Gent-Wevelgem live: Will Van der Poel add another win to his palmares?

The early moves have come but no-one has managed to pull out a gap and form a break as of yet. 

250km to go

So far, nothing is snapping the elastic and no attack has managed to force a gap from the peloton. 

Michael Mørkøv (Astana) goes on the attack and is followed by several others. Slightly unusual role for the Danish leadout man today. 

Early mechanical issues for Canadian youngster, Riley Pickrell (Israel-Premier Tech).

Meanwhile, up front, a rider from the Swiss team of Q36.5 is attacking. 

The official start has been given. We are racing at the 2024 Gent-Wevelgem! 

Already, we have a report of a DNS… Former winner Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) did not start this morning. 

The riders have started the neutral start. There is 5.3km of neutral before kilometre zero. The race is due to start in five minutes time. 

Just under 20 minutes until the flag drops and we start racing. 

The weather is glorious at the start. 

Looking at the weather in the start of Ypres today and it is largely dry but very windy. This could be a perfect day for echelons. 

Who can forget this iconic moment of Geraint Thomas being blown off the road?

Winner of Milan-Sanremo and the Classic Brugge-De Panne, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), makes his return to racing after skipping the E3 Saxo Classic on Friday. 

With the form he has been showing, do not be surprised if he comes out on top yet again today.

There are five previous winners riding today:

2009 winner – Edvald Boasson Hagen (DAT)
2014 winner – John Degenkolb (DFP)
2019 winner – Alexander Kristoff (UXM)
2020 winner – Mads Pedersen (LTK)
2022 winner – Biniam Girmay (IWA) 

The defending champion, Christophe Laporte (Visma-Lease-a-Bike) will not, in fact, be defending his title as he is still recovering from illness. 

Wout Van Aert is also not in attendance as the top two from last year focus on recovery and bigger goals.

Visma-Lease-a-Bike will be pinning their hopes on Dutch sprinter, Olav Kooij, instead. With Omloop winner, Jan Tratnik as well as Tiesj Benoot as potentially key back-up.

Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews’ live coverage of Gent-Wevelgem!