Omloop Het Niewsblad
Ghent, Saturday, 2nd March 2019
Ghent – Ninove, 200 km
74rd edition of the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad race started today in Ghent. The number one opening classic of the new cycling season 2019.
The beginning of the day was mild and chilly, the roads were dry and there was a continuous a bit above 20 km/h along the way.
This year an additional small change has been made to the route, with the finish now being in the centre of Ninove for the first time ever with the fast and slight technical sprint to the line.
With 200 km, including 13 hills and 9 cobblestone stretches to conquer and with the famous and critical point, Molenberg now just 40 km from the finish and Bosberg, 13 km to the finish where things went clear that …. .
At the famous Muur climb, the peloton caught the breakaway group and the team strategy went to a higher level.
Sonny Colbrelli, Dylan Teuns and Ivan Cortina had good ambitions to fight all the way, but Sonny Colbrelli didn't manage to keep up with the leading group in the last 25 km and Ivan Cortina went out of the road 40 km before the finish and by his comeback to the road he lost a rhythm and couldn't go back in the fight.
Dylan Teuns was the main TBM protagonist today with a great performance and reaching the top five;
Dylan Teuns fought to maintain all the way to the last kilometers with a strong quartet of strong and experienced riders; Greg Van Avermaet (CCC), the Olympic champion, Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), Zdenek Stybar (Deceununc-Quickstep) and Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal). They had extended a lead over the chasing group to a bit less than a minute on the final climbs of the Muur van Geraardsbergen and the Bosberg.
Up to last few kilometers it seemed to be a dead race to be unfolded in the last meters, but Zdenek Stybar (Deceununc-Quickstep) suddenly made a winning gap 3 km before finish in Ninove and made his solo for the victory of the first Belgian Classics race of the season.
After big fight all the way of 200 km, Dylan Teuns gave a try to get to the podium, but unfortunately passed the finish line as fifth and made a really good result and has shown that he is in a good form and is looking forward to a successful season with Paris-Nice as his next mission.
Dylan Teuns expressed his satisfaction after todays' race; "I am really happy with my performance. I gave my everything today. It was hard for me to get to the podium at the end. I'm not sad about not getting to the podium, I'm happy to get to top 5. As planned, I'm not competing tomorrow at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. I will take a good recovery and get prepared for Paris-Nice."
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