The men's 2025 WorldTour season has been underway for more than a month but the old-school racing fans will finally join in on the celebrations this Saturday. Opening Weekend is upon us.
The Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (followed by its slightly smaller Sunday sibling Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne) will kick off the traditionalists' bike racing season with Classics action in Flanders, and as ever, there are plenty of big names on the start list, even if other big names are missing. This is just the beginning of the Classics, after all.
After Jan Tratnik (then with Visma-Lease a Bike, now with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) took a stunning win in 2024, this year's edition of the race will give us a chance to see just what kind of Classics form his former teammate Wout van Aert has at the moment. It will also provide a stage for Jhonatan Narváez to make his pavé debut for UAE Team Emirates-XRG – and without Tadej Pogačar to hog all the spotlight.
Here is what you need to know ahead of the first race of men's Opening Weekend, starting with a little teaser of the pre-race favorites before we look at the route, the start list, and the storylines, and then close it out with a quick primer for KBK as well. Looking for the women's preview? Matt de Neef has the rundown for Saturday's Het Nieuwsblad and Sunday's Omloop van het Hageland, which the women race instead of KBK.
The Favorites
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: Wout van Aert
⭐⭐⭐⭐: Jhonatan Narváez, Arnaud De Lie
⭐⭐⭐: Matteo Jorgenson, Tom Pidcock, Nils Politt, Paul Magnier
⭐⭐: Antonio Mórgado, Jasper Philipsen, Jasper Stuyven, Stefan Küng, Oier Lazkano
⭐: Toms Skujiņš, Mathias Vacek, Matej Mohorič, Kaden Groves, Matteo Trentin, Davide Ballerini, Florian Vermeersch, Tim Wellens, Ben Turner, Yves Lampaert
The Route
The Omloop has really settled into its niche as an homage to the classic Tour of Flanders route, with several big Flandrian climbs leading into a finale tackling both the Muur van Geraardsbergen and the Bosberg, neither of which feature for Flanders anymore. That has not changed from last year, and in fact, those things that have changed about the route probably won't be especially decisive.
All told, riders will cover 197 km from Ghent to Ninove, with 15 stretches deemed worthy of demarcation as cobbled sectors (kasseien or pavé), climbs (hellingen or bergs), or cobbled climbs. All but two of those come in the second half of the day, starting with the Lange Munte pavé, and it is the final 55 km of the race that will really see things heat up, starting with the Eikenberg at 53 km to go. After that, the Wolvenberg climb and the Holleweg and Karel Martelstraat cobbles come in quick succession. Then there is a brief moment of respite before a brutal stretch on the Jagerij cobbles, the Molenberg, the Haaghoek cobbles, the Leberg, the Berendries, and the Eiverenberg.
The repeated efforts will invariably string out the group and will possibly propel attackers up the road, but if things have not truly blown up yet, they undoubtedly will on the next climb, the Muur van Geraardsbergen. Relative to this area, it's a lengthy ascent, and it is followed by a descent to the bottom of the punchy Bosberg. From the top of that it's less than 10 mostly downhill kilometers to the finish line. Getting away and staying away over that finale will be two different things – although the last three winners of the race have been attackers, and with the sport generally trending that way, it could well be down to an opportunist again on Saturday.
How to watch
We've got a guide for streaming all the WorldTour races this season, but the short version is that it's status quo except in the UK, where coverage has shifted to the TNT Sports platform. The race starts at 11:15 CET and should finish around 15:50 CET (for Flanders Classics events, the men finish before the women). The race will be shown live in its entirety in some regions, but not all.
The stars and the storylines
We go into the Omloop with a few questions on our mind, starting with ...
Can Van Aert and Visma handle the pressure?
For better or worse, Wout van Aert won't be able to stay out of the spotlight on Saturday, his first cobbled Classic after a very disappointing 2024 season that saw his Classics campaign start strong and then end abruptly in a crash just ahead of his main objective, the Tour of Flanders. Van Aert is a former Omloop winner at the head of the team that won last year – although Tratnik himself has a new team – and the 2025 lineup is a strong one, so Visma and Van Aert really should win this thing with no Mathieu van der Poel or Pogačar in town to stop them.
It should come as no surprise that the course suits Van Aert, who can handle cobbled climbs better than most people on the planet and who also has the engine to go solo and the speed to win a reduced sprint. The biggest question mark is form. Is he in shape to win at this level right now? Does he even want to be in shape to win at this level this early in the season? If not, surely Matteo Jorgenson, Tiesj Benoot, or Visma newcomer Victor Campenaerts will be glad to try their luck with long-range attacks, giving Visma alternate paths to victory along the lines of last year's win.
Can UAE put on a UAE-level performance with this cast?
The bookmakers like a UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider as one of the top favorites, which might seem like a lot of confidence to place in Jhonatan Narváez, but the Ecuadoran was stellar in his win at the Tour Down Under and has done well on similar terrain at past editions of E3. The fact that he moved from the Ineos Grenadiers to the perennially overachieving UAE squad is reason enough on its own to expect big things from him. UAE has been on fire to start the year.
Like Van Aert, Narváez can climb and he can sprint too, although he may be less likely to go solo than some others in this race. For that, the team could look to Nils Politt, Antonio Mórgado, or Tim Wellens. On paper, it's a lineup to rival Visma's, and yet with no Pogačar in the UAE squad, the peloton will likely look to Visma to control the race, potentially taking some pressure off of Narvaez and Co. In an event like the Omloop, where surprise winners happen with some regularity, that can matter. At least you won't be surprised after reading this preview if a UAE dark horse "pulls a Tratnik" to win this year.
Can De Lie deliver?
Arnaud De Lie's palmarès is already impressive for a 22-year-old, so it might seem a bit silly to point this out, but in three WorldTour seasons, he has generated a ton of hype without winning anything quite as big as the Omloop. So far he only counts two WorldTour victories on his results sheet: a one-day win at the GP Québec and a stage of the Renewi Tour. A cobbled Classic that is not nearly as long as the Monumental Flanders or Paris-Roubaix feels like the perfect place for De Lie to step it up and take that big win.
To do it, he'll need to survive the climbs even with a training program that has not been ideal, partially derailed by an offseason knee injury. He has shown flashes so far this season, already grabbing a win at the Étoile de Bessèges, and if he can make it to the finale of the Omloop, he will be very hard to beat.
What will Tom Pidcock do?
Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) is not planning to race the Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix this year, but he will have a bit of fun on the cobbles on Saturday, and it would not be a surprise at all to see him win. The climbs are not hard enough for him to be the favorite, but with all eyes on bigger teams, he is a great candidate to get away. He is also on flying form after winning the AlUla Tour and riding to third overall at the Ruta del Sol.
In any case, from an entertainment perspective, the Omloop and Pidcock go great together. A flat run-in to the line will force smaller riders like Pidcock – who may not want to chance a sprint – to try their luck from a little ways out, and hopefully that means we get to see some action.
Who else should you keep an eye on?
Obviously Tratnik himself deserves a mention here, although it would be fair to say that he is not a major favorite even as the defending champion. In fact, within his own Red Bull team there are at least two riders who seem pretty much just as likely to win: Oier Lazkano and Jordi Meeus.
Soudal-Quick Step will look to the new generation in the form of Paul Magnier, the young Frenchman with a heck of a finishing kick. Yves Lampaert will be another strong option for the Belgian team.
This far into a preview, you'd think we would have mentioned Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) already, but the combination of the hilly route, the earliness in the season, and his only so-so showing at the UAE Tour mean that he has been relegated to fringe favorite status for the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. So far in his career, he has never finished inside the top 30, though obviously he will be a favorite in a sprint if it comes to that, and one does not simply finish second in Paris-Roubaix without having just a bit of pavé prowess.
Lidl-Trek has a promising triple threat in the form of former winner Jasper Stuyven, Mathias Vacek, and Toms Skujiņš. That's three riders who can be on the lookout for attacking opportunities. Also on the list of potential attackers are former Flanders winner Alberto Bettiol (XDS-Astana) and the other former Flanders winner that EF Education-EasyPost signed when Bettiol left, Kasper Asgreen. When the peloton hits the 50 km to go mark, they will be among the many names you may hear animating the race.
What to expect from Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne
After the dust settles on the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, many of the same riders will jump right back into action at Sunday's Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, with a few new names joining the party as well. Many of the notables skipping the first race and doing the second will be sprinters, because KBK is often – although not always – a race that favors fast finishers. Within the final 55 km, the Beerbosstraat at more than 30 km to go is the only cobbled sector on tap, making it hard for attackers to stay clear.
Defending champion Van Aert will be in attendance and will be among the favorites again, but he'll have Olav Kooij in his squad as the likely sprint leader. Philipsen will start with much shorter odds. Newcomers Jonathan Milan and Tim Merlier, however, will be tough rivals to beat.
As usual, the double billing this weekend will give us a much better idea of what's the come in the one-day races ahead. Enjoy the racing and stay tuned for plenty more Classics coverage here at Escape Collective!
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