Terror shocks Belgium- Dwars door Vlaanderen uncertain

In light of the terror attacks on Tuesday morning against Brussels Airport and the Brussels metro the importance of bike racing has somehow been put on the backburner. Nevertheless organizers of Wednesday's Dwars door Vlaanderen have stated that as things stand the main plan is to go ahead with the race as planned in spite of recent events.

That plan comes with a major caveat. Today the country has been put on threat level 4 by authorities, an extreme measure that means there is a serious and imminent threat of terrorist attacks. Should that level remain on Wednesday the race will automatically be cancelled by the organizers but today there is no way of telling if that will be the case. In November as authorities were on a hunt for the recently captured Saleh Abdeslam Brussels was kept on level 4 alert for almost a week while the rest of the country was on lower level 3 alert. Time will tell where this goes but the feeling from the organizers is strong that they want to go on with the event as planned if at all possible. Undoubtedly no one wants to cave in to the fear and disruption of society that the terrorists are hoping to achieve. The strongest way to stand up to those forces is to let life go on as normal, even in the face of threats.

Regardless of go or no-go, some teams may struggle to get their riders to Flanders in time for the start. Many riders were in transit on tuesday and got diverted or stopped. They need to find alternative ways which isn't impossible but not all may manage the logistics around it.