Just days after confirming she would skip the opening weekend, defending champion Lotte Claes has been unexpectedly re-added to the Fenix-Premier Tech roster for Saturday’s race.
That makes a lotte cl-. A lotte sense? A lotte claense? Well, anyway. We’re glad she’s back in.
The original plan was for Claes to bypass the cobbles and focus on the Ardennes Classics, which better suit her as an explosive climber. Claes had even given interviews expressing her acceptance of the decision, admitting, “In a way, I do find it a shame… I probably will never get the chance to start with race number one again,” while maintaining she fully supported the team’s strategy.
But that experience is available to her after all. On Tuesday evening, Fenix-Premier Tech management made a u-turn and decided it “made sense to include her.” The 32-year-old Belgian, who took a shock victory in 2025 ahead of Aurela Nerlo and Demi Vollering, will now have the honor of pinning on the number 1 bib in mild-shithole Ninove. Only ‘mild’, don’t get mad. We spent enough time there that we’re not obliged to romanticize it.
Claes joins a squad that is also expected to feature Puck Pieterse and Charlotte Kool, giving the team multiple cards to play as the classics season kicks off. We don’t want to express any bias, but being allowed to reuse our ‘Kool and the Gang’ headline from a few years ago would be nice.