Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne comprise the “Opening Weekend” of Flemish Classics each year at the end of February. Omloop is the more prestigious of the two and usually more exciting, but this year, Kuurne was better, at least in my view.
Visma | Lease a Bike came into both races with a terrifyingly strong team including six potential winners with Wout van Aert their leader. They won every major Flemish Classic last year with the exception of the Ronde van Vlaanderen, and they are expected to do the same this year.
This edition of Omloop was an enthralling race with a decently strong and large breakaway gaining a large advantage after a while. But when a flurry of attacks flew from far out, the break would be mowed down in short order.
The group that emerged at the front contained Wout, Christophe Laporte, Matteo Jorgenson, Toms Skujins, Tom Pidcock, and Arnaud De Lie. With three Visma riders in the group, they were expected to roll attacks as the race neared its conclusion.
However, at one point, Skujins attacked up a steep berg and looked like the strongest rider in the group, dropping everybody. But the Visma-controlled group brought him back pretty quickly, opening the door for Laporte or Jorgenson to attack.
Jorgenson attacked and got a decent gap of around 20 seconds with around 15 kilometers remaining, but the three non Vismas rode cooperatively and caught him, only for the peloton, which had been timed incorrectly on the the feed, to bear down on the leading group.
The peloton would eventually make the junction, and out of the chaos emerged Nils Pollitt and Jan Tratnik, Visma’s final card to play. The two rode together with a small gap all the way to the finish. Pollitt pulled the whole last kilometer and Tratnik easily won the sprint, while the big German held off the peloton for second place. Wout won the sprint for third.
Kuurne has a more difficult hill zone than Omloop and more total elevation gain (1808 according to PCS), but because the finish is about 60 kilometers of flat, the race is often neutralized and comes back for a sprint or a late solo attack. But modern race dynamics see the strongest riders taking off from as far out as they feel like to crush their opposition. Kuurne was a prime example of this.
After a few hours raced at lightning speed with no breakaway getting any leash at all, Visma decided it was time to launch their leader, Wout van Aert, with nearly 90 kilometers remaining. More accurately, Wout launched himself and immediately only three other riders were in contention: Laurence Pithie, Tim Wellens, and my man Oier Lazkano. The quartet immediately began relaying hard and established a minute lead over the somewhat demoralized peloton in short order (the peloton was demoralized partially due to the presence of several of Wout’s teammates, including Jorgenson, Laporte, and Dylan van Baarle sabotaging the chase).
As an armchair quarterback, I felt that Wout should not pull through with this group because his teammates behind could eventually make the junction and give him a numerical advantage, and because he had not looked in top form the prior day. The reality is that the legs almost always decide races, Wout was on a flyer today, and he knew it.
Jorgenson would attack out of the peloton with another pre-race favorite, Matej Mohoric in tow to try to secure a top-five result. The duo built about a minute lead over the group, which in turn was hemorrhaging time to the leaders.
Back up front, on one of the steeper bergs I’m unfamiliar with, Wout put the hammer down to shred Pithie off the wheels and put the other two in serious difficulty, Lazkano even more so than Wellens. This was with 70k remaining.
We should consider ourselves extremely fortunate to be fans of the sport in this era of hyper-aggressive racing. The way the sport was going in the 20-teens, the racing appeared to be completely monitored by computers, leaving team leader sitting in the wheels of their domestiques until the final kilometers, and not to mention slower than it had been in decades (though that was partially the result of better doping controls, which is a good thing.) But the post-COVID era level of racing makes a mockery of the teens, and the tactical equations are far more exciting too.
At this moment, the race was probably over, but I was holding out hope that Lazkano would sneak away somehow late in the race. Wellens probably had a better chance, but when Wout is on a banger of a day, and none of the other galacticos are in the race, there is not much one can do to stop him.
The trio in front completed the hill zone and kept hammering away at it, gaining two more minutes on the peloton to make it a three-minute gap, which is just enormous in a race like this. Wout was imperious, Wellens looked like he would try an attack, and Lazkano was visibly suffering in the wheels and just happy to be there.
With five kilometers to the finish, Wellens attacked on the left side of a roundabout while Wout and Lazkano went right, negating the drafting effect as they bridged back up to his wheel. Wout snap-closed the gap in about three pedal strokes, while Lazkano, grimacing in agony, shoulders slumped low over the bars, took about 20 seconds to even get back up to a capitulating Wellens. At this point, the race was well and truly over.
Lazkano led out the sprint and Wellens tried late, but Wout destroyed them both in the final meters to add KBK to his rich palmares. Wellens got a nice second second-place for UAE on the weekend, and Lazkano became the first Spaniard to ever podium this race in its 76th edition.
Behind, the peloton cruelly mowed down Jorgenson and Mohoric in the final kilometers, and was rewarded (I say in jest) by having Laporte win the sprint for fourth to get Visma yet another top result.
The Opening Weekend was epic, even if the results were not unexpected.
Things I learned:
Visma is as strong as advertised with all of their guys flying. Pollitt looks back to his top form now at UAE; he’ll be invaluable for Pogacar at the Tour de France. Luke Lamperti is Quick Step’s leader! He was their top finisher at Kuurne in 7th.
Things I didn’t learn:
Whether Wout is good enough to win a Monument this year. He really dominated Kuurne, but RVV vs. MVDP is a different beast. Whether Lazkano can beat the big boys as I thought he could. That Pidcock can’t hack it (he finished 8th in Omloop), I knew this already. Whether De Lie is going to be competitive in the Monuments. That the racing is faster than ever (this has been obvious for a while) with both races setting all-time records for average speed.
I didn’t get this up until the Thursday following the Opening Weekend, so apologies for that. I’m going to attempt a writing spree today and get last week’s recap and a Strade Bianchi Preview up by tomorrow.
Puncheur 
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