Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Saturday 27th Feb - USE SPOILERS

TheBlaaMan

Finally, after the phoney war of the good weather, great roads, middle eastern delights, we have the start of the real racing season upon us. Omloop !

I love this race, because it is so different from the last 10 months of racing. Often a really well contested event, last years finale with Stannard V's the 3 Etixx amigos was one of the highlights of the year. It looks as if Stannard wont defend the title (and go for 3-in-a-row), being listed only as a reserve on the Sky roster for the race, presumably having plans for later races {so too is Sam Bennett a reserve on the Bora Argon team and there is no other Irish participant so no-one to follow in Shay Elliots' illustrious wheels}. The official website is here http://www.omloophetnieuwsblad.be/en and there are plenty of reviews to read on the usual sites. I hope the TV coverage is live before they go up the KapelMuur in Geraardsberg (with 115km to go)

Sagan will contest this (and KBK the following day) and there are a flurry of Belgians who will fancy their chances (I'd love to see Greg Van Avermaet win...). Quite a few teams have more than one capable winner in their ranks so it will be hard to pick a winner - possibly someone from well left of the field.

Really looking forward to this...

Eurosport has lots of references to KBK this week, (presumably re-runs) but I'd suspect they will cover Omloop Het Nieuwsblad live on Saturday
EDIT: not so, apparently


Race starts at 10:37am
Finish at around 3:39pm
Live video available from 1:15pm
All Irish time (rather than local)

FWIW, the calendar for the rest of the single day Spring races are as follows:

Start Event Country
27.02 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad Elite Belgium
28.02 Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne Belgium
5.03 Strade Bianche Italy
19.03 Milan – San Remo Italy
25.03 E3 Harelbeke Belgium
27.03 Ghent – Wevelgem Belgium
3.04 Tour of Flanders Belgium
10.04 Paris – Roubaix France
17.04 Amstel Gold Race Netherlands
20.04 La Flèche Wallonne Belgium
24.04 Liège – Bastogne – Liège Belgium

koutoubia

I love this time of year.
Let the real racing begin!

dragratchet

love classics season. time to reactivate the eurosport a/c

sy

Thanks The Blaamann..best part of the season for sure. 8 weeks of classics and semi classics. Van Avermaet for me if he can get away from Kristoff. Luke Rowe should do well but Sky have no Stannard and Etixx will make sure Terpstra will be a protected man..big favourite with the Belgians. Not sure how Sagan is going. Lots of potential winners. Strade Bianche should be a cracker next week as Spartacus returns ...bring it on

Pudsy33

Sorry the be the bearer of bad news but I tweeted Rob hatch and eurosport won't be covering OHN. Might be on that new bike channel.


Kuurne Brussels Kuurne is live Sunday I think.

lennymc

massive spoiler

Taxuser1

omloop is never released outside Belgium as far as I know. The newspaper and Sporza have an agreement for live pictures solely and its not syndicated.

Plenty of good Flemish only streams, I credit all my understanding of the Dutch language from this race!

TheBlaaMan

Pudsy33 wrote: »

Sorry the be the bearer of bad news but I tweeted Rob hatch and eurosport won't be covering OHN. Might be on that new bike channel.

That's bad news.
Sporza it is so...It will be live on their own web channel from 12.30 http://sporza.be/cm/sporza/matchcenter/mc_livestream no doubt with a lead-in in the studio before live broadcast pictures are available. Time to brush up on your Flemish.....

Taxuser1

weather is expected to be ok - sun shining, however with a north easterly cross wind, going across Lange Munte could be decisive. it's gonna be a windy day in East Flanders

looking forward to seeing the damage Tiesj Benoot can do. If he can get some help from Roelands and Debuscherre he might have a savage Spring.

Probably will play out among the old hands and hard to look past GVA battling Etixx with Boonen and Terpstra backed up by first time out Panzerwagen Tony Martin who might do some serious damage. No word on who the final Etixx rider will be as Lampaert pulled out yesterday.

Daniel Oss looks in serious shape too in support of GVA

RobFowl

RobFowl edges Lenny in an elbows out sprint after shelling Koutobia in the run in ...

nilhg

Pudsy33 wrote: »

Sorry the be the bearer of bad news but I tweeted Rob hatch and eurosport won't be covering OHN. Might be on that new bike channel.


Kuurne Brussels Kuurne is live Sunday I think.

Their twitter feed is saying it is,

https://twitter.com/BIKEchannelUK

Chips Lovell

One of my favourite races. Really looking forward to it. Some heavy hitters on the start list such as Sagan, Boonen, Terpstra, Van Avermaet and Kristoff.

LCD

What happens if Sagan & Van Avermaert get up the road, how can they both finish second??

MPFGLB

I am going for Sagan for this one ...Tinkoff team are on fire at moment , Both Benatti & Gatto showing great form

Interested to see how Gianni Moscon goes for SKY..Also interested in how Demare goes for FDJ

MPFGLB

But maybe Sagan will ahve the blight of the rainbow

Would love ot see Chava win it...Gilbert might do it though

TheBlaaMan

Great race, what a great opener to the 'season'

Pity I'm not a betting man.......!


T'was a poor enough day for Etixx-QuickStep....

https://twitter.com/dirkwaem/status/703629917511163904?s=17

D9Male

Really, really good race alright.

And KBK was better than expected, too. Lots of attacks in the middle part of the race, and then a nice solo into the finish from Stuyven, who had a hard race the previous day.

Cancellara has a strong team for the classics.