Five Canadians slated for Classics season opener Omloop Het Nieuwsblad

It’s the opening weekend of the Classics season in Belgium, with the men’s and women’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday and the men’s 1.Pro-rated Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne on Sunday. At posting time five Canadians were slated to race the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad races and six were scheduled for Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne.

You can watch both Omloop Het Nieuwsblad races at FloBikes.

OHN is the first one-day race of the men’s WorldTour and a women’s 1.Pro-rated race–the first race of the Women’s WorldTour is March 5’s Strade Bianche Donne. The men’s race has 15 cobbled sections, nine hills and four cobbled climbs, including the Muur-Kapelmuur before the Bosberg with 13 km to go. The women’s side faces seven cobbled sections, six hills and two cobbled hills, with the same Muur-Kapelmuur-Bosberg finish.

Israel-Premier Tech is fielding Hugo Houle and Guillaume Boivin for the Omloop, and Groupama-FDJ is sending Antoine Duchesne. These same three will contest KBK on Sunday. In the women’s race Magdeleine Vallieres of EF Education-TIBCO-SVB and Gabrielle Pilote Fortin of Cofidis will line up in Ghent.

Notre équipe pour le Het Nieuwsblad, samedi, première classique WorldTour de la saison. pic.twitter.com/YKufW6RaRD

— Équipe Cycliste Groupama-FDJ (@GroupamaFDJ) February 25, 2022

Joining Houle, Boivin and Duchesne at Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne will be Human Powered Health’s Pier-André Coté, Adam de Vos and Nick Zukowsky.

Last year Quick-Step-Alpha Vinyl’s Davide Ballerini and SD Worx’s Anna van der Breggen took Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. Ballerini is skipping the race to get ready for Tirreno-Adriatico starting March 7 while van der Breggen has retired. Mads Pederson raised the 2021 Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne trophy; he’s not racing until Paris-Nice beginning on March 6.