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Van Avermaet and Brand victorious in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad

Two in a row for Van Avermaet

Saturday marked the season’s opening Flanders Classic, with Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium/BMC) winning the first WorldTour edition of the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Lucinda Brand becoming the fifth Dutch woman to win the women’s edition in its ninth running. It was two in a row for the Belgian, with Peter Sagan finishing just behind him again.

The men had 198-km to ride with 13 hellingen along with 10 sections of cobbles. There were neither hellingen nor cobbles for the first 51-km. The women faced eight hellingen and six cobbled sections spread over 129-km in their UCI 1.1-rated contest. The last 55-km or so of both races were the same.


In the women’s edition, one of the Druyts sister, Demmy (The Netherlands/Sport Vlaanderen-Etixx), lit out in a solo effort early on. She took as much as 3:30, but with 79-km to go, her gap was down to 1:30. Finally on the Kluisberg climb she submitted, the pack in disarray under the pressure.

A high powered duo of Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy/Wiggle5) and Ellen van Dijk (The Netherlands/Sunweb) scampered away on the Paterberg.


With 50-km to go, the Italian-Dutch alliance held a 1:07 gap on the reduced peloton. With the hills behind the race, four riders joined the leading duo on the final cobbled section, the 2.5-km long Lange Munte. Now last year’s runner-up Chantal Blaak (The Netherlands/Boels-Dolmans) and van Dijk’s teammate Brand were in the mix.

Brand tried again and again to shake the others loose and finally succeeded inside of 10-km to go. At the flag Brand was 10-seconds clear and no one was going to stop her for taking a famous victory. It was an all-Dutch podium.

Karol-Ann Canuel was the top Canadian out of four, in 36th place in a group 2:37 back.

There were no attacks in the hill-less, uncobbled part of the men’s race, but a move stole away on the first cobbles just after Tom Boonen and several others were held up in a crash. At first only a duo was clear, but then a chase group of four bridged over.

With Sky driving the bunch over the Muur, and the race at its midway point, Canadian Guillaume Boivin of Israel Cycling Academy was working on a bridging move of his own, but was five minutes back, the peloton 8:00 in arrears.


Boivin knocked off his effort just before the combination of Haaghoek cobbles and crosswinds caused the peloton to crack into pieces. With 62-km to go there was a huge crash on the Donderij cobbles–again Boonen was delayed.


At the foot of the fifth-from-last hellingen, the Taaienberg/Boonen Hill (800-metres at 7.2%), the sextet held a 3:04 lead. Sixty kilometres remained. In the streamlined peloton, Trek-Segefredo, working for Belgian Edward Theuns, upped the pace to make sure Boonen and Alexander Kristoff (Norway/Katusha) couldn’t get back on even terms.

Van Avermaet, Sagan (Slovakia/Bora-Hansgrohe), Luke Rowe (Great Britain/Sky), 2012 winner Sep Vanmarcke (Belgium/Cannondale), and Jasper Stuyven (Belgium/Trek-Segafredo) were the favourites who fired the first shots on the Taaienberg. All the action dragged the breakaway closer.

By the time the Van Avermaet-Sagan group was on the Eikenberg, it was 15-riders strong. After the Eikenberg only Van Avermaet, Sagan and Vanmarcke remained, but they found reinforcements from the remnants of an unsuccessful bridging move. Sagan did most of the work to run down the fugitives up front.


Sky began to mount a serious chase in the group behind van Avermaet-Sagan, which latched onto the breakaway with 43-km to go. On the final, 7% climb, the Molenberg, Vanmarcke made the acceleration but Van Avermaet and Sagan matched it. After the Paddestraat cobbles, with two sections and 23-km to go, a further decanting made it Van Avermaet, Sagan and Vanmarcke, with Quick Step in a desperate chase behind. Boonen had climbed off the bike by then.

Could the trio hold off the Quick-Step/Trek-Segafredo chase, only 30-seconds behind, for 23-km?


The work Sagan had done on the earlier climbs began to show and he asked the Belgians for help. Cobbles and hills behind them, it was time for the leaders to think about the sprint in Gent. Vanmarcke annoyed his partners by missing a turn.

Shoes were tightened, legs shaken. Sagan led under the red kite and then engaged in some track strategy. Sagan went wide into the last corner, forcing Vanmarcke to interrupt the rhythm of his final burst. Van Avermaet, once cycling’s Nearly Man, is one of its great one-day racers, and he took the sprint, with Sagan second-best again.


Hugo Houle was top Canadian at 76th. Half of the six Canadians who started finished the race.

Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne, a similar race with the same cast of characters but without the WorldTour status, rolls Sunday.


2017 Women’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad

1) Lucinda Brand (The Netherlands/Sunweb) 3:19:58
2) Chantal Blaak (The Netherlands/Boels-Dolmans) +0:15
3) Anna van Vleuten (The Netherlands/Orica-Scott) s.t.
36) Karol-Ann Canuel (Canada/Boels-Dolmans) +2:37
39) Leah Kirchmann (Canada/Sunweb) +2:45
84) Alison Jackson (Canada/Bepink-Cogeas) +14:13
103) Joëlle Numainville (Canada/Cylance) s.t.

2017 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
1) Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium/BMC) 4:48:04
2) Peter Sagan (Slovakia/Bora-Hansgrohe) s.t.
3) Sep Vanmarcke (Belgium/Cannondale) s.t.
76) Hugo Houle (Canada/AG2R) +7:49
112) Svein Tuft (Canada/Orica-Scott) +11:37
113) Guillaume Boivin (Canada/Israel Cycling Academy) s.t.