He made his move just prior to the final climb, the Bosberg, and then crested that climb with a lead of about 10 seconds. He held his solo lead to the finish in Ninove.
Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Victorious) won the sprint for second-place from a group of about 20 riders, with Greg Van Avermaet (AG2r Citroen) finishing behind in third.
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Top 10
Pos.
Rider Name (Country) Team
Result
1
Wout Van Aert (Bel) Jumbo-Visma
4:50:46
2
Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bahrain Victorious
0:00:22
3
Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) AG2R Citroen Team
4
Oliver Naesen (Bel) AG2R Citroen Team
5
Victor Campenaerts (Bel) Lotto Soudal
6
Rasmus Tiller (Nor) Uno-X Pro Cycling Team
7
Matteo Trentin (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
8
Andrea Pasqualon (Ita) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux
9
Florian Senechal (Fra) Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team
10
Jasper Stuyven (Bel) Trek-Segafredo
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad signals the start of the Classics season. The main spring period may be a little further away, but the gentle early-season racing is out of the way and the tone will be set for the spring.
The race, which held its 77th edition, takes place in the heart of the Flemish Ardennes, on many of the same cobbles and bergs as the Tour of Flanders five weeks down the line.
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Formerly known as Omloop Het Volk, the merging of newspaper companies now means the race is named after the Flemish daily, Het Nieuwsblad. Together with Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne the very next day, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad forms one part of what's widely known as the 'Opening Weekend'.
Starting in Gent at the famous Kuipke velodrome, the races winds through the Flemish Ardennes before finishing in Ninove. It used to finish in Gent, but from 2018 the course was altered to emulate the old Tour of Flanders parcours, heading over the Muur van Geraardsbergen and the Bosberg before the run-in to the line.
There are 13 hills and nine cobblestone sectors on the menu over the total distance of 204km.
The Leberg climb, which comes in combination with the Haghoek sector of cobbles, has a leading role, appearing three times, the last of which comes as the race truly intensifies in the final 50km.
The only real change to the modern route of the Omloop for this year is the lack of Molenberg due to road works. Instead, the gap between the Wolvenberg and Leberg is plugged by not one but two climbs: Marlboroughstraat and Biesestraat.
The Berendries and Elverenberg then make way for the Muur-Bosberg combination, which is followed by a 12km run-in to Ninove.
(Image credit: Flanders Classics)
Contenders for Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 2022
The 2021 edition was won by Davide Ballerini in a bunch sprint but that was something of an anomaly. Almost always, the Omloop is won by a solo rider or from a small group at the finish.
The race suits the cobbled Classics specialists who'll fight it out at the Tour of Flanders, but there's also an opportunity for underdogs who aren't so worried about hitting top form in February.
As well as Ballerini, who is recovering from COVID-19, the major absentee is Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix), whose whole spring is still in doubt due to an ongoing back injury.
Nevertheless, there will be a strong field lining up in Gent on Saturday morning. Wout van Aert leads a revamped Jumbo-Visma squad, while Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) looks set to take another step up in the Classics. They're joined as headliners by Tour of Flanders champion Kasper Asgreen, who leads a typically strong QuickStep-AlphaVinyl squad that includes former winner Zdenek Stybar.
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad was first held in 1945, and the 2022 race is the 77th edition. In that time, three editions have been missed - 1960, 1986, 2004 - largely due to the wintery conditions that often strike northern Belgium in February.
Jean Bogaerts was the first winner and Belgians have gone on to dominant race, with only 20 winners from outside the home nation. Three Belgians - Ernest Sterckx, Joseph Bruyère, Peter Van Petegem - hold the joint record of three victories.
The race's history is rooted in the newspaper industry. First set up by Het Volk, in a bid to counter its rival, Het Nieuwsblad, the two papers merged in 2009 and the race went from being called Omloop Het Volk to Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad will be aired live in the UK and Europe on GCN+, Eurosport Player and Discovery+, with a subscription costing £6.99 for a single month, £4.99 for a year-long monthly pass, or £39.99 for a 12-month pass.
In North America, Flobikes will air the races, with a subscription to the streaming service costing $49.99 per year, or $8.99 monthly, in the USA, and for Canada it is $59.99 (CAD) per year, $11.99 (CAD) monthly.
In Belgium, RTBF and Sporza will broadcast the races, while in the Netherlands the races will be shown on NOS. Other national broadcasters will also show the races.
If you live outside a broadcast zone or are on holiday outside your country and find that the live streams to be geo-restricted, you can get around this by getting access to them by simulating being back in your home country via a 'virtual private network', or VPN, for your laptop, tablet or mobile.
Our sister site TechRadar tested hundreds of VPNs and recommends the number-one VPN currently available as Express VPN. With ExpressVPN, you can watch on many devices at once including Smart TVs, Fire TV Stick, PC, Mac, iPhone, Android phone, iPads, tablets, etc.
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