Omloop Het Nieuwsblad favourites - anyone's race without Van Aert, Van der Poel

With the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, the 'real' season kicks off for many fans this weekend's Opening Weekend double header.

The 2023 season has, of course, been underway for over a month, taking in races in Australia, the Middle East, and around Europe, but the first Belgian races mark the start of the Spring Classics.

Omloop is the bigger race of the two, featuring a tougher parcours as opposed to the sprinter-friendly Kuurne. It's also the first Belgian race of the new season and the famous hills such as Berendries, Bosberg, and the fabled Muur van Geraardsbergen are on the menu.

As ever, the top cobbled Classics stars will mix in with promising young hopefuls on the start line. The race is frankly too far away from the main slate of April Classics to serve as a real indicator of form, but a top result is a real confidence booster heading into the cobbled period as well as something to savour in its own right.

One factor which takes some starry sheen off the race will be the absence of Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert at the start in Gent.

The two career-long rivals raced full cyclocross seasons over the winter, culminating in a duel for the ages at the Worlds in Hoogerheide. As a result, they won't make their season road debut until Strade Bianche next week, the first in a series of mouth-watering clashes set to take place throughout the spring.

For Van der Poel, missing Omloop is nothing new – the Dutchman has never taken part in the race – but Van Aert is the reigning champion, having soloed to glory in Ninove on his fourth appearance 12 months ago.

Had they been racing on Saturday; the duo would surely be right at the top of the bookmakers' odds lists. Their absence, then, will have a great effect on the race, but how?

"That's already two places won. Of course, it's nice for the race if they are there, but for my results, it's better that they're not at the start," AG2R Citroën co-leader Oliver Naesen joked in conversation with Het Nieuwsblad earlier this week.

"That's not meant in a negative sense; I just take my hat off to the level they're at. If Wout pins on a number like last year's Omloop, we have no recourse against it. I tried on the flat last year, but he just countered me and rode away from everyone."

Naesen added that before Van der Poel and Van Aert started riding full seasons on the road a few years back, the list of potential winners at Opening Weekend was much longer. That's likely to be the case once again this weekend, then.

"Without Wout and Mathieu, nobody stands out and it's a bit more open," his teammate, double Omloop winner, Greg Van Avermaet agreed. "Few can ride away in the way Wout did last year.

"Still, if I have to be honest, I'd rather have them there. That gives some extra cachet to the race, just like cyclocross," he added while acknowledging that the race is still a major event regardless of the names on the start list.

"It's different without Wout and Mathieu. Then, you try to ride as good a race as possible. Following them is really difficult, and you basically start hoping for a good placing. Now it's going to be up to others."

Van Avermaet named several "men from the second line" – such as Jumbo-Visma's impressive list of Van Aert super-lieutenants Dylan van Baarle, Christophe Laporte and Tiesj Benoot – would be among the top favourites on Saturday, while he joined in the chorus of those tipping Lotto-Dstny wunderkind Arnaud De Lie for contention.

The AG2R duo will be prime among the contenders, too, as will Ineos Grenadiers' demon descender Tom Pidcock, Jasper Stuyven at Trek-Segafredo, new Uno-X leader Alexander Kristoff, Groupama-FDJ's Stefan Küng, Soudal-QuickStep's coterie of Classics stars including Yves Lampaert, Kasper Asgreen, and more besides.

Sep Vanmarcke, who saw his spring last year derailed by a series of illnesses, will head up Israel-Premier Tech's challenge.

"I haven't really looked into it yet and haven't paid attention to the Classics men yet. I'm mainly concerned with myself," the 2012 winner told Het Nieuwsblad. "I'm mainly focussed on getting to a good level where I think I can ride finals.

"It opens up prospects for everyone that Van der Poel and Van Aert are skipping Omloop this year. At the same time, it also means that teams will race more freely and openly."

The two biggest stars of the Classics peloton may be giving Omloop Het Nieuwsblad a miss this time around, but the first Vlaamse klassikier of 2023