Jumbo-Visma are the new super team in town after Omloop Het Nieuwsblad dominance – despite no Wout van Aert

Before the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 2023 rolled out of a cold humid Ghent this morning, the opening bout of Opening Weekend had been billed as the most open edition in years. In the absence of Wout van Aert, and his life-long rival Mathieu van der Poel, the bookies certainly had no idea. The odds they were offering were all over the place.

Who’s that up there as a favourite? What’s he doing among the no-hopers? Ad From a certain point of view the race did manage to live up to that billing. Because, in retrospect, almost any rider could have won it. As long as they happened to be wearing the yellow of Jumbo-Visma.

Omloop Het NieuwsbladVan Aert will have to 'come in fighting' after Van Baarle stars on Jumbo debut – Rowe2 HOURS AGO Previously, “pick one of seven from Quick-Step” was a decent rule of thumb for predicting the spring Classics. But there’s a new super team in town and that label surely now applies only to the Dutch outfit. In the end Dylan Van Baarle was the one to accept the plaudits, flowers, champagne and an abstract piece of modern art masquerading as a trophy.

Had a butterfly somewhere flapped its wings slightly harder or softer, that modest-mannered man could easily have been Christophe Laporte (who broke from behind and earned his own spot on the podium); Nathan van Hooydonck (who kicked off a move earlier in the back end of the race); Tiesj Benoot (who caused bother on the Muur and finished 15th); or Jan Tratnik (who was in a promising move of his own as the race entered its second half). That’s not to take anything away from the performance of Van Baarle, which was nothing short of astonishing. He was so strong that even when he had company, through the final 40km of the race, he was effectively a lone