Opening Weekend has arrived, and the Spring Classics are finally upon us as one of the most exciting periods of racing on the professional cycling calendar kicks off.
Racing this year has happened under cloudless skies or on dry Spanish roads, but there’s something about heading back to Northern Europe for the start of the Spring Classics, which surely stirs the soul of even the most stoic cycling fans.
This year, I’ve created one big gallery from both of the Opening Weekend races, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, which takes place first on Saturday, and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, which takes place the following day. This year, grey skies and light rain made it truly feel like Classics weather for Omloop, and it brightened up a touch for Kuurne.
I toured the pits on both days, looking for new and interesting tech. Mens Omloop winner Mathieu van der Poel was riding at the very least an updated Canyon Aeroad, most teams were running 30mm tyres, and some were actually sealing their tyre sidewalls, which I haven’t seen before. Meanwhile, Cofidis had some very interesting looking 3D-printed derailleur hangers for their Campagnolo Super Record equipment.
We start at Omloop, in the vast hangar on the side of the velodrome in Ghent. This is Arnauld De Lie’s Orbea Orca Aero; he may have drawn the short straw here; my hunch is that he started with this camera and removed it as he progressed into the race. No pro would want this on their bars.
Lotto–Intermarché are very keen on stem-mounted fuelling notes. I didn’t see many other teams with nutrition plans like this. Fuelling is clearly important to the team during the races.
The aero Orbea Orca has a deep, aggressive head tube, spot the healthy spacer stack for a pro bike, this is a key theme from Opening Weekend.
The team also had some neat aero 3d printed computer mounts this year. More teams are doing this now; last…
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