Omloop Het Nieuwsblad marks the start of the 2024 Belgian racing season with the women's peloton set to take on a 127.1km route between Gent and Ninove. Eight major climbs and five cobbled sectors lie between the riders and glory, with the day's route shortened by 5km compared to the 2023 race.
Much of the difficulties of the race – including all the hills – fall inside the second half of the day after the peloton passes through Oudenaarde. As a result, the repetition of climbs towards the finish in Gent only gets cumulatively more challenging as the kilometres in the legs add up.
The cobbled sector at Lange Munte inside the opening 30km provides the only major challenge of the race's first half, though there are several unnamed smaller hills.
The Edelareberg climb, coming just after Oudenaarde, is the day's first climb, coming after 68.7km of racing. From then on, the riders will face up to challenge after challenge, including climbs such as the Wolvenberg, Molenberg, Leberg, and Berendries.
However, the hardest challenges of the day, those likely to decide the race victory, come after 111.4km and 115.3km. Yes, the punishing one-two finisher combination of the Muur van Geraardsbergen and Bosberg – famous for featuring at the end of the men's Tour of Flanders before the race moved on – will once again round out the route.
It's on these climbs, the latter tarmacked, where the race winner can often be decided, and it might be no different this weekend, though the 12km gradual downhill road to Ninove can still provide opportunities to make the catch.
Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor before being hired full-time. Her favourite races include the Paris-Roubaix, Tour de France Femmes, Tro-Bro Léon, and cycling's fourth Grand Tour, the Volta a Portugal.
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