Van der Poel weighs Omloop debut with Van Aert showdown on the horizon
Mathieu van der Poel has revealed he is weighing up a debut at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the traditional season opener for the cobbled Classics campaign. The Alpecin-Premier Tech star has never ridden the race before, but the prospect of facing Wout van Aert on Belgian roads in late February is clearly on his radar.
Speaking about his early season plans to Wielerflits after his victory at the UCI World Cup in Benidorm, Van der Poel left the door open to adding the race to his calendar. "It's in the back of my mind, but I haven't decided anything about it myself," the Dutchman said.
If Van der Poel lines up at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on 28 February, he would come up against his long time rival Wout van Aert straight away. The 31 year old Belgian has already confirmed he will open his season there with Team Visma | Lease a Bike.
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad is a key date on the Belgian calendar, widely seen as the start of the cobbled spring. Staged on the last Saturday of February, it includes several climbs and cobbled sectors that feature again at the Tour of Flanders around six weeks later, making it an important early marker for Monument contenders.
In the last few years Van der Poel has built his spring campaigns around later races, typically starting his classics block in March with Milano-San Remo before shifting the focus to Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. Adding Omloop would represent a shift in his preparation, bringing him to Belgium earlier than usual and getting him into race mode sooner ahead of the spring’s biggest targets.
Van Aert has used Omloop Het Nieuwsblad as a season opener multiple times and won it in 2022. This year, his build up has been disrupted by the ankle fracture he suffered at Zilvermeercross in early January. Earlier today, Team Visma | Lease a Bike coach Jan Boven said the damage has been limited. “It also helps that his period of inactivity was not very long,” Boven told Wielerflits. “He has hardly fallen behind at all, and he can certainly look ahead to the Spring Classics with confidence.”
If Van der Poel does commit to Omloop, it would give fans an early-season showdown between the two before the stakes rise at the Monuments.
