeer hill now. Will Trek try that same move again when they hit it?

Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ) sneaks through the Trek-Segafredo blockade at the front to go clear. The gap to the break is going up again now as the pace slows.

They used the narrow road on the climb to slow things down and take advantage of the concertina effect to put those in the mid- and rear-sections of the peloton in trouble.

Now the American squad are knocking off the pace again. Some damage done there but maybe not as much as they'd have hoped. The major favourites will be up there with them.

The gap to the break has gone down to 1:40 as a result of this push.

88km to go

A large group at the front with Trek but there have been splits further back.

Favourites Mads Pedersen and Jasper Stuyven are joined by Edward Theuns, Daan Hoole, Mathias Vacek, Emils Liepinš, and Alex Kirsch in the Trek-Segafredo squad today.

Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers) slid out heading around the corner at the top of the climb. He'll be some way back now as Trek starting pushing immediately afterwards.

90km to go

Trek are trying a major move here.

John Degenkolb also in the mix up front.

Now Trek-Segafredo are pushing the pace over the top!

A major slowdown on the climb for the peloton. It just looks like a logjam rather than any crash in the middle of the group.

Trek-Segafredo are massed across the front of the peloton.

Just two minutes for the breakaway now as they tackle the Knokteberg hill (1.1km at 7.4%).

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Pidcock said he's in "pretty good" shape on his return to racing today. He added that the goal now is to prepare "to be the best I can be" for the Tour of Flanders on Sunday.

97km to go

The riders are into the final 100km of the race now after taking on Hotond. Knokteberg is up next.

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Tom Pidcock is back in action today after some time away from racing with a concussion.

The hills will be coming thick and fast for the riders now after the Volkegemberg. Hotond and the Knokteberg next up after another rise in the road following the day's opener.

114km to go

3:15 for the breakaway currently.

Of the riders who didn't take the start of the race today, former Tour of Flanders winner Alberto Bettiol is the most notable. The Italian is out of the race with knee pain, according to a report by Het Nieuwsblad.

The breakaway are about to hit the Volkegemberg now.

The breakaway tackles Varent. As you can see it's not exactly a brutal sector that can tear the peloton apart.

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All the streaming information for the last cobbled tune-up before the Tour of Flanders

127km to go

Now under 10km to go until the riders hit the first cobbled climb of the Volkegemberg (1.1km at 4.3%).

The riders have passed the first cobbles of the day at Varent, a reverse of the sector used late on in the E3 Saxo Classic.

A look at the breakaway with Kristoff leading the way at the front.

The gap to the break is currently stable at around 3:45.

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145km to go

Four minutes for the breakaway now.

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The riders are still speeding along the flat to start the day. The peloton has let the gap to the break go up to three minutes.

It looks like that's going to be our break of the day.

160km to go

The group of six has a minute on the peloton at the moment.

That's an odd move from Kristoff given the comparative quality of this group...

Leon Heinschke (Team DSM) and Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X) have also attacked to make it six out front. 

Lazkano is up there along with Ward Vanhoof (Flanders-Baloise), Nickolas Zukowsky (Q36.5) and Yevgeniy Gidich (Astana Qazaqstan).

167km to go

Four riders now have a small advantage at the front of the race.

Oier Lazkano among the early attackers today.

176km to go

A few groups getting small gaps but nothing concrete yet.

A quick start and no escapees yet.

A long and largely flat run over the first 60km or so coming up to start the race.

184km to go

The flag has dropped and the 2023 Dwars door Vlaanderen is underway!

A look at the roll-out to start the day...

Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost), Kevin Vermaerke (Team DSM), Andrii Ponomar (Arkéa-Samsic), Geoffrey Soupe (TotalEnergies) are all non-starters today.

Check out the full start list here...

No Van der Poel, Van Aert or Pogačar today but there are plenty of big names in action...

Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep), Jasper Philipsen, Tim Merlier (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Mads Pedersen, Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo), Tiesj Benoot, Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma), Greg Van Avermaet, Oliver Naesen (AG2R Citroën), Arnaud De Lie, Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Dstny), Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe), Sep Vanmarcke (Israel-Premier Tech), Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious), Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates), Stefan Küng, Jake Stewart (Groupama-FDJ), Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla), Fernando Gaviria (Movistar), John Degenkolb, Sam Welsford (Team DSM), Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X).

Riders are now off for the neutral start in Roeselare and will soon be racing for real when the flag drops.

10 cobbled sectors and 11 named climbs feature on today's route. It's 'only' 184km long but it's another tough day out in Flanders.

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Here's a look at the map of today's race. As we often see with the Flanders Classics it's a fairly flat start leading into a winding mess of roads criss-crossing the hills and cobbles.

Today's race kicks off in around 15 minutes when the riders head off to start the neutral zone in Roeselare. 

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the 2023 men's Dwars door Vlaanderen.