Søren Wærenskjold surges on the front of the bunch and despite the uphill run to the line neither Jasper Philipsen nor Paul Magnier can get on terms with the towering Norwegian.
The early breakaway formed easily. Hartthijs de Vries (Unibet), Elmar Reinders (Jayco), Giosuè Epis (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Enzo Leijnse and Julius van den Berg (Picnic-PostNL) and Siebe Deweirdt and Victor Vercouillie (Flanders-Baloise) were soon away for the day and allowed to take six minutes.
UAE had a plan for the Lange Munte cobbles with around 100km. It was lively, a prod to a wasps’ nest. As riders fought for position crashes happened. Victor Campenaerts was involved. Arnaud De Lie was having mechanical problems and this action at the back was still consequential as both would be out contention in time.
With the break still clear and almost 50km to go Josh Tarling went solo. This looked like a chasse patate move but it did force others to react and let Ineos’s others observe the moves; plus if it didn’t work today it may well between here and Roubaix.
Alpecin-Deceuninck split the field on the Molenberg, with Wout van Aert caught out. This created two pelotons but with a slender gap, it didn’t feel like the second group was in trouble. Still, with hindsight this was a key moment in the race, Visma on the backfoot. Here they needed a full power Campenaerts; instead Van Aert was chasing in person at times. Local paper HLN says their race “turned into soup”.
Everything regrouped in time for Geraardsbergen but the climb only had the effect of lining out the field, Mathias Vacek and Tim Wellens surged but couldn’t get clear. The field split but on the Bosberg no moves worked, Van Aert was among those trying to prise things open but the headwind was making everyone huddle.
With the climbs done, could someone copy Jan Tratnik’s move from last year and float away for the win? With 10km to go Stefan Küng jumped and possibly for the first time ever in a cobbled classic he was away solo. Because he’s a solid rouleur, he’s the ideal wheel to follow, more so since rivals might fancy their chances of beating him in a sprint. But surprisingly he was now away solo and taking time. The gap only got up to 17 seconds as behind the chase group swelled, dropped riders from the Muur came back. Visma-LAB had Matteo Jorgenson working on the front, Jonas Abrahamsen for Uno-X and it was brought back to ten seconds and then Küng was caught in the outer streets of Ninove. A bunch sprint was coming up.
Few riders had any kind of lead out. With the headwind nobody wanted to move early and by the final hundred metres Søren Wærenskjold, Jasper Philipsen and Paul Magnier – the latter 20 years old but reliable already – seemed in contention and as the slope kicked up surely it would be the latter two, lighter and more agile? No, Wærenskjold was still on the rampage and won by half a wheel.
The winning moment? Sure, he did win the sprint. But starting matters. Wærenskjold was not supposed to ride today, the plan was to save him for Sunday’s Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne as it is more likely to end in a sprint but his team saw the weather forecast and concluded the Omloop could well end in a bunch sprint soa late substitution was made, he started and won.
The Verdict
Unmistakeably back in Belgium: the weak sunlight, the brown palette, the betonweg roads. But for all the anticipation this was no vintage edition at all. Openingsweekend? Watching the race was like waiting the season to begin, and it felt like the race never get going. If the Muur wasn’t a springboard to victory it was barely a hurdle either, we just saw the lead group fracture on the way up but it fused on the way to the finish. This was the sprint stage version of a sprint classic, a long parade to the finish.
This was still no easy race, the average speed is in line with recent years and the front group was blasted down to 51 riders by the finish thanks to the efforts of UAE and Alpecin-Deceuninck. Wærenskjold hardly had it easy either, he was last wheel in the group as they tackled the Muur.
A massive result for Uno-X, their second World Tour win after Magnus Cort’s Dauphiné stage win last June. Wærenskjold becomes the second Norwegian winner after the mighty Thor Hushovd. This is his biggest result but more can come, he’s clearly sprint specialist with with range for the classics and a TT specialist, as long as the course is flat. A hulk of a rider, he’s 92kg and looks like a snowplough that moves air out of the way in the finish, the ideal lead out. But just like Jonathan Milan there’s often no chance to come around for rivals.
Thank you for the comprehensive report INRNG. I am one of the many in the UK deprived of live coverage by the action of ‘big business’. I can see no good coming of this money grabbing move, other than a general reduction in interest in bike racing and a decline in income for the perpetrators.
With VPN software, anyone can watch bike racing. I’m in the USA but I used to watch mostly British Eurosport. Now I watch Flobikes in Canada if it’s not on Max in the US. I could also watch Sporza in Belgium. Some races I have to watch via Italian or Spanish based streamers.
I m torn at the moment whether it is worth just spending the £30 monthly, I will really miss the cycling otherwise. Perhaps just for 6 months March to September.
And a prod to go through all my other subscription channels and ruthlessly prune those I don’t watch much.
It’s pretty easy to get a 50% reduction ~ £15 per month (for 7 months) via their own offer. And as you say cancel in September as it goes up to £30
How do you get that if you no longer have a discovery sub though?
I cancelled when they canned GCN+. So… I don’t have any sub to threaten to cancel.
Not sure this is any help but I have got a subscription for €4.99 a month. It is a German one and I assume it requires a German location or VPN plus a German bank account.
Umm… I hate to seem ungrateful, Inrng – I’ve been appreciating your site for many years – but unless giving away the result of the Omloop on the summary page is an unintentional one-off I’ve got a problem, as I’m usually behind on my viewing.
Post-race reviews have long been the norm here. Sorry for the spoiler but it’s the risk of going online at all if you’ve saved a race to watch for later.
Great commentary and analysis, as always. This is usually the first site I come too _after_ I’ve watched the race and know the result… nothing need change in my view.
Indeed, it’s just that you’ve always seemed to be careful about not giving away winners on the home page. It’s entirely your prerogative, obviously. I’ll save reading your articles for an end-of-season review, and remain grateful as ever.
Not trying to be snarky, I´m just a bit puzzled here: what I see first when I open the home page is, has been and probably always will be (1) the headline of the latest blog entry, (2) a photograph, and (3) the text of the latest blog entry.
If the headline is “The Moment The Omloop Was Won” and I haven´t yet seen the race but intend to watch it later, it serves as a clear warning not to read any further and the space taken by the photograph between the headline and the text is large enough to prevent me from accidentally seeing the name of the winner.
I must therefore obviously allow for different reading habits and, I guess, different lay-outs on mobile phones.
Am I the only one who wonders if van Aert is just not his old self these days?
“These days” which gradually started some 2 years ago, but I still hope he’s in for a good season, just the sensible and traditional approach of peaking towards the Holy Week without caring too much about winning minor races. Wishful thinking on my part, I’m afraid? Perhaps, yet it’s still soon to despair. A shame he gave up on Strade and Sanremo, anyway.
Van Aert seemed to be largely his old self at the Vuelta, monstering an admittedly fairly weak field day after day in the breakaways. He is at his best in Grand Tours I feel. His body seems to react well to the workload and be gets better and better when everyone else is fatiguing. He needs to replicate that in someway in the build up to the classics. It does seem odd that he isn’t doing Strade and especially MSR. I hope he gets back to his best, but even if he does it probably won’t be until the third week of the Giro!
To me, it already looked like a downgraded version when compared to his best TDFs, precisely because of what you comment about the field, although admittedly one of Wout’s specialty is he can succeed in losing a race to anyone, possibly coming 2nd if he can.
The plan this year is to start gently after the CX season. While Jorgenson had been at altitude, Van Aert is yet to go.
But there is a feeling he’s more a known quantity these days. He can still win the cobbled monument he craves but it feels like Pogačar and Van der Poel can just show up and ride away, Van Aert needs a little extra for things to go his way.
It’s been a bit of a shocker for VLAB so far. Sure they’ve had some decent results, but they have come up short a number of times and they looked pretty weak as a team at Algarve. Maybe they’re trying to avoid peaking too early as they did last year.
I’d like to see how MVdP and Pogacar fare with training/racing if they decide to have kids 😬
I got some negative comments for bringing that up last year, but I think it’s a legitimate question. Bike racing is a strange sport, very dangerous and fairly individualistic. I would think that having children would change the dynamic significantly.
It’s long been said that once you’ve got children you don’t descend anymore the same way.
But there’s more than that, of course, a decent share of parental duties, to start with, although that’s both very personal and very cultural. Being fair to anyone closely involved should be a concern for everybody, anyway.
With Mohorič being an exception to the rule
Those aero helmets look terrible, Wout’s was slightly reminiscent of that epic Paolini’s at Katusha I believe.
Bring on summer when ventilation means they’re not used as often. But the aesthetics are also new, it could be something we’re going to get used to. Like how riders who started a road race in a TT skinsuit would get mocked.
Agreed – up there with Sean Kelly’s at 1992 MSR.
Just your annual reminder that Carlton Kirby is the absolute worst; “…he’s taking a gel, chocolate coconut, his favorite…” I mean, WTF is wrong with him?
Is he on TNT, I watched the final 50k with low sound and only briefly heard Rob Hatch? Paying £360 a year to listen ho him is a pretty depressing thought.
I use to agree with most opinions about how unprofessional Carlton Kirby was until
I had nothing to do but watch one of the boring desert races. He was the commentator and at least he made me laugh at his stupid dribble and useless facts about trite nothings!
Carlton is scrumptious. He’s my absolute favourite commentator.
Turned on the downhill skiing the other day to watch Kitzbhuel and was delighted to find Carlton.
He brings some light moments to a sport that takes 6 hours and regularly features shots of landscapes instead of the sport.
I don’t personally care for Rob Hatch. But I do respect how seriously he takes things and his preparation is tremendous. But I just think Carlton is pure fun. I like to read the comments here of other people’s opinions on commentators, to remind myself different viewers have different values and there room for different voices and approaches behind the mic.
To be fair, Jez Cox is worse, by a long shot. With him on the mic, we are constantly reminded of how he has called X or Y race in said past – who cares – and when CX is on, he seems to have this idea in his head that some rando new sports watcher has suddenly caught a race for the first time. Jez and JPow is a nightmare.
Yesterday I remembered to cancel my Discovery+ account, but as I was about to confirm, they threw me a bone, 50% off for 7 months. Up until October (hopefully gets me to Lombardia), I figured it was worth it, so now I have TNT for £15.49 a month.
Unfortunately it doesn’t start until the next billing cycling, so I miss Opening Weekend and then next. So more thankful for this review than usual.
Me too. I cancelled my Discovery+ account and was immediately offered 7 months for £15.49 – which I accepted…. Don’t know how many might have got these offers
Good to share for British and Irish readers. Many companies have scripts to try and retain customers, so call if you can rather than cancel online.
just to say the Disco+ option isn’t available at all in Ireland – best option seems to be Now TV’s “Sports Extra” package; you can get that for €15 or €17 per month for 6 months (offers seem to vary between existing and new Now TV subscribers) – that has all of the TNT sports channels (without as many options as Eurosport used to give us…. just the race live, with adverts, as far as I can see)
I had a fairly tedious ‘chat’ with D+ customer services this morning: I was wondering if chat with a human would generate a special offer, but they didn’t offer me anything at all.
The tone of the cso suggests they are pretty tired of people asking about cycling…
When I went to cancel my subscription on the evening of 27th February & the 50% off offer come up it said in the small print to contact them if you wanted to start it sooner than when you subscription ended, which in my case was 9th March. So I contacted them & got my existing subscription cancelled on 28th (to my surprise got sent a refund for the final month, admittedly it was only £3.99). Having checked the cycling calendar & seen that the World Championships end on 28th September, I waited a day & set up the new subscription from 1st March so just in time for Omloop but making sure that the 7 months offer will cover the World Championships.
just to say the Disco+ option isn’t available at all in Ireland – best option seems to be Now TV’s “Sports Extra” package; you can get that for €15 or €17 per month for 6 months (offers seem to vary between existing and new Now TV subscribers) – that has all of the TNT sports channels (without as many options as Eurosport used to give us…. just the race live, with adverts, as far as I can see)
Boring start to the spring. At least Phillipsen didn’t win both races.
Long waiting in winter makes them always a bit overrated by previews and articles around, although of course as any Classic they can deliver great racing… not this year ^___^
Now THAT is a spoiler! 😉
My favourite moment (other than baking bread through KBK) was when Philipsen was given a stuffed ass as a prize. Does any other race have such a good, and adorable, prize at the end? And, to some, one so appropriate for the winner?