After a successful cyclo-cross season punctuated by nine successes, Wout Van Aert hit hard on his return to the road this Saturday with a sumptuous solo victory in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, a race which marked the opening of the Classics season. in Belgium.
Considered one of the big favorites of the event, the rider from the Jumbo-Visma team performed an immense solo number to come and win in the streets of Ninove, after 204 kilometers of racing, ahead of the Italian Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Victorius), the winner of the last Paris-Roubaix, and the Belgian Greg Van Avermaet, the winner of Paris-Roubaix 2017 who underlined the superiority of the winner.
A double attack
With thirteen mountain passes and twelve cobbled sections on the programme, the race really settled down about thirty kilometers from the finish, at the passage of Berendries, with a first attack from Wout Van Aert, Sonny Colbrelli, Tom Pidcock, Tiejs Benoot, and Jhonatan Narvaez who took over the morning breakaway twenty miles from the goal.
Finally, everything changed thirteen kilometers from the line after an acceleration of the Belgian champion from the foot of Bosberg, the last difficulty of the day. Then leaving in a real individual time trial, Van Aert was not to be seen again until the finish to win his first Het Nieuwsblad. Florent Sénéchal, first Frenchman, was ranked 9th.
” I didn’t think I was already in such good shape. My big goals are in a few weeks (Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix). But winning so early in the season is already a nice bonussaid Van Aert. In the current circumstances, with what is happening in Ukraine, sport is really secondary. I would like to have a thought for all the people who suffer from this situation, hoping that common sense can prevail..