A father’s helping shout
That’s exactly what Alpecin–Premier Tech’s superstar did in Saturday’s Omloop Nieuwsblad late in the race – but it wasn’t exactly as expected. To hear him tell it, van der Poel made his winning move without trying. “I didn’t see what happened on the Muur [1.1km @ 7.3% with ramps up to 19.8%], ” he explained. “When I reached the top, I noticed I had a gap. I was mainly focused on riding as focused as possible, because it was incredibly slippery on the cobblestones. I heard what my father shouted after the Muur, that I had 16 seconds. That was important, because I didn’t know my lead. It was also nice to have a tailwind to the finish, because the weather had been bad and windy all day.”
His domination also looked as effortless as he made it sound. The only time van der Poel looked like he was working hard was when he avoided Rick Pluimers (Tudor Pro Cycling), who had crashed in a curve directly in front of him on the Molenberg climb, by unclipping a foot and pulling off an amazing slalom move in a very limited space. From there he accelerated away from the peloton, taking with him Florian Vermeersch (UAE Team Emirates–XRG) and Tim van Dijke (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe).
“How I stayed upright on the Molenberg? I don’t know myself,” he said. “I couldn’t really avoid that Tudor rider, so I half-ran over him with one foot out of my pedal. I hope I didn’t hurt him too much. Luckily I found my pedal again quickly, and at the top I got back to Florian, who was really strong today as well. That was the decisive moment in the race. I didn’t see what happened behind me, but I assume it was total chaos there [because] there was immediately a big gap.”
It was the decisive moment. From that point, the three riders rode well together, gradually increasing their lead over the peloton, which took its time getting organized for a chase. There were reasons for that. As the three riders made their break, there were groups of riders strewn out over the course behind them, due to the many crashes on the wet roads and cobbles and the crosswinds, which blew in gusts up to 35kph.
The attack on the Muur
Van der Poel and his two fellow travelers made their break about 43km from the finish. They caught the three riders left from the original six-rider breakaway at 42km, creating another six-rider lead group. At 38km, their lead over the chasing group had grown to 1 minute. The final move came on the Muur, when van der Poel accelerated and dropped the three breakaway riders at the foot of the ascent and rode away from Vermeersch and van Dijke on a steep cobbled section.
When he came off the Muur, his lead over the pair was 18 seconds. At the finish, he had 22 seconds on van Dijke, with Vermeersch in third at 24 seconds. Christophe Laporte (Visma–Lease a Bike) was the best of the rest, crossing the line 53 seconds adrift, little consolation for the absence of teammate Wout van Aert, who fell ill during the week and was scratched from the race 48 hours before it kicked off.
All the kudos belong, once again, to the astonishing van der Poel, who combines power and bike handling better than anyone in the sport. “This was a goal for us as a team, because we had never won Omloop before. It feels really good that I can win straight away on my first attempt. I’m really happy – and the team is too –because this one wasn’t on our list [of wins] yet.”
He went out of his way to praise Vermeersch, who contributed a lot of effort to making the break work. “I’ve known Florian for a long time and have a lot of respect for him, even more so after today,” van der Poel said. “He always rides to win, which is great to see. He’s also rewarded with a podium finish after being a driving force in the breakaway.”
Zobrazit příspěvek na Instagramu
The unfortunate Pluimers explained his decisive crash after abandoning the race. “Florian [Vermeersch] opened a small gap and I wanted to close it, but I think I just slid off the crown of the cobbles and both wheels slipped at the same time,” he said. “I took the hit with my face, so that was pretty rubbish. I also want to say sorry to the other guys, because you know the Molenberg is an important point. Something always happens there, and it’s frustrating that I influenced the race in that way.”
He went on to say, “A piece of my teeth has broken off and we’re going to sort that first, but luckily our soigneur’s wife is a dentist. She was able to make time on Saturday evening. Hopefully it’s not too bad.” And, of course, he praised van der Poel’s riding skills: “Luckily nobody else went down – and it’s still impressive how he stays on his bike.”
Pluimers was one of 39 riders who did not finish the race, either because they crashed (there were many broken bones; for example, Stefan Küng [Tudor Pro Cycling] broke his femur) or because they were held up by crashes or mechanical issues and so fell hopelessly behind andwanted to save their legs for Sunday’s Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, which was won by Matthew Brennan, giving Visma–Lease a Bike some good news for a change.
The Paul Seixas Watch
I’m thinking about making this a permanent fixture of this blog, to report on this young French rider’s astonishing performances when he doesn’t ride in a prime race, as, for example, on Saturday. The 19-year-old French hope to win the Tour de France did not ride in the Omloop het Nieuwsblad, choosing instead the Faun-Ardèche Classic, in which he demolished a strong field in what has been described as “Pogačar fashion.”
Seixas had already ridden the same roads in last year’s European Championships, when he finished a very respectable third behind Pogačar. The Faun-Ardèche covered much of the same course and included the very steep Val d’Enfer climb (1.5km @ 10.6%!), which had to be climbed four times.
Seixas was facing some strong riders, such as last year’s winner Romain Grégoire (Groupama–FDJ United), Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates–XRG), Matteo Jorgenson (Visma–Lease a Bike), Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Christian Scaroni (XDS Astana), Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious), Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers) and Ben Healy (EF Education–EasyPost).
Long story short, on the Mur de Royes (6.8km @ 7.3%), with about 40km left to ride, Seixas went into overdrive and attacked. Only Jorgenson was able to stay on his wheel, but not for long. At the finish, Seixas’ winning margin was a whopping 1:48 over Christen, Martinez and Jorgenson, with Skjelmose fifth at 2:47. Now that’s dominance à la Pogačar.
Results 2026 Men’s Omloop Nieuwsblad
- Mathieu van der Poel, Alpecin – Premier Tech 04:53:55
2. Tim van Dijke, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe +0:22
3. Florian Vermeersch, UAE Team Emirates–XRG +0:24
4. Christophe Laporte, UAE Team Emirates–XRG +0:53
5. Aime de Gendt, Pinarello–Q36.5 Pro Cycling +0:54
6. Tobias Lund Andresen, Decathlon–CMA CGM +0:57
7. Jordi Meeus, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe “
8. Anthony Turgis, TotalEnergies “
9. Alexis Renard, Cofidis “
10. Luke Lamperti, EF Education First–EasyPost “
