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At Belgium’s Opening Weekend, all eyes are often trained on the home giants, Soudal-QuickStep, but in recent years it has been Dutch squad Jumbo-Visma who have grasped the mantle as top team at the opening instalment at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.
Last year, it was Wout van Aert who mastered the race, soloing home 13km from the line to take the team’s first win at the race since 2011. The Belgian star wasn’t on the start line in Gent this year, but that didn’t stop the team from dominating the action throughout the afternoon and walking away with another win.
Like Van Aert last year, Omloop was Dylan van Baarle‘s seasonal debut – as well as being his first race in Jumbo-Visma colours – but the Dutchman replicated and even exceeded his new teammate’s feat, attacking with 36km remaining and then going solo from 16.5km out.
The win came after his team had subjected the remainder of the peloton to splits, attacks, and a general controlling presence on the front, beginning with a move to split the peloton with 105km still left to run. It was all part of the plan, team directeur sportif Arthur Van Dongen said later.
“We had a plan up front here. We always start with a plan, but this was also the plan we executed, really good, really strong,” Van Dongen told Cyclingnews after the finish. “We have really good riders, and they are well prepared and this is the outcome.
“The plan was to go from the cobbles at Lange Munte to make the race hard. We have strong sprinters, and we like that the other teams have to chase. We could also send some riders up front so that those in the bunch can profit from that. That was exactly the plan that we executed.”
At that point, Jumbo had placed five men – Van Baarle plus Tiesj Benoot, Jan Tratnik, Tim van Dijke, Christophe Laporte, and Nathan Van Hooydonck – into a lead group of just 14. It wouldn’t be the day’s winning break, but it showed the team’s intent, as well as their strength.
Tratnik and Van Hooydonck would quickly form a smaller lead group, though with 65km to go things had all come back together.
At the cobbled climb of Molenberg, 41km out, it was time to try again, with Laporte and Van Baarle leading a move off the front, which would swiftly morph into Van Baarle’s winning attack.
He would prove strongest from a group of four including Jonathan Milan (Bahrain Victorious), Florian Vermeersch (Lotto-Dstny), and Arkéa-Samsic’s breakaway survivor Mathis Le Berre.
Van Baarle wore them down one by one until he was alone…
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