Dutch cyclist Mathieu van der Poel broke away 16km from the finish line and soloed to victory at the season-opening cobbled classic Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday.
The former road race world champion entered the classic on the back of a record eighth cyclo-cross world title where he was unbeaten all winter.
The 31-year-old Alpecin rider finished in 4hr 53min 55sec, over 20 seconds ahead of ahead of another Dutchman Tim van Dijke and Belgian Florian Vermeersch.
Van der Poel said he would decide Saturday night if would take on Sunday’s similar Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne race.
“I really want to be there,” he said.
The 207km route Saturday contained much of the Tour of Flanders roads, and the riders took on 12 hills and eight cobbled sections.
Of the favourites, Vermeesch was first to attack and on the narrow cobbled hill behind him the first pursuers fell after bouncing on a cobble, it was there that Van Der Poel showed his dexterity with a sudden swerve to avoid the fall.
“I don’t know how I managed that,” Van Der Poel said afterwards.
“It was chaos. I unclipped and put my foot down to avoid the head of the Tudor rider then I managed to get back into the rhythm. This was the key moment of the race,” he said.
On another of cobbled climb, the Muur of Geraardsbergen, Van Der Poel dropped the whittled-down main pack and set off in pursuit of an early breakaway around a minute up the road.
He caught them within 4km and rode confidently away from them. After he crossed the line, Van Dijke out-sprinted Vermeersch for second place.
“Mathieu is the best rider on the planet on this kind of terrain,” said runner up Vermeersch.
Omloop is the first race of the season in cycling’s heartland of northwestern Europe and is often raced in freezing conditions.
Demi Vollering won the women’s 135km edition also on Saturday dominating a sprint finish ahead of the Polish rider Kasia Niewiadoma.
“I was really ideally placed at the foot of the Mur de Grammont and it went like a dream,” said Vollering, the 2023 Tour de France champion.
Another Dutchwoman Lorena Wiebes took third from a chasing group at 20 seconds to complete the podium.
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