For the second year in a row, the Belgian road season's Opening Weekend belongs to a Dutch team following yet another dominant Classics display by Visma-Lease A Bike.
The team once again took a clean sweep at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, with Wout van Aert adding a debut win at the latter to Jan Tratnik's victory on Saturday.
Van Aert, who made it a one-three at Omloop after he and his team had blown the race apart over 130km out, was out in a select lead group for 87km of the 196km semi-Classic, eventually coming to the line with Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates) and Oier Lazkano (Movistar), outsprinting both for his second win of 2024.
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"It's a nice victory, this one does a lot of good," he said after the race, having collected the famous Kuurne donkey – a symbol of the town bestowed upon it by local rivals Kortrijk – on the podium.
"It was a hard course, but I had two good companions. With this tailwind in the final, I knew there was a good chance the strongest would be left after the 'hill zone'."
Visma-Lease A Bike pushed the pace in the peloton over the tarmac climb of Le Bourliquet some 92km from the finish, shattering the group and catching the break before Van Aert launched along with his podium companions and Laurence Pithie (Groupama-FDJ) on the cobbled Mont Saint Laurent 5km later.
The New Zealander second-year pro lasted until the Côte de Trieu 68km out, leaving the podium trio – by that point over a minute ahead of the chase – to contest the largely flat run back to Kuurne.
"The pace was super high, and I felt the race was going to break apart," Van Aert said of his team's tactics on the day. "It was the logical tactic for us to make the race so hard. When we got four men in front, I knew we had a good chance of staying ahead.
"With three men it is difficult to surprise, so it was a good situation. It was a smaller group than I had expected, so I knew it would be possible to control the final. Then I was confident that I could answer any attacks and finish it in the sprint."
Van Aert now joins a select group of riders to have tasted victory in both races at Opening Weekend which includes Roger De Vlaeminck, Peter Van Petegem, Jan Raas, and Johan Museeuw. He's the first man to complete the pair since Nick Nuyens in 2006.
Now, though, his attention will turn to the upcoming cobbles in March and April, culminating in another tilt at adding the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix to his palmarès. He'll soon be back at altitude in Tenerife to continue his preparations.
"I'm very happy with our performance this weekend," he said. "It's great to start the Classics like this, and we did well as a team. It's good for my confidence, although I realise that it's different compared to the upcoming Classics.
"It's time to get back to work and improve those last few percentages and win a Monument."
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