'There's six or seven really strong Classics teams out there' - Decathlon's Haussler expects open battle at Opening Weekend

With the cobbles of Opening Weekend right around the corner, it’s not quite the scenario that Decathlon CMA CGM would have envisioned after signing two stalwarts from Visma | Lease a Bike in Tiesj Benoot and Olav Kooij.

Both riders will be absent from the upcoming weekend of action, leaving the team with a big hole to fill. Domestique spoke to Heinrich Haussler at last week’s the Volta ao Algarve to check in on the French team’s preparations for Opening Weekend.

Tiesj Benoot will miss out on the Classics for the first time in his career after requiring surgery for a lumbar disc herniation, while there is no official news on Kooij’s likely return to racing after suffering from a virus, but Wielerflits has reports that he could miss the entire Spring campaign.

Haussler, a runner-up at Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders in 2009, was brought into the French team over the winter to guide the Classics squad alongside Luke Rowe and Julien Jurdie, and the Australian can’t wait for the action to kick off in Belgium.

“To be honest, I’m looking forward to it. It actually comes around so quickly, already next week. The weather conditions are looking terrible, typical Belgian weather,” Haussler told Domestique.

It was a successful week in Portugal for the French team as Paul Seixas continued his meteoric rise in the sport by winning a stage and finishing second overall behind Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek), while riders like Oliver Naesen got some good racing kilometres in the legs ahead of Opening Weekend. 

With other races such as the UAE Tour taking place, Haussler highlighted some of the performances in the Middle East, which bodes well ahead of tackling the Cobbles in Belgium.

“But I mean, if you look at the guys, the way that they have been riding down in Australia, also Cees [Bol] in that sprint uphill at UAE, absolutely unbelievable, super strong. Also in the TT in UAE, Daan Hoole and Stefan Bissegger showed good form,” said Haussler.

Opening Weekend presents a big opportunity for teams to win a cobbled Classic in the absence of Tadej Pogačar, though Mathieu van der Poel has confirmed he will make his debut at Omloop.

Decathlon will be looking to improve on their results from Opening Weekend twelve months ago, when Rasmus Søjberg Pedersen took 13th at Omloop and Sam Bennett placed 17th at Kuurne.  Haussler is well aware of the competitive field that awaits, with many teams reinforcing their Classics units.

“We’re very excited for Opening Weekend, but also there’s six or seven really strong Classics teams out there that are also looking forward to that,” Haussler said.

Opening Weekend kicks off with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday, February 28, the first part of a double header, before Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne on Sunday, March 1. Søren Wærenskjold and Jasper Philipsen are the defending champions, respectively.