Classics Opening Weekend Preview & Friday Shorts:

Previewing the true start of the season with the kickoff of the Cobbled Classics, plus a quick breakdown of the key takeaways from O Gran Camiño stages 1 & 2

With the beginning of the Spring Classics looming due to Omloop kicking off tomorrow (Saturday, March 1st), I wanted to outline the events, stakes and main players before digging into a few key moments from this past week of racing before we lose ourselves to the excitement of major one-day races in a just few hours’ time.

Cobbled Classics Opening Weekend

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (197km) - Saturday, March 1st

Saturday’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad kicks off the 2025 Spring Cobbled Classics season, with the 197-kilometer route featuring eleven notable, often cobbled, hills. The race will break up inside the final 100 kilometers due to bottlenecks created by the mad dash to the climbs, which the leaders tackle all-out. The final 16 kilometers feature the famous Wall of Geraardsbergen and Bosberg, before a 12-kilometer flat run-in to the finish line in Ninove almost certainly creates thrilling pursuit among multiple groups.

Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne (196.9km) - Sunday, March 2nd

Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, Sunday’s slightly less prestigious follow-up to Omloop, is 196.9 kilometres long and includes thirteen major climbs. However, most of the climbing is completed within a 40-kilometer segment nestled in the middle of the course, and the final 50 kilometers feature mainly flat roads. Thus, the race has traditionally tended to favor versatile sprinters winning from large bunches over pure Classics contenders from small groups, but this trend has been less pronounced in recent years, with 2024, 2023, 2020 and 2019 all being won by riders from small elite groups off the front.

Riders to Watch:
Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike): Omloop & Kuurne
Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG): Omloop & Kuurne
Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike): Omloop & Kuurne
Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck): Omloop & Kuurne
Tom Pidcock (Q36.5): Omloop
Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek): Kuurne
Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step)Kuurne

Check out the key highlights and takeaways from the ongoing five-stage O Gran Camiño below:

O Gran Camiño

Stage 1
250m: Coming into the final few hundred meters, Uno-X’s Magnus Cort explodes from the bunch at over 70km/hr (44mph) after his team has controlled the final kilometers.

Finish: Cort leverages his high launch speed and superior strength and endurance to easily hold off the bunch and take his first, and his team’s fourth, win of the 2025 season, along with a ten second time bonus.

Stage 2
300m: On the following stage, his Uno-X team is executing a perfect leadout on the uphill run to the finish line.

250m: However, after VF-Bardiani’s Martin Marcellusi launches early, Cort is forced to respond.

Finish: Cort once again uses his far superior strength to slowly burn off Marcellusi and take the stage win along with another ten second time bonus.

Stage 3 Time Trial:
1) Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) +0
2) Davide Piganzoli (Polti VisitMalta) +16
3) Maxime Decomble (Equipe continentale Groupama-FDJ) +20
4) Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility) +24

• Last year’s breakout GC contender, Derek Gee, scorches the 15.6km-long time trial, but, with 20 bonus seconds in hand, Cort does well enough to stay in overall contention with two days left to race.

GC Top Three After Stage 3
1) Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) +0
2) Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility) +5
3) Davide Piganzoli (Polti VisitMalta) +17

Key Takeaways

• Magnus Cort: Despite a rocky start with Uno-X after coming over from EF following the 2023 season, Cort is on a tear, winning three out of the last seven races he has started (going back to the Veneto Classic in October of 2024).

  • While the Dane struggles to convert wins in one-day races, keep an eye out for him as a top-tier stage hunter at Grand Tours later in the season.

  • These wins will be appreciated by his second-division Uno-X team, who is battling for a top three spot amongst second-division teams in the 2025 UCI points rankings.

    • As things stand, they are closely marking their main competitors (Tudor and Q36.5), but have a long way to go to catch up with the currently first-division XDS-Astana, who is on track to be relegated for the 2026 season.

• Derek Gee: After securing an impressive 3rd place overall at the Dauphiné and 9th at the Tour de France in 2024, the 27-year-old Canadian seems to have picked up right where he left off by dominating the time trial and looking like he’s in prime position to claim his first career GC victory.

  • This isn’t the most high-profile or competitive race, but I’m paying particularly close attention to Gee in the early parts of 2025 since he emerged out of seemingly nowhere as a GC contender in 2024 and is one of the only riders, along with Matteo Jorgenson, to have the raw power and time trial ability to challenge the sport’s biggest GC engines.

What to Watch This Weekend:

Saturday:
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
Where: FloBikes (USA & Canada), MAX (Europe + Global), TNT Sports (UK)
When: Men’s Saturday, March 1st, 8:00am-10:00am EST (estimate)/ Women’s Saturday, March 1st, 10:00am-11:00am EST (estimate)
Why: The kickoff for the cobbled Classics season with a collection of the sport’s biggest one-day talents, like Wout van Aert, Jasper Philipsen, Matteo Jorgenson and Tom Pidcock, facing off on the (in)famous cobbled climbs of Flanders.

Faun-Ardèche Classic
Where: Max (USA, Europe & Global), TNT Sports (UK) FloBikes (Canada)
When: Saturday, March 1st, 7:45am-10:00am EST (estimate)
Why: A challenging one-day race in southern France with some of the sport’s top Ardennes Classics riders and climbers, like Marc Hirschi, Mattias Skjelmose, Romain Bardet, Valentin Madous, and Juan Ayuso, facing off.

Sunday:
Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne
Where: Max (USA, Europe & Global), TNT Sports (UK), FloBikes (Canada)
When: Sunday, March 2nd, 8:30am-10:00am EST (estimate)
Why: A slightly flatter one-day Classic over Flemish terrain gives the sprinters and Classics riders who were disappointed the day prior at Omloop a chance for redemption.

Faun Drôme Classic
Where: Max (USA, Europe & Global), TNT Sports (UK), FloBikes (Canada)
When: Sunday, March 2nd, 7:45am-9:00am EST (estimate)
Why: A near repeat of Saturday’s Ardèche classic, also in southern France, that will feature a rematch between a near identical startlist from the day prior.

Saturday & Sunday:
O Gran Camiño Stages 3-4
Where: Max (USA, Europe & Global), TNT Sports (UK), FloBikes (Canada)
When: Saturday, March 1st-Sunday March 2nd, 9:30am-11:30am EST (estimate)
Why: Race-leader Derek Gee will attempt to drop second-place Magnus Cort on the hardest climbs to keep him from racking up enough bonus seconds to re-take his overall lead.