Oh, The Cycling Season Started
Between the outbreak of World War III, Liverpool winning another cup final, and a blizzard, you’d be forgiven for missing the start of the cycling season. Substitute your own nonsense for numbers two and three on that list.
Yes, the start. Omloop and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne are when the season starts, and fuck anyone who tells you that the UAE Tour or Qatar or whatever actually matters.
Yet, for the first time in two decades, we missed both races. Well, fuck. These are unprecedented times. Hey, add a pandemic as number four on our list of excuses.
Omloop
Guess who won? Hey look at the title of this video!
It’s barely a spoiler when Wout wins anyway. I was racing Hot Wheels with my two year old and Wout van Aert walked in and somehow won. Hmm, a two year old… Put that as number five on the excuses spreadsheet.
Results
| 1 | Wout Van Aert (Bel) Jumbo-Visma | 4:50:46 |
| 2 | Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bahrain Victorious | 0:00:22 |
| 3 | Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) AG2R Citroen Team | |
| 4 | Oliver Naesen (Bel) AG2R Citroen Team | |
| 5 | Victor Campenaerts (Bel) Lotto Soudal |
Report
Under sunny weather conditions, seven riders formed the day’s breakaway. After a quiet start Team Jumbo-Visma, led by Edoardo Affini, Pascal Eenkhoorn and Tosh Van der Sande, took control of the race. The yellow-black formation also ensured that leader Van Aert was in a good position to start the decisive cobbled sections and hills. Attacks by Mike Teunissen, Nathan Van Hooydonck and Tiesj Benoot allowed the Belgian champion to wait and see.
Benoot even went on a solo attack on the road to the Muur of Geraardsbergen, but he was caught just after the top. On the Bosberg, Van Aert gave everything he had and no rider could keep up with him. A fifteen-kilometre solo resulted in the victory, which meant Team Jumbo Visma’s second victory of the road season.
“Tiesj and I were attacking nicely after the Berendries”, the happy winner said. “I know it’s always quiet before the Bosberg, so I wanted to take an advantage there. At the top, I still had a nice gap, so I decided to go full speed. I gave everything and fortunately, that tactic worked. The wind was a disadvantage, so maybe that’s why it stayed closed for a long time. My teammates deserve big compliments because we controlled the race at all times. And of course, I am delighted to finish first.”
Van Aert will now continue preparing for the upcoming races. “I’ve had a good preparation, but I didn’t expect it to go so well right away. It’s great that I won this race. I could still do better in terms of race intensity because you need that for classics like the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. I want to take that step in Paris-Nice, where we will be at the start again with a strong team.”
Women’s Race
Who the fuck do you think won? Van Vleuten.
K-B-K
Ah, the sprinter’s classic. Wait, the. Um. Well, sprinters usually win. And they did again this year.
Results
| 1 | Fabio Jakobsen (Ned) Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team | 4:32:13 |
| 2 | Caleb Ewan (Aus) Lotto Soudal | |
| 3 | Hugo Hofstetter (Fra) Arkea-Samsic | |
| 4 | Daniel McLay (GBr) Arkea-Samsic |
Report
Fabio Jakobsen made sure that Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl took a win on the Opening Weekend for the fourth consecutive year with an out-of-this-world sprint in what goes down as one of the most thrilling finishes in the event’s history. It was the 25-year-old’s fifth success of the 2022 season, adding to the pair of stages he won at both the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and Volta ao Algarve earlier this month.
The second race of the Opening Weekend was expected to end in a bunch sprint, but it was far from straightforward, despite the last hill on the course coming with more than 50 kilometers to go. The main reason for that was several teams deciding to race aggressively in an attempt to put the sprinters to the limit and split the bunch on the climbs that came in quick succession in the last 80 kilometers. Our team remained attentive at all times, and for good measure posted 2020 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne winner Kasper Asgreen in a move that took shape on the Côte du Trieu.
That forced a response from the teams that missed the train, and it was only with 16 kilometers remaining, on the outskirts of Kuurne, that most of the men at the front, including Asgreen, were brought back. Three riders counterattacked just before their companions were clawed back and made the bunch work hard in order to reduce the buffer. Sensing the danger, Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl sent Kasper, Yves Lampaert and Florian Sénéchal to the head of the peloton, and they did the bulk of the work, pushing the pedal to the metal and narrowing down the gap to a mere three seconds going into the last corner of the race.
Showing huge confidence in his legs after nearly 200 kilometers and a dozen or so bergs, Jakobsen ignited the sprint with 300 meters to go using the trio’s slipstream, coming around and past them 150 meters from the line, and dashing to take the Wolfpack’s ninth Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne – an all-time record for a team at the Belgian race.
“The entire race was intense, and especially the last hour was fast and furious. But I was confident in my sprint and that’s why I launched at 300 meters to go and dove into their slipstream. Then it was all the way to the line. Winning is never easy, but we always aim for it and give our best in order to achieve the victory at the end of the day. Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne is a race that every sprinter wants to have in the palmares and I am happy I did it today together with the Wolfpack.”
But not only the win was on Fabio’s mind, who expressed solidarity with the people in Ukraine in his post-race speech: “My mind is also in Eastern Europe, with everyone in Ukraine. There’s a war going on there. In Belgium and the Netherlands we are free to do what we want, go out, watch the race, and just enjoy riding our bikes, which puts into perspective. But my mind and my heart are with the people there. I pray for them and hope they will get through this.”