The Dutch rider was considered among the pre-race favourites for the cobbled one-day race, which featured a route of 183.7 kilometres from Roeselare to Waregem.

Van der Poel formed part of a chase group behind an early breakaway.

The chase included Belgian riders Victor Campenaerts and Tiesj Benoot, along with Britain’s Tom Pidcock and Switzerland’s Stefan Küng.

Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar had missed out on the chase group as he prepares for a maiden appearance at the Tour of Flanders this weekend, with the two-time Tour de France champion failing in a solo effort to bridge across from the peloton.

The chase group made contact with the breakaway with 20km remaining, before a series of attacks launched in the closing stages.

Campenaerts made several attempts to break clear, but saw his efforts foiled.

Van der Poel and Benoot were able to establish a small gap in the closing 2km, with the former emerging as the winner of the sprint.

The Alpecin-Fenix rider crossed the line in a winning time of 4 hours 5min 39sec, with Benoot finishing as the runner-up at one second down.

Pidcock completed the top three with the Ineos Grenadiers rider one of five members of the chasing group to finish five seconds behind the winner.

Van der Poel has now won two of the past three editions of the race, following success in 2019.

The race was not held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with fellow Dutchman Dylan van Baarle winning in a solo attack last year.

The women’s Dwars door Vlaanderen finished in a bunch sprint, despite efforts from Dutch star Ellen van Dijk to establish a breakaway.

Italy’s Chiara Consonni sprinted to victory in a time of 3:06:40.

Belgium’s Julie De Wilde and Switzerland’s Elise Chabbey completed the top three.