Opening Weekend kicked off with Omloop Nieuwsblad, its eleven cobbled sectors and 21 bergs offering an appetiser at the start of the spring classics. It’s often an electrifying and dramatic event with the riders taking on some of Flanders’ most infamous terrain in splintered groups, but the 80th edition ended in an unusually well-populated bunch sprint, won by Uno-X Mobility’s Søren Wærenskjold.
It wasn’t a completely formulaic sprinter’s classic, with the Muur van Geraardsbergen providing something of a launchpad as always, but though there was a high-powered split over the Kapelmuur and a late attack from Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), much of the peloton was back together for the run-in, and the Swiss time trialist too was swept up just outside the flamme rouge. While it was a spectacular start to the classics for the Scandinavian ProTeam, Alpecin-Deceuninck and Visma-Lease a Bike in particular were left stung at the finish in Ninove.
Brief results:
- Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility)
- Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep)
- Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
- Brent van Moer (Lotto)
- Samuel Watson (Ineos Grenadiers)
- Lukáš Kubiš (Unibet Tietema Rockets)
- Piet Allegaert (Cofidis)
- Vincenzo Albanese (EF Education-EasyPost)
- Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost)
- Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ)
How it happened:
- A solid breakaway got away early in the day and got a head start on the first cobbles and climbs of the Classics season, the seven riders including two riders each for Flanders-Baloise and WorldTeam Picnic-PostNL: Giosuè Epis (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Elmar Reinders (Jayco-AlUla), Enzo Leijnse (Picnic PostNL), Julius van den Berg (Picnic PostNL), Siebe Deweirdt (Flanders-Baloise), Victor Vercouillie (Flanders-Baloise), Hartthijs de Vries (Unibet Tietema Rockets). There was little to report in the first half of the 197-kilometre classic as the gap grew to around the six-minute mark.
- A flurry of excitement and danger was sent through the bunch soon after the halfway point as UAE Team Emirates-XRG put the hammer down, waking everyone up with their acceleration on the Lange Munte, the longest cobbled sector at 2.5km and with a slight uphill gradient. Little came of it, but the race moved into a new phase nevertheless.
- The gap was down to around three minutes by the time the peloton reached the Eikenberg just inside the last 60 km, led by Alpecin-Deceuninck, Lidl-Trek, Visma-Lease a Bike and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe – the team of last year’s winner Jan Tratnik who was racing for Visma at the time of his landmark victory.
- The first semi-serious attacks began soon after, with Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike) earning his late selection with a testing acceleration, drawing out Vito Braet (Intermarché-Wanty) and Tim van Dijke (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe). Theirs was the first of many probing moves, but only Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers) could gain any ground, ultimately wedging himself between the breakaway and the chase.
- Alpecin-Deceuninck showed their power and the importance of positioning on the Molenberg, a narrow cobbled climb with a pinch point at the bottom that forced many towards the back of the bunch into a slow walk up the slope.
- Splits formed as a result, and at the top of the climb, with about 40km to go and little over 90 seconds to the front, Alpecin-Deceuninck led a group of just 30-odd riders, crucially without Wout van Aert, reigning champ Tratnik, Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) and pre-race favourite Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) – the Belgian national champion would later pay a heavy price for what was a lengthy solo chase back after a mechanical earlier in the race.
- With Jasper Philipsen and Kaden Groves in the front split, Alpecin-Deceuninck did their level best to keep the rest of the peloton at bay as they charged after the breakaway. With cohesion lacking slightly in the second part of the peloton, lone riders attempted their own bridging efforts, but it was ultimately all brought back together with about 25 km left of the race, the break reeled in just as the peloton sewed itself back together.
- No lull was allowed to last long before accelerations resumed, Geraardsbergen now only a few kilometres away.
- Positioning was key again going onto the iconic climb, where many were desperate to reduce the bunch before the predominantly downhill run in to Ninove.
- Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) proved super strong on the attritional climb, Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Philipsen also managing the punishing cobbles with ease, and over the top, a group of around 15 – including a number of pre-race favourites including Philipsen and Van Aert, and the eventual winner's teammate Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) – formed with a modest gap over the next group on the road.
- Their advantage was not big enough though, and the added headwind made it no easier to stretch an advantage over and beyond the Bosberg.
- With the second group gaining fast, Küng made one last Hail-Mary attack about 10 km from the finish and forged a maximum advantage of 18 seconds before the bunch took him in hand, Jorgenson leading the peloton into the finishing kilometre for Visma-Lease a Bike. Alpecin-Deceuninck then took over for the bunch gallop, but no one could stop Wærenskjold in the slight uphill kick to the line.
Quotes of the day
It took a couple of minutes for Wærenskjold to have the result confirmed after his lunge-off with Paul Magnier on the line. But replays showed clearly that the Norwegian had half a wheel's advantage over his young French rival.
"I actually shouldn’t have raced until Sunday. Tomorrow it will be more of a sprint race [at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne], but today it also became a sprint due to the headwind. It feels a bit surreal ... This is the biggest win of my career, by far, especially with all these big names in the peloton. This is a big step for me in the right direction."
Pre-race hopeful Van Aert was often very visible, sometimes not for the right reasons as he got caught behind splits or was seen drifting back on the cobbles. He was able to make it into the lead group over the Kapelmuur, though, which is a good sign, but his sprint was not up to the task in the finale.
"I just wasn't feeling well in the race. I was never in a good position and didn't have the right legs. On the Molenberg I was behind the traffic jam, which you know is going to happen. I just wasn't in the right position there, which is why I ended up behind a split ... [Then] I didn't have enough confidence in my sprint, because I had already felt that I didn't have the best legs. I tried, but there was nothing left."
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