Omloop Het Nieuwsblad women LIVE - With the breakaway caught the peloton don't make the same mistake as 2025.
Who will come out on top in Ninove, and how will they do it? Women's peloton tackles 137.6km of racing
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad Women 2026 - Everything you need to know
Analysing the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad Women contenders
How to watch Omloop Het Nieuwsblad – Live streams, TV channels, schedule for today's race
Race Situation
After almost 100km in the lead a four woman breakaway was finally caught with 42km to go. The peloton is now rampant as the route presents repeated cobbled sectors and sought, punchy climbs.
As we approach the Bosberg, the second group is being caught by another, slightly larger group, including SD Worx riders Lorena Wiebes and Anna van der Breggen.
At the front Vollering is with Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM-zondacrypto) with a small lead on a group of five.
That's a powerful leading duo, but there may well be some sort of regrouping.
Just 15km to go though.
The leaders are caught by Koch's group. They have Chabbey in there too. There's only a small group at the front now, Vollering attacking on the steepest, roughest part.
Through the centre of town and with the gap below 15 seconds and FDJ take to the front, German champions Franziska Koch putting in a huge effort with European champion and team mate Demi Vollering on her wheel.
The leaders have 30 seconds as they cross the river bridge in the centre of Geraardsbergen. There will be action.
The crash was made worse by the wet roads, a touch of wheels taking down one rider and the chain reaction catching many others.
20km to go and Gasparrini, Aasebø, Chabbey and Berton continue to lead, their advantage stable at 35 seconds. There's be a huge crash though, maybe 20 women affected.
Muur-Kapelmuur is a beast. After a long descent into the centre of Geraardsbergen, it climbs from the river in the middle of town. The cobbled part isn’t even half its distance. It’s always decisive, the top coming just over 15km from the finish in Ninove.
Over the Parikeberg, the approach to Geraardsbergen and its famous Kapelmuur. AG Insurance-Soudal are now helping at the front and the peloton’s deficit is only 35 seconds.
Parikeberg is next. Another tarmac climb, it’s 800m, but it’s the gateway to the race’s final and the two signature cobbled climbs.
The roads are wet, but the sun is out for the final 25km, the gap continues to be eroded.
SD Worx-Protime are determined not get caught out like last year, the team are working very hard on the front of the peloton. And it’s working, as they reach Tenbosse the gap is down to 45 seconds.
At only 19 years old, Aasebø is one of the youngest riders in the race.
However, her lead, and that of the break is now stable at just under one minute.
Tenbosse is the next climb, it’s 500m in length but not too challenging, though this is all a wearing down process ahead of the final two punchy climbs, the Muur-Kapelmuur and Bosberg.
We’re over the Berendries now, with 33km to go and Gasparrini, Aasebø, Chabbey and Berton lead by almost a minute. The bunch seem happy though, all together on the climb.
Approaching the Leberg we have four women off the front, Eleonora Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ), Elise Chabbey (FDJ United-SUEZ), Nina Berton (EF Education-Oatly) and Kamilla Aasebø (UNO-X Mobility) lead by almost 40 seconds.
Just ahead of the Haaghoek and there are some tentative attacks on the front. One of our pre-race favourites was Movistar’s Liane Lippert, but she’s suffered a mechanical. Any problem now is crucial.
Finally, after 95km at the front Fortin and De Grave are caught.
But this is relentless, after the Molenberg it’s the cobbled Haaghoek sector, with the Leberg and its 13% gradients coming hot on its heels.
The Molenberg is very narrow at the bottom, so it’s chaos at the bottom with riders jostling for position ahead of this challenging part of the parcours. but still Fortin and De Grave hold on!
Over the Jagerij and Fortin and De Grave are clinging on into the final 50km, they lead by 20 seconds, but next up is the Molenberg. Cobbled, this short climb has ramps of 14%.
What a ride for both Fortin and De Grave, it’s the first race of the year for both women, but they’re almost caught, taking only 20 seconds onto the cobbled Kerkgate and Jagerij sectors.
On the Wolvenberg Fortin and De Grave are hanging on, they lead by 20 seconds, but for how long?
Straight after the Holleweg comes the Wolvenberg, at 650m it’s short, but it’s hard, with slopes of 17% gradient.
Over the top De Grave and Fortin have only 20 seconds' lead, but the Holleweg cobbled sector comes in only 1500m. Here comes the action.
On the climb the break has split, De Grave and Fortin forging on alone, though the bunch is closing in.
The Edelareberg is tarmacced, not cobbled, and is just over 1500m in length with an average gradient of 4.2% and a maximum of 7%.
The lead for Teutenberg, De Grave, Van den Eijnden and Fortin is down to only 43 seconds as we hit the bottom of the climb.
Last year’s winner Lotte Claes took advantage of a stand off between the bigger teams. None of them wanted to work and the break built a lead of 13 minutes. This year they’ve left less to chance, the breakaway’s maximum lead has only reached 3.30 and it's already on the way down.
We’ve now got 10km until the Edelareberg after which the cobbles and climbs come thick and fast. Unless the favourites’ teams look to each other as they did last year, expect the deficit to the breakaway to start to drop.
Since its WorldTour debut in 2023, we’ve had victories from Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) and last year the race was won by Lotte Claes, the Belgian emerging from the day's breakaway.
With 85km to go Teutenberg, De Grave, Van den Eijnden and Fortin have an increased lead of of 3.15 on the bunch. The race has settled, though not for long.
After the Edelareberg the race really kicks off, which cobbled sectors and climbs providing a relentless challenge for the bunch. Will the break stay away, or is it one for the big names?
The race rose to 1.Pro in 2021, when Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) took the honours, also in the world champion's rainbow jersey.
It’s quite a long way to the next obstacle on the course, the Edelaareberg coming with 75km done. It’s not one of the day’s cobbled climbs, but it might draw out some attackers.
The four leaders have now been allowed their heads, they've completed the Lange Munte with a lead of almost two minutes.
Lea Lin Teutenberg (Lotto-Intermarché Ladies), Britt de Grave, Jony van den Eijnden (both Citymesh-Customm) and Emilie Fortin (Minimax) make up the day's breakaway.
The race stayed at 1.2 level until 2016 when it was promoted to 1.1, then the second level of women's racing. The recently retired Lizzie Deignan (then Armitstead) won the race wearing the World Champion's rainbow jersey.
Lange Munte looks flat, but it’s slightly uphill and, at 2.5km it’ll be a bit of a shock to the system for some. As the break hit the cobbles Alison Avoine (Ma Petite Enterprise) is chasing, but the gap from the leaders to the peloton is less than 30 seconds.
Nowhere near as old as the men’s race, the first edition was way back in 2006 and was won by Dutch woman Debby Mansveld of the Vlaanderen-Capri Sonne-T-Interim team.
Back then the race was ranked as a UCI 1.2 event, what was then the third tier of women's racing, below the .1 level and World Cup.
And with 10km to go until the Lange Munte, Schweinberger and Latimier are caught and Teutenberg, De Grave, Van den Eijnden and Fortin are only 20 seconds ahead of the bunch, though their gap is growing again.
After some initial suggestions she wouldn't ride, Claes is racing today, wearing the number one dossard and leading the Fenix-Premier Tech team she joined over the winter. You can read about the change of strategy below.
'The team’s management ultimately felt it made sense to include her' – Lotte Claes will defend her Omloop Het Nieuwsblad title after all.
We now have two riders in pursuit of the leading quartet.
Kathrin Schweinberger (Human Powered Health) and Clémence Latimier (Ma Petite Enterprise) are 44 seconds behind the break, with the peloton a further 10 seconds back.
It’s a fast race so far, the average for the opening 17km is almost 43km/h, despite that, our four leaders’ advantage is now just over one minute.
20km until we reach the Lange Munte cobbles.
Along with Claes we have three other winners in the race today, Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) won in 2015 and 2021, while her team mate Lotte Kopecky was victorious in 2023. Tiffany Cromwell won way back in 2023 and you can read our interview with her here.
The gap is coming down again though, maybe the bunch is not too happy about this group of four.
The first cobbled sector in Lange Munte which comes after 37.2km, though that's more than 20km away.
We have a breakaway, Lea Lin Teutenberg (Lotto-Intermarché Ladies), Britt de Grave, Jony van den Eijnden (both Citymesh-Customm), and Emilie Fortin (Minimax) have around 30 seconds on the peloton.
As soon as the flag dropped we have some attacks at the front of the race three riders are trying to get away
With so many key points along the route we’re likely to have some unpredictable racing and last year was the perfect example of that, Lotte Claes emerging from the day's breakaway as the day's winner.
There are 10 climbs too, and of those Eikenberg, Molenberg, Muur-Kapelmuur and Bosberg are also cobbled. Kapelmuur and Bosberg are likely to to be decisive as they're steep too and come 15.7 and 11.8km from the finish.
As this is the start of the cobbled Classics season you'd expect some pavé sectors and we have five of them, starting after 37km with Lange Munte then Holleweg, Kerkgate, Jagerij and Haaghoek.
The weather always has an impact in these early season races, and the wind is blowing and could cause splits. It’s also been raining and due to start again, making the cobbles a different challenge!
Today’s 137.2km route is 800m shorter than 2025, but once again starts in Gent and finishes in Ninove. After the presentation we’ll have 5.6km of neutral before the official start in Merelbeke-Melle, just outside the city.
While the men will be racing Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne tomorrow, the second race of the women's Opening Weekend is the Fenix-Ekoi Omloop van het Haageland.
There’s always a huge sense of occasion at this first Belgian race of the year, and it has one of the best team presentations of them all, at the legendary T’Kuipke velodrome in Gent.
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the 21st edition of Omloop Nieuwsblad Women Elite. We'll bring you all the action blow by blow, stay with us!
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