The big excitement this year is that last year’s Giro-Tour-World-Championship hero Tadej Pogačar will be riding a full Classics schedule because, unlike last year, when he raced sparingly in the spring, he will be skipping the Giro d’Italia. And unlike last year, when Visma–Lease a Bike’s Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert (as well as other riders in the squad) were absent from most of the races because of serious crashes, we can (I hope) look forward to a continuation of the rivalry between Visma and Pogačar ’s UAE Team Emirates–XRG.
If all goes well, the superlative Slovenian will be riding against van Aert in the spring and then will face off against Vingegaard in the Tour, with boasting rights for the best team in the world as a prize. But they won’t be alone, with former World Champion Mathieu van der Poel riding in four Classics: Milan-Sanremo, the E3 Saxo Classic, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. The battle between the two world champions, and van Aert, if he is at his best, should be the highlight of the spring.
However, there has been no word on when double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel will return to racing after fracturing his shoulder blade, rib, and hand, as well as suffering contusions to his lungs, dislocating his right clavicle, and tearing some ligaments in a training accident in December. He has said that he is aiming for a return sometime in April, but recovering best form after suffering multiple fractures is always a slow process.
All eyes on van Aert in Omloop
In the meantime, all eyes will be on van Aert this weekend as he races in both the Omloop and the Kuurne, which he won last year. He won’t be facing Pogačar or van der Poel, but several racers could give him a good ride for his money in the Omloop, starting with last year’s winner Jan Tratnik (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe). Tratnik was a teammate of van Aert’s when he won the race in 2024, so the Belgian knows what he is capable of. Tratnik will be supported by, among others, the van Dijke twins, Mick and Tim, who also left Visma last year to support another former Visma teammate, Primož Roglič. So the race is something of a family feud.
Q36.5’s Tom Pidcock will be a tougher nut to crack. He already has four wins this year for his new team and won the Strade Bianche in 2023 and the Amstel Gold Race last year. If van Aert tries to go on a solo, Pidcock will be on his wheel and tough to shake off. However, the Briton suggested on his team’s website that he wasn’t feeling overly confident. “I’ve never been on the podium in the Omloop,” he was quoted as saying. “If I could manage that, I would be very happy because I don’t think it suits me perfectly. However, I know my shape is good, and it’s important to keep building on the momentum I have created with the team.”
UAE Team Emirates–XRG is sending a typically strong team that includes last year’s second-place finisher Nils Pollitt, 21-year-old António Morgado, who has won several minor one-day races and finished fifth in last year’s Tour of Flanders, and Mikkel Bjerg, who finished just ahead of Morgado in that Tour of Flanders. But the team’s most dangerous rider just may be the three-time Ecuadorian road race champion Jhonatan Narváez, who won this year’s Tour Down Under and famously beat his new team leader, Pogačar, in stage 1 of last year’s Giro.
Other interesting rivals include Lotto’s young star Arnaud de Lie, Alberto Bettiol of XDS Astana, Lidl-Trek’s young Czech Mathias Vacek and, if the race comes down to a sprint, van Aert will have to deal with Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) and de Lie (who can really sprint). But not with last year’s Tour de France green jersey winner Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty), who has dropped out of the weekend races to return to Eritrea to be with his wife, who gave birth to their second child.
Merlier vs. van Aert in Kuurne?
Van Aert’s competition in Sunday’s more sprinter-friendly Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne will be roughly the same, but without Pidcock and de Lie. However, Soudal Quick-Step is bringing its in-form sprinter Tim Merlier, who has already won four races this year, including two at the UAE Tour, where he beat Philipsen and Lidl-Trek’s Jonathan Milan. There will also be 22-year-old Czech sprinter Pavel Bittner (Team Picnic PostNL), who looks like another future sprinting star.
Everyone in the sport has been looking forward to this weekend’s races because this is when the racing starts getting serious. And just to make the weekend a complete package, the 1.Pro Faun-Ardèche Classic will also be run on Saturday, with Richard Carapaz and Ben Healy (both EF Education–EasyPost), Brandon McNulty and Juan Ayuso (both UAE Team Emirates–XRG), Mattias Skelmose (Lidl-Trek), Enric Mas (Movistar), and Marc Hirschi (Tudor Pro) lining up at the start.
Let the rumpus begin!
