The Belgian Cobbled Classics season is upon us.
It goes like this every year, it seems: January and early February, those arctic, gloomy weeks commencing each year, drag out for an eternity, then all of a sudden, spring comes in rapid order. And with it, some of the best bike racing on the calendar. That’s not to say it’s truly spring where I live, but one can pretend.
The 79th Omloop takes place tomorrow, February 24 from Ghent to Ninove. According to ProCyclingStats.com, the race is 202 kilometers with 1607 meters of elevation gain packed into the back half. I will be honest, this is one of the Belgian World Tour Classics I know the least about, despite its status as perhaps the fourth-most prestigious. But let’s jump into a brief preview.
Course: It is not nearly as hard or as long as the Ronde van Vlaanderen. In light of that, the potential for a large group coming to the line together is always there. There are a dozen Bergs (literally hill in English), some cobbled, some tarmaced. None are particularly hard in their own right, but taken all together the brutality of the cornering, potential for bad weather, general race speed, and strength of riders, this is a race for hard men.
Competitors: You cannot look past Visma | Lease a Bike with six riders in their squad who all have designs on individual victory: Wout van Aert, Dylan van Baarle, Tiesj Benoot, Jan Tratnik, Matteo Jorgenson, and Christophe Laporte (with Edoardo Affini as the sacrificial rouleur). Other top contenders include Arnaud De Lie, Oier Lazkano, Jasper Philipsen, Matej Mohoric, Tim Wellens, and Biniam Girmay.
Race Dynamics: Visma will probably be offensive and open the race from a long way out. They will want to isolate other top riders so they can use a numerical advantage. The team with the most to gain from a sprint is Alpecin – Deceuninck, with Philipsen the fastest in the field. They will try to stitch the race back together when Visma launches it on one of the harder Bergs. I don’t see them succeeding with their team utterly overwhelmed by the might of the Killer Bees. The main question is whether Philipsen, De Lie, and the rest can follow the endless attacks that Visma will throw at them. I think individually, many of them could ride mano y mano with most of the guys on Visma. But with the Dutch Masters operating as a cohesive unit, they will not be defeated here.
Prediction: 1). Christophe Laporte 2). Wout van Aert 3). Arnaud De Lie
Laporte and WVA ride away from the field and Visma’s remaining arsenal sabotages the chase. Wout gifts another Classic to the Frenchman and De Lie wins a heroic sprint for the final spot on the podium. Tratnik and Jorgenson both finish in the top ten. My man Lazkano gets a solid result in the top ten as well despite his attempts to go into the early breakaway getting foiled.
I’ll probably be spectacularly wrong, but let the Flemish season commence!
Puncheur 
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