After a number of weeks of sun-facing motion in Australia, the Center East, and Iberia to kick off the 2025 racing season, the boys’s and ladies’s pelotons head north this weekend for Opening Weekend and their first date with the cooler climate and cobblestones.
Saturday brings the primary cobbled Traditional of the yr within the type of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, a 197km/138km blast over the hills and cobbles of Flanders that features the well-known ascents of the Muur van Geraardsbergen and Bosberg.
For a lot of followers, the races mark the ‘actual’ begin of the season, with earlier meets within the sunnier climate traditionally thought of ‘warm-ups’ for the extra severe stuff in a while, even when that is actually not the case these days.
Rain, gray skies, and (comparatively) low temperatures await the boys’s and ladies’s pelotons at Gent’s well-known ‘t Kuipke velodrome on Saturday, whereas the brutal cobbles, largely untouched in 10 months, are readily available as soon as once more to check the Classics stars.
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Sunday’s extra sprinter-friendly Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne could lie some time away from the most important objectives of the spring, with the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix nonetheless lurking six months sooner or later, nevertheless, the race nonetheless marks an necessary a part of the early season. It’s the starting of the Belgian racing season and the primary alternative for the Classics hopefuls to get a giant outcome on the board.
With that in thoughts, here is a have a look at our number of 10 contenders to look at on the males’s and ladies’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.
Demi Vollering couldn’t have began off her season any higher than her total victory on the Setmana Ciclista Volta Femenina de la Comunitat Valenciana. The previous Tour de France winner switched groups from SD Worx-Protime in 2024 and raced for the primary time within the colors of her new group FDJ-SUEZ, after what was essentially the most talked about switch within the low season.
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In what is going to certainly be an ongoing dialogue matter on peloton dynamics this season, Vollering beat her former teammates Marlen Reusser (now Movistar) and a fresh-out-of-retirement Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime), displaying robust early season type.
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad will mark the beginning of Vollering’s prolonged Spring Classics marketing campaign and whereas she has historically ridden in assist of former SD Worx teammates like Lotte Kopecky and Lorena Wiebes, this yr might see her take the reins at FDJ-SUEZ because the group’s chief.
Her greatest place was second within the 2022 version, however she was additionally sixth in 2024, and thirteenth in 2021, displaying that this race fits her all-rounder strengths. (KF)
Following his switch over the winter, Pidcock has skilled a dream begin to his time at Swiss group Q36.5. The British multi-discipline star has already racked up 4 victories throughout two stage races, taking two wins and the total on the AlUla Tour earlier than including one other win on stage 2 of the Vuelta a Andalucia.
The 2 races, nevertheless, are a far cry from Omloop Het Nieuwsblad when it comes to terrain, climate, and temperature. The chilliness and attainable rain could come as a shock to the system following races within the warmth however Pidcock will line as one of many favourites in Gent.
Pidcock’s deliberate schedule for the spring is focussed across the Italian and Ardennes Classics, making Omloop Nieuwsblad his sole cobbled outing of the approaching months. Given his pair of top-10 finishes prior to now two editions and his present type, Pidcock is an actual contender to proceed his successful run right here. (DO)
Since turning professional in 2021, 24-year-old Georgi has progressively established herself as one of many premier Classics forces within the ladies’s peloton. Constructing from a promising base within the junior ranks she’s now ascended to group management at Picnic-PostNL and will probably be a drive to be reckoned with within the coming months.
On the cobbles to date she has one huge win – on the 2023 Traditional Brugge-De Panne – to her title whereas she additionally mentioned final yr’s podium at Paris-Roubaix felt “like a win” following a spring of dangerous luck.
Now, alongside Charlotte Kool and new teammate Marta Cavalli, her Picnic-PostNL group figures to be a significant participant this March and April. Neither will accompany Georgi at Omloop however she’s in good type following a top-10 end on the UAE Tour. The indicators look good for her to match or exceed her 2023 fifth-place end. (DO)
Visma-Lease a Bike have basked in their very own success at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in recent times successful the final three consecutive editions, whereas additionally inserting two riders on the rostrum within the earlier two years.
Wout van Aert is not any exception to the group’s success having received the race in 2022 and he completed third final yr whereas his then-teammate Jan Tratnik, zipped off the entrance of a range to beat Nils Politt (UAE Group Emirates) in Ninove.
Van Aert then went on to win Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne the following day, with Visma-Lease a Bike as soon as once more dominating Opening Weekend after Tiesj Benoot received in Kuurne the earlier yr.
Nevertheless, the dynamics of the peloton have shifted with final season’s switch market bringing about important modifications together with Tratnik’s transfer to Pink Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. However Van Aert will nonetheless have assist from a robust group that features Edoardo Affini, Tiesj Benoot, Matteo Jorgenson, Per Strand Hagenes and new signings Victor Campenaerts and Niklas Behrens.
Van Aert remains to be constructing his type after crashing out of the Vuelta a España final September taking much-needed break day to get well from a knee harm. He returned to cyclocross racing on the finish of December and secured two wins after which second place on the World Championships, earlier than turning his consideration to street racing at Clásica Jaén. On the latest Volta ao Algarve, Van Aert twice completed seventh on stage 3 and stage 4 however admitted that he simply wasn’t robust sufficient (but) to battle for the win.
If there have been ever a rider who might flip his fortune round it’s Wout Van Aert – and he already appeared on his approach after taking an surprising second place on the ultimate time trial at Volta ao Algarve – so look ahead to him to drag off a victory in Ninove. (KF)
SD Worx-Protime will start Opening Weekend with out their World Champion Lotte Kopecky, who has opted to start out her season at Milan-San Remo, however they may have a strong contender in Lorena Wiebes.
Kopecky has mentioned she’s going to compete within the bulk of the hillier Spring Classics later in March and April earlier than turning her consideration to coaching for her GC ambitions on the Tour de France Femmes.
Wiebes will tackle extra of a dash function within the early season, which she is not any stranger too as one of many quickest ladies within the peloton and he or she has already received three levels on the UAE Tour. Nevertheless, she has made an effort to enhance her all-around strengths, notably on brief and steep climbs, and can divert her consideration considerably to concentrate on the flatter Spring Classics.
The group can even area a robust lead-out with the likes of Barbara Guarischi, Femke Markus and Mischa Bredewold, all able to bringing Wiebes to the end line in prime place.
Look ahead to Bredewold to be a second card to play for SD Worx-Protime. Having already secured a stage victory at Setmana Valenciana, she might convey this way into Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. (KF)
Since bursting onto the scene along with his win at Gent-Wevelgem three years in the past, Girmay has typically focussed his Classics efforts later within the spring, skipping Opening Weekend in 2023 and recording fifty fifth and 122nd locations final day trip.
This yr could also be totally different, although, with the Eritrean starting his 2025 season in flying type. He hasn’t but recorded a win on this, his fourth full season within the WorldTour, however he is barely been out of the highest 10 in seven race days to this point.
He kicked off his yr with fourth and ninth locations in two legs of the Problem Mallorca, earlier than final week taking sixth on the Figueira Champions Traditional. On the Volta ao Algarve, he added second and fifth locations to that tally within the bunch sprints on levels 3 and 4.
OK, these races are a world away from the grime and brutality of the cobbled Classics however Girmay has been on the sharp finish of issues to start out his season. His larger objectives – reminiscent of Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders, and Paris-Roubaix – could lie a way sooner or later, however there’s each likelihood he continues his good type in Belgium on the weekend. (DO)
Niewiadoma loved the most important season of her profession final yr, securing the last word prize in biking along with her Tour de France triumph. The Pole, although, is excess of only a stage racer, in fact.
Throughout her profession, the 30-year-old Niewiadoma has been among the many greatest Classics riders round, too. Look no additional than final spring, when she received La Flèche Wallonne, positioned fourth at Strade Bianche and stepped onto the rostrum on the Tour of Flanders.
She does not but have that huge cobbled Classics win on her palmarès but however Niewiadoma is all the time there or thereabouts. Seven top-10 finishes on the Tour of Flanders and a second place on the Dwars door Vlaanderen converse to that.
An 18th place on the Setmana Valenciana marked a low-key begin to her 2025 marketing campaign however she’ll head up a robust Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto squad, with one other Classics star in new teammate Chiara Consonni additionally within the lineup. In an open area of contenders, Niewiadoma is actually one to look at. (DO)
Jan Tratnik (Pink Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)
Jan Tratnik will line up because the defending champion at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad after beating rival Nils Politt in a two-man dash into Ninove final yr. This time he will not be sporting the brilliant yellow and black of Visma-Lease a Bike however as a substitute the extra subdued white and darkish blue colors of Pink Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.
Regardless of racing for a brand new group, Tratnik has taken the same method to his season, racing at Volta ao Algarve and reuniting with Primož Roglič. Though final yr, he completed third total within the Portuguese race, this yr has been racing in assist of teammates and he has spent a lot of the five-day race supporting Roglič’s high place within the GC.
When he arrives in Gent, nevertheless, he’ll nearly actually shift right into a management function, sporting bib no. 1 with full assist from a group that features Roger Adrià, Jonas Koch, Oier Lazkano, Mick van Dijke, Tim van Dijke and Jordi Meeus, who received a stage in Algarve. (KF)
Puck Pieterse is likely one of the most fun riders within the peloton and leads a collection of mountain bikers and off-road specialists, together with Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Laura Stigger (SD Worx-Protime) of their profitable crossover to the Girls’s WorldTour.
Pieterse is the reigning elite ladies’s cross-country mountain bike world champion and final yr additionally received a stage in and took the most effective younger rider jersey in her debut Tour de France.
In 2024, Pieterse began her season at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, ending eighth, after which added seven extra Spring Classics to her racing calendar earlier than turning her consideration again to mountain biking forward of the Olympic Video games.
This yr might see her racing on the street much more with Fenix-Deceuninck, all the way in which to the top of April on the Ardennes Classics.
Contemporary off of a profitable cyclocross marketing campaign, Pieterse brings high type into Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. Its hilly terrain, cobbled sectors and notoriously chilly and moist climate are additionally well-suited to Pieterse’s fashion of racing, add to that her savvy technical and tactical ability, and he or she might safe one other win in Ninove. (KF)
As ever, the Opening Weekend will probably be lacking Mathieu van der Poel from its all-star lineup of cobbled Classics stars, as a substitute leaving management of Alpecin-Deceuninck within the more-than-capable fingers of Jasper Philipsen.
The Belgian has arguably been the highest sprinter on the planet since coming away from the 2022 Tour de France with two huge stage wins. Since then, he is added seven extra, a inexperienced jersey, plus Milan-San Remo to his large dash credentials.
Alongside racking up dash win after dash win; Philipsen has additionally been evolving right into a high Classics rider in his personal proper. The previous two spring campaigns have seen him win the Traditional Brugge-De Panne twice along with rounding out Alpecin-Deceuninck one-twos at Paris-Roubaix behind Van der Poel.
With Opening Weekend having beforehand marked his season debut on a number of events, he hasn’t but proven his full energy at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, however with every week of racing on the UAE Tour in his legs – and two podium locations as well – he could hit the bottom operating this weekend. (DO)