Following a six-week introduction to the 2023 season held within the sunshine of Australia, the Center East, South America, and southern Europe, the grit and dirt of the Belgian racing season started with a bang at Opening Weekend.
The lads’s and girls’s pelotons hit the cobbles and hills of Flanders laborious at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, plus the girls’s Omloop and Omloop van het Hageland, heralding the beginning of spring Classics season and laying down markers forward of the approaching weeks of racing in Belgium and northern France.
As ever, there’s a lot to speak about after 4 action-filled races packed into two days. We noticed the domination of SD Worx and Jumbo-Visma, the frustration of Soudal-QuickStep, the rise of Arnaud De Lie, and as many tech improvements as ever.
Whereas the outcomes – each good and dangerous – all the time include the caveat of the largest races mendacity within the weeks forward, the races of Opening Weekend are nonetheless main meets in their very own proper and kick off the narratives that may develop by to the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.
Right here, Daniel Ostanek, our man on the chilly wind-swept floor in Belgium provides us his most important takeaways from the weekend’s racing.
Jumbo-Visma: the brand new QuickStep?
Final yr, we wrote that the Dutch squad had arrived as a number one Classics drive after Wout van Aert’s solo Omloop Het Nieuwsblad win whereas his teammates had been robust and on the entrance foot throughout each days.
If that they had already arrived as a drive, then what occurred this time round amounted to a present of whole domination. Two races, two wins, after which a second and third place to go along with it.
Few anticipated Jumbo-Visma to flip up and management Omloop Het Nieuwsblad as they did, first attacking with 105km left to run and later forcing what turned out to be the successful cut up on the Molenberg.
Race winner Dylan van Baarle plus Christophe Laporte, Tiesj Benoot, Jan Tratnik, and Nathan Van Hooydonck had been the important thing males in yellow on Saturday and at Kuurne it was the identical once more, even when the rostrum duo had been totally different.
Once more, the attacking began early at 84km from the road, and once more a number of Jumbo males made the successful cut up, with Benoot and Van Hooydonck placing on a racing masterclass within the remaining 5km to return out on prime from the main group of 5.
It is true that Opening Weekend is a great distance from the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, each timing-wise and by way of profile. However Jumbo-Visma did all this with out their Classics workforce chief Wout van Aert having proven up but.
QuickStep are often seemed upon because the Opening Weekend benchmark setters, the Belgian squad racing by Classics season after Classics season with a number of leaders packed into their squad. However whereas they floundered, Jumbo took the mantle, with a number of riders rising as potential race winners even within the absence of their star.
Even QuickStep boss Patrick Lefevere needed to admit, “Now we have to conclude that they’re now the workforce we had been a number of years in the past.”
SD Worx: The identical outdated SD Worx
The Dutch squad confirmed up at Opening Weekend with, on paper, the strongest squad within the peloton with the world’s prime sprinter Lorena Wiebes lining up alongside Dutch and Belgian superstars Demi Vollering and Lotte Kopecky.
An all-star begin checklist on paper is not a assure of success on the end line, although, however few would’ve doubted that SD Worx would stroll away with at the very least one win throughout Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Omloop van het Hageland.
Ultimately, they got here away from the primary Belgian races of the yr with two extra wins within the bag, courtesy of Kopecky and Wiebes, and in the long run, it wasn’t a shock from the workforce ranked as finest on the planet final season.
On Saturday, Kopecky put in a dominant efficiency within the remaining, bridging throughout to solo attacker Arlenis Sierra on the Muur van Geraardsbergen earlier than leaving the Movistar rider behind on the Bosberg after which soloing dwelling as Wiebes made it a one-two 11 seconds later.
The subsequent day it got here all the way down to a bunch dash, with SD Worx on the entrance and keeping off assaults late on. Wiebes, who racked up an absurd 23 wins final yr, was the plain candidate for the win and duly sped to her second for her new workforce.
“One and two in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad was already very particular,” she mentioned later. “Additionally, in Omloop van het Hageland we shot the principle bullet. As a workforce, we could be pleased with this. We will construct on this.”
Two huge Opening Weekend victories look to be simply the beginning for SD Worx in 2023.
Tech innovation solely goes to this point
As soon as upon a time, the cobbled Classics introduced with them a sea of tech hacks and improvements.
Within the fashionable period of bikes stronger, lighter and extra aero than earlier than, in addition to carbon wheels that may tackle all terrains comfortably, there’s much less of curiosity to pick compared to races 20 years in the past, although new concepts nonetheless emerge.
That remained the case at Opening Weekend, too. Peter Sagan raced with a Shimano GRX gravel derailleur to assist him on the tough cobbled terrain, whereas Taco van der Hoorn was aero-first with some specially-developed Nalini legwarmers, and naturally, Victor Campenaerts confirmed up with a 62-tooth 1x chainring, a two-speed rear hub from Labeled, and 32mm tyres.
In idea, particulars like these all add up and avoid wasting watts, however within the races themselves, the legs, the techniques, and the luck all play their half.
Campenaerts would cross the road in 62nd at Omloop, whereas Sagan’s finest inserting was thirty third at Kuurne. Van der Hoorn did nearly rating a podium from the breakaway on Sunday, grabbing fourth from the lead group.
How a lot of the Dutchman’s career-best inserting was all the way down to his legwarmer selection will stay a thriller, although it seemingly has extra to do with what was beneath them.
Ultimately, Jumbo-Visma dominated each males’s races aboard Cervelo’s aero S5 bikes, kitted out with pretty customary Classics componentry – Van Baarle’s Omloop win noticed him use 28mm tyres and a 52-tooth chainring – and few experimental improvements in sight.
Soudal-QuickStep a far cry from their traditional selves
“I did not come again from Rwanda for this,” was workforce boss Patrick Lefevere’s evaluation of a weekend which noticed his workforce race to a disappointing whole of sixth and ninth locations throughout the 2 races.
Soudal-QuickStep weren’t solely out-fought and out-thought by Jumbo-Visma, however the Belgian powerhouses did not even go toe-to-toe with their rivals within the first place, as a substitute racing on the again foot and away from the entrance.
The workforce had no riders within the successful strikes at Omloop or Kuurne and appeared to not have the collective power to affect the races as they’ve so typically previously, racking up 4 and 9 wins at every since their formation in 2003.
Final yr, that they had endured a disappointing opener at Omloop earlier than sprinter Fabio Jakobsen turned up and Lefevere gave the squad a talking-to, ensuing within the Dutch sprinter salvaging the weekend with a win in Kuurne.
That will’ve been the thought as soon as once more on Sunday, however as soon as once more it was Jumbo who took over after which Belgian rivals Lotto-Dstny who commanded the chase behind.
There have been mitigating circumstances resembling a number of crashes and Kasper Asgreen’s sickness, which took him out of each races, however, as Lefevere mentioned, the workforce simply did not race as they often do.
“I’ve the impression that we wish to race defensively, that we do not wish to take the bull by the horns. We’re not used to that,” he mentioned after Kuurne.
Nonetheless, although, it is not all doom and gloom. On the UAE Tour, Remco Evenepoel recorded their twelfth win of the season, In the meantime, the meat of cobbled Classics season, which is able to see Julian Alaphilippe hyperlink up with the riders right here, is way away sufficient that there is loads of time to get issues proper and add extra Classics wins to the workforce’s prolonged palmarès.
Arnaud De Lie’s relentless rise
Belgian sprinter Arnaud De Lie burst onto the scene final yr, his first within the professional peloton, as he racked up 9 victories amid Lotto-Dstny‘s WorldTour relegation battle.
His first two, on the Problem Mallorca and GP Monseré, got here even earlier than his twentieth birthday in March, and this yr, he already has three wins earlier than his twenty first. A fourth win of the season wasn’t to be this weekend, however the teenager nonetheless demonstrated his fast development.
At Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne a yr in the past he was, in the phrases of his directeur sportif Nikolas Maes, “dropping someplace within the open fields utterly out of the peloton”, whereas on Sunday he was seventh, second-best of the remaining behind the successful break.
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad had seen him ship on pre-race suggestions of competition, grabbing second place from the bunch dash behind solo winner Van Baarle.
It was all of the extra spectacular given a crash 50km out, a subsequent rush again to the entrance, after which a transfer – within the huge ring – up the Muur to kind an elite chase group behind the winner, earlier than sprinting to second simply because the peloton made the catch within the dying metres.
Regardless of the expertise, outcomes, and hype, Lotto will proceed with a cautious and selective programme for his or her latest star, who accomplished solely his sixth WorldTour race day at Omloop.
“For example that after we took De Lie within the workforce final yr, we knew he was able to doing issues, but when we knew his rising curve can be this steep, then no, we did not count on this,” Maes instructed Cyclingnews after Kuurne, noting {that a} Paris-Roubaix debut is developing in April.
De Lie was already the most popular new dash expertise within the peloton coming into 2023 – now we are able to stay up for him shining on the cobbles, too.
The evergreen Marta Bastianelli
Italian veteran Marta Bastianelli having fun with her Opening Weekend is hardly a brand new revelation. The UAE Staff ADQ chief has, in spite of everything, received Omloop van het Hageland 3 times earlier than and has two Omloop Het Nieuwsblad podiums to her identify.
This time round she added a 3rd and took a second place at Sunday’s race, the 35-year-old displaying no indicators of slowing down as she kicks off her remaining season within the professional peloton.
Bastianelli’s outcome at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad got here together with her squad wanting among the many strongest of the day, with 5 girls within the lead group earlier than Kopecky stole away, heading up the chase afterwards.
She ended up second-best behind Lorena Wiebes from the group of 27 behind the Belgian winner, a great outcome given an sickness within the lead-up to the race.
“After the climb and the final cobbled part, we managed to hold on to the principle group,” Bastianelli mentioned of the race. “Personally, I do not understand how I did it – my legs had been fantastic, however I used to be struggling to breathe as a result of I have been a bit sick for a few days.
“Then, within the dash, we knew it was going to be robust in opposition to Wiebes, however the women did a great job, and I spent the final of my power to make the dash and get a podium end.”
One other podium adopted on Sunday, on the race she received a yr in the past, with Wiebes once more beating her within the dash. Crashes and dangerous luck for her teammates meant it was simply Bastianelli within the lead group this time, which means wheel-surfing was to ensure that the ultimate dash.
At her remaining Opening Weekend, Bastianelli won’t have walked away with a victory, however she will nonetheless maintain her head excessive as the very best of the remaining away from the SD Worx machine. Larger targets lie forward, together with her final spring season bringing an opportunity so as to add to earlier main Classics wins on the Tour of Flanders, Gent-Wevelgem, and Brabantse Piji.
Ineos Grenadiers quieter than 2022
The Ineos Grenadiers youth motion burst onto the Classics scene final season, kicking off the marketing campaign with a younger squad and energetic and bold racing at Opening Weekend on the best way to huge wins at Amstel Gold Race, Brabantse Pijl, and Paris-Roubaix.
Neo-pros Ben Turner and Magnus Sheffield raced alongside Tom Pidcock, Ethan Hayter, and Jhonatan Narváez, with 19-year-old Sheffield happening to attain a memorable late solo win at Brabantse Pijl in mid-April.
This yr’s Opening Weekend noticed a extra subdued Ineos efficiency. Turner crashed out early at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, fracturing his elbow within the course of, whereas Hayter was out injured and Narváez wasn’t racing, leaving Pidcock and Sheffield to steer the cost alongside Michał Kwiatkowski.
Pidcock, who is ready to steer the British squad by the spring marketing campaign, got here away with a fifth place from the chase group behind Omloop winner and former teammate Van Baarle, however few eyes had been on him or his workforce on Saturday. At Kuurne, a lowered five-man squad with out Pidcock had a quiet day trip, with Sheffield’s twenty fourth place the highest Ineos outcome.
All in all, it was a far cry from the 2022 Opening Weekend, which heralded the beginning of the aggressive racing that will carry these huge wins later within the spring. It was a weekend dominated by Jumbo-Visma, one thing which affected Ineos’ capacity to make strikes, at the very least at Omloop.
“I feel it was actually tough to truly make a distinction in the long run,” Pidcock mentioned after the race. “I imply, okay, I feel I might have attacked, however for certain, a Jumbo man would have adopted me. After which what am I going to do, let him sit on me?”
Teammate Connor Swift instructed Cyclingnews, in the meantime, that he, Pidcock and the workforce had been “a little bit outnumbered” by the Dutch squad’s power in depth.
Fifth place, then, wasn’t a nasty outcome within the face of Jumbo-Visma, however Ineos Grenadiers actually did not have the weekend they might’ve aspired to.
Van Vleuten’s best-laid plans come undone
Movistar can stroll away from Omloop Het Nieuwsblad having completed little or no unsuitable in the course of the course of the three-and-a-half hours of motion, although they might find yourself with solely Emma Norsgaard‘s fourth place to point out for his or her efforts.
It is nothing to smell at, after all, but it surely might have been far more. The Dane lined up at first alongside new arrivals Liane Lippert and Floortje Mackaij in addition to Aude Biannic and Arlenis Sierra and the world champion Annemiek van Vleuten – a strong squad that did not shock in how they took on the race.
The Spanish squad had been on the entrance foot when a cut up on the Haaghoek cobbles noticed all however Sierra make the entrance group of 17, with Biannic shifting clear in an assault, and, when all of it got here again collectively, Sierra leaping away.
The Cuban’s transfer seemed a promising one earlier than Lotte Kopecky intervened on the Muur earlier than using away on the Bosberg – absolutely the stage for Van Vleuten to do her factor.
Solely the Dutchwoman had fallen sufferer to a puncture simply earlier than the Muur, maybe probably the most inopportune time in your complete race. It had all gone completely for Movistar till it did not.
“I had a flat tyre two kilometres earlier than the Muur, in order that was the worst attainable second. I hit a pothole, and I needed to change bikes, that was the quickest possibility, however nonetheless not fast sufficient,” Van Vleuten mirrored later.
“That is the shit factor. I needed to check my legs on the Muur, and I couldn’t. Solely within the chase, that’s totally different from within the entrance.”
