But first, the bad news
This year’s edition will not see Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin–Premier Tech) and Wout van Aert (Visma–Lease a Bike) make their season debuts while also renewing their eternal (or so it seems) rivalry. On Thursday, Visma announced that van Aert will be unable to race on Saturday, as foreseen, because he has fallen ill. I guess if it wasn’t for bad luck, van Aert and his team would have no luck at all. The Belgian had just recovered from a broken ankle he sustained in a cyclocross race in January, which had disrupted his training.
“Sadly, Wout van Aert will not be able to start in Omloop het Nieuwsblad on Saturday, as he has fallen ill,” Visma announced, without specifying the illness. “The winner of the 2022 edition of the race will take his time to recover.” The Belgian will be replaced by Pietro Mattio in the lineup, while Christophe Laporte will lead the team.
In the team announcement, van Aert was quoted as saying, “Obviously, it’s a big blow for me to miss out on my first race, having prepared for the classics season the whole winter. We had a good training camp at Sierra Nevada, and I was feeling really strong. But unfortunately, it’s also that time of the year when it’s easy to fall ill. I remain positive about the feeling I had on training and am confident that I will be able to return to racing soon. Just not this Saturday.”
No date for his return to racing was given.
In the women’s race, Lotte Kopecky, Lorena Wiebes (both SD Workx–Protime), Demi Vollering (FDJ United–SUEZ), Kasia Niewiadoma (CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto) and last year’s winner, Lotte Claes (Fenix–Premier Tech) will test each on the numerous cobblestone sections and the many short, steep climbs, most of them coming on the second half of the race.
Van der Poel or a sprinter?
Van der Poel has never won the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad – but then he’s never before ridden in it – which is usually enough motivation for the eight-time cyclo-cross world champion to race to win, even if it is his first race since the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships on February 1. It’s the only Classic he hasn’t won, and I’m sure he would love to have a sweep of these races and of the Monuments (for which he still needs Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Lombardia) when he retires. So let’s call him the favourite.
His main rival now appears to be Tom Pidcock (Q.36.5 Pro Cycling), who just finished third in the Vuelta a Andalucia, behind Iván Romeo (Movistar) and Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility), while winning last Sunday’s final stage in fine style. So he is rounding into form and will no doubt try to keep van der Poel in his sights if the Dutch rider takes off on one of his typical solo attacks.
There is a chance, however, that the race will end in a bunch sprint, which is why so many sprinters are riding in it. And not your average sprinters either; many of the sport’s best will line up on Saturday, such as van der Poel’s teammate Jasper Philipsen, Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Intermarché), Biniam Girmay (NSN Cycling), Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step), and Matthew Brennan (Visma–Lease a Bike). If a sprinter wants to win the race, he will have to navigate the 11 gravel sections and 13 short climbs, including eight with an average gradient of more than 5 per cent and ramps of over 10%.
A star-studded women’s field
The stars will be out during the day in the women’s Omloop, with Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (TdFFaZ) winners Vollering and Niewiadoma, Wiebes (who has 121 career wins), and two-time world champion and 2023 Omloop winner Kopecky all lining up. Claes hasn’t won since demolishing the field in last year’s Omloop, including Vollering, who finished third, 3:25 off the pace. In fact, that victory – which she registered while riding for the now-disbanded Arkéa–B&B Hotels Women team – remains the only victory of her professional career, which is why Fenix–Premier Tech had originally left her out of the squad. But she pleaded her case publicly and was added to the team.
But this race is tailor-made for Kopecky, if she is in form again after suffering through a terrible 2025, replete with injuries, illness and almost no form. She won only three races last year, though one of them was the Tour of Flanders. If the race comes to a sprint, then she will work for Wiebes, who could well be the best rider, male or female, in the world, after winning 25 races last year and already having four victories this year, including the first three stages of the UAE Tour Women.
Wiebes said earlier this year that she and Kopecky have a kind of pact and help each other depending on how the race develops. “We showed over the years that we only make each other stronger and that we support each other,” she said. “There can always be a situation where it is for Lotte and another time it is for me. That is the nice thing about this team – we support each other. It was a good thing about Milan-Sanremo; I won there last year, and so it is not a must-have for me to win this year.”
They are going to be formidable. But Vollering, still smarting from her defeat in last year’s TdFFaZ, seems to be on a mission this year to reclaim her place as the best female rider on the planet. She easily won her first race of the year, the Volta Femenina de la Comunitat Valenciana, taking two of the three stages run (one was cancelled due to high winds). She has won both Strade Bianche Donne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes twice, so she is clearly no slouch on the type of climbs she will encounter here. I don’t see anyone else challenging these three riders, except perhaps Liane Lippert (Movistar), who finished just behind Vollering on stage 4 of the Valenciana.
But whoever wins, Saturday will mark our renewal with the best of the sport. As Adam Becket put it in Cycling Weekly, “ Opening Weekend and Omloop is the start of the racing that you can’t miss, that you cannot gloss over by reading a round-up here or some highlights there. If you love racing, as hopefully you do, then the Classics are essential viewing. There is just something about the sight of bikes bouncing over the cobbles of the Muur van Geraardsbergen or the Molenberg, the sprint into the corners, the shouts and the escapes, which bring our sport to life.”
