Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 2023 Men - Live coverage

90KM REMAINING

Six of those riders have now gone clear from the rest: Van Hooydonck, Tratnik, Wright, Haller, O’Brien and Swift. It seems the bigger names have deemed this too early to commit, with 90km still to ride.

Along with the 6 Jumbo-Visma riders (Laporte, Van Baarle, Benoot, Van Hooydonck and Van Dijke) are 8 others: Fred Wright, Arnaud De Lie, Pascal Ackermann, Marco Haller, Magnus Sheffield, Daan Hoole, Kelland O’Brien and Connor Swift.

Jumbo-Visma may be missing their main man Wout Van Aert, but as the names pushing on right now show,, there’s is a formidable classics line-up, further bolstered by the signing of Paris-Roubaix winner Van Baarle for this season.

Jumbo-Visma’s pace has caused a split in the bunch, with their leaders Tiesj Benoot, Christophe Laporte and Dylan van Baarle all at the forefront. The likes of Arnaud De Lie, Magnus Sheffield are also present.

The race is on now, as Jumbo-Visma have picked up the pace in the peloton.

Meanwhile, over in the middle-east, stage six of the UAE Tour has just concluded. To find out who won, see here

The peloton are now on the Lange Munte cobbles, still over seven minutes adrift from the leaders.

117KM REMAINING

We're almost half-way into the race now, and the leading seven are about to hit the Lange Munte cobbles. 

Winning via a move like the one Chris Juul-Jensen has tried, however, really is impossible. And he seems to have realised this now, and has been reabsorbed by the peloton. 

A victory for one of the riders in the early breakaway may seem very remote, but it’s worth considering the career of Jelle Wallays. He has made a trademark of successful long-range attacks, winning the 2014 Paris-Tours from getting into the day’s first breakaway, and winning a stage of the 2018 Vuelta a Espana in much the same way.

A reminer of the seven riders in the lead, as they approach the Lange Munte cobbled sector: Jelle Wallays (Cofidis), Mathias Norsgaard (Movistar), Louis Blouwe (Bingoal WB), Adam de Vos (Human Powered Health), Mathis Le Berre (Arkéa Samsic), Alex Colman and Gilles De Wilde (both Team Flanders-Baloise)

125KM REMAINING

Team Jayco AlUla’s Chris Juul-Jensen has jumped out of the peloton, and is now a minute ahead. Quite what his plan is though is anyone’s guess - he’s still got over four minutes to make up on the break.

The women’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad is also set to get underway shortly. Here’s our rundown of the riders to watch

Interestingly, the ending has moved for this year’s edition to Elisabethlaan. As a draggier, uphill finish, that would change the complexion of a sprint finish should the race end that way - which, given the likelihood of a headwind forcing itself upon any attackers in the finale, is certainly a possibility.

145KM REMAINING

While the riders make their way to the next cobbled sector, which is still another 30km from now, why not have a read of some of our features on this year’s Het Nieuwsblad?

Here we consider the positives and negatives of reaching form early for this race, for riders who are targeting the monument cobbled classics in the spring. Notoriously, the rider who wins Het Nieuwsblad never seems to go on to also win the Tour of Flanders in the same season.

The weather may not quite be as accommodating as it appeared at the start of the day. There are dark patches of cloud in the sky, the wind has picked up, and most of the riders are wearing arm and leg warmers.

It seems these riders were involved in a crash - an occupational hazzard of the spring classics, even in mild weather like today.

There have been a few abandonments already: Michael Schär (AG2R Citroën), Patrick Bevin (DSM), and Ben Turner (Ineos Grenadiers). That’s a shame for the young Briton, who was an outside bet for victory today following his breakthrough spring campaign last year, and promising early season form recently.

The leaders are now climbing for the first time, up the 1km-long Leberg

175km

The peloton are still taking things very easily for now. The break's advantage has grown to around six minutes.

Two riders who certainly won't be winning today are Australians Luke Durbdirdge (Jayco-AlUla) and Tom Scully (EF Education-EasyPost). Both failed to make the start after falling ill.

So who’s going to win today? Wout van Aert triumphed at a canter twelve months ago, but he’s not riding today, and neither is his adversary Mathieu van der Poel. In their absence the race looks very open - have a read here to see who to look out for.

...and here are all of the cobbled sectors:

Haaghoek (36.2km) 

Lange Munte (93.2km) 

Holleweg (109.5km) 

Haaghoek (115.2km) 

Paddestraat (124.4km) 

Holleweg (151.1km) 

Kerkgate (157.3km) 

Jagerij (159.9km) 

Haaghoek (170.6km) 

Here's a complete list of the day's climbs...

Leberg (39.2km) 

Kattenberg (108.7km) 

Leberg (118.3km) 

Hostellerie (135.3km) 

Valkenberg (143.2km) 

Wolvenberg (153.7km) 

Molenberg (166.1km) 

Leberg (173.6km) 

Berendries (177.7km) 

Elverenberg Vossenhol (180.1km) 

Muur-Kappelmuur (191.6km) 

Bosberg (195.5km) 

It won’t be too long ‘till we hit our first cobbled sector of the day: Haaghoek, tackled 36.2km into the stage. That’s followed shortly by the day’s first climb, the Leberg, before a lengthy lull until the next one.

Here's the seven-man break in full:

Jelle Wallays (Cofidis), Mathias Norsgaard (Movistar), Louis Blouwe (Bingoal WB), Adam de Vos (Human Powered Health), Mathis Le Berre (Arkéa Samsic), Alex Colman and Gilles De Wilde (both Team Flanders-Baloise)

193km remaining

The peloton seem content with the break, and have allowed them to gain over two minutes already

A group of seven has broken out of the peloton, among them former Paris-Tours and Dwars door Vlaanderen winner Jelle Wallays

An all-important question for any Het Nieuwsblad is: what’s the weather like? What with its February time slot, all manner of weather has affected it in the past, from torrential downpours to freezing cold snow But this year’s edition looks set to be mild, with the riders setting off under blue skies and a reasonable, albeit nippy, temperature. 

And they're off - the spring classics have officially begun!

Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews’ live coverage of the 2023 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. 

Whether you’re the kind of fan who believes that this is when the road season really begins, or have been following the racing religiously in the early events that have been taking place across the globe these past couple of months, we can all surely agree one on thing: that Omloop Het Nieuwsblad is always one of the most exciting races of the spring.