Key Takeaways: Omloop Nieuwsblad & Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne 2025

Breaking down the major highlights & key takeaways from the Springs Classic opening weekend

The Flemish Spring Classics made a triumphant return over the weekend, with the second-division Uno-X Mobility team stunning the favorites as Søren Wærenskjold sprinted to victory on Saturday at Omloop Nieuwsblad, while Jasper Philipsen and his Alpecin-Deceuninck team showcased their Classics prowess on Sunday at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne by delivering Philipsen to the win with a textbook sprint leadout. Meanwhile, Visma Lease a Bike struggled to match the strong performances they’ve displayed across the opening weekend in years past and Tadej Pogačar’s UAE-XRG team appeared lifeless without him, all while Alpecin-Deceuninck proved to be the sport’s strongest Classics team, even in the absence of their superstar cobble-destroyer, Mathieu van der Poel.

*Premium subscribers will receive a breakdown of tomorrow’s Le Samyn, which will feature Mathieu van der Poel’s season debut, later this week.

See the key highlights and condensed key takeaways from the busy weekend below:

Omloop Nieuwsblad

43km-to-go: On the run-in to the Molenberg, Soudal and Alpecin take over at the front while Matteo Jorgenson is forced to fend for himself.

40km: After the climb, Alpecin keeps the pressure on at the front, which splits the peloton and catches out Wout van Aert, who is forced to chase back on.

31km: Alpecin’s group at the front eventually reels in Tarling on the steep Berendries climb while Tiesj Benoot pulls hard at the front of the chase group to get Van Aert back on terms. Meanwhile, Jorgenson is isolated in the front group.

17km: At the base of the Muur, Mathias Vacek (Lidl) is on the front with Tim Wellens on his wheel. Jasper Philipsen is in third wheel, while Jorgenson and Van Aert are right behind in the elite little front group. Behind, out of frame, Wærenskjold is struggling to keep pace and is deep back in the dropped group.

16km: At the top of the climb, Van Aert attacks, but Red Bull-Bora’s (and former Visma rider) Tim van Dijke, is immediately on his wheel and shuts the move down.

10km: With Van Aert at the back, Stefan Küng attacks and immediately gets a dangerous gap. However, Jorgenson quickly gets to the front to shut down Küng and reels him in inside the final km

200m: After putting himself extremely far forward, Philipsen launches while Wærenskjold and Magnier are still sheltered

Finish: Wærenskjold uses the power he can generate from his massive frame (1.95m tall at 92kgs/"6'4" feet at 202lbs) to generate the required power to push past Philipsen, who starts his bike throw way too early. On the other side of the road, 20-year-old Paul Magnier comes from behind with more speed than anyone and comes in second after running out of room.

Omloop 2025 Top Five
1) Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) +0
2) Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step) +0
3) Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +0
4) Brent Van Moer (Lotto) +0
5) Samuel Watson (INEOS Grenadiers) +0

Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne

83.8km: On the Mount Saint Laurent climb, where Van Aert split the race last year, Tim Wellens is attacking at the front while Van Aert is buried deep in the bunch.

72.6k-70km: Van Aert attacks on a high-speed paved climb and splits the group slightly, but the slightly downhill high-speed road section afterward gives everyone a chance to catch back on.

58.1km-50.4km: After Van Aert has watched Tim Wellens and Stefan Bissegger attack and bridge to the breakaway, he attacks, but is easily marked by Red Bull-Bora’s Roger Adrià, who refuses to work with him, which eventually dooms the move.

35.4km: With Van Aert’s move taken care of, Red Bull-Bora, Lidl-Trek and Soudal-QuickStep settle in on the front with a consistent pace to reel in the breakaway.

200m: Coming into the final sprint, Alpecin is executing the perfect leadout, with Kaden Groves, one of the sport’s best sprinters, leading out Jasper Philipsen, with Olav Kooij on his wheel, and Jonathan Milan, who appeared to be the fastest sprinter in the world a week ago, is floundering out of position behind.

Finish: After being dropped off with a clear path to the line, Philipsen finishes off yet another one of Alpecin’s sub ten-second sprints to take the win, with Kooij second and Hugo Hofstetter third.

KBK 2025 Top Five:
1) Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +0
2) Olav Kooij (Visma | Lease a Bike) +0
3) Hugo Hofstetter (Israel-Premier Tech) +0
4) Arne Marit (Intermarché-Wanty) +0
5) Rick Pluimers (Tudor Pro Cycling) +0

Three Key Takeaways

1) The Sport’s Two Biggest Superteams Significantly Underwhelmed: Heading into the weekend, I expected 2024’s top team, UAE-XRG, to flex its substantial muscle over the cobblestones, and for the team that has won the last three editions of Omloop, and swept last year’s opening weekend, Visma-Lease a Bike, to put in a strong showing with Wout van Aert and Matteo Jorgenson.

• However, after the weekend, both teams combined to rack up only a single top ten placing (Olav Kooij’s second place at Kuurne), with UAE’s top placing through the weekend being Rui Oliveira’s 30th place on Sunday.

  • Meanwhile, a second-division team took a win on Saturday at Omloop with Uno-X Mobility’s Søren Wærenskjold racking up a massive upset, and three other second-division teams took three of the top five places on Sunday at Kuurne.

    • These underperformances are by no means disqualifying; it is important to note that it is still early in the year, and that performances on opening weekend can be quickly forgotten by the time the biggest Classics roll around. However, it was still surprising to see both teams struggle so mightily to make their mark, especially after Visma has come out so hot over the past few seasons. And, while UAE still has the Pogačar card to play, they will want a much stronger supporting cast around him to battle such a formidable and multi-pronged Alpecin team.

      • Whatever the reason for their disappointing weekends, it is clear both teams have a serious amount of work to do over the next few weeks if they want to challenge for the biggest one-day spring races.

2) Alpecin-Deceuninck Looks Like the Sport’s Top Classics Team…All Without Their Best Rider: If UAE and Visma looked off their best, the team that won three of the four spring Monuments in 2024 cemented their status as the sport’s elite Classics team, with two podiums over the weekend, including a win at Kuurne, along with breaking, or controlling, the peloton at will throughout both days, all without their top star Mathieu van der Poel.

• The fact that Alpecin has yet another level to reach with the eventual arrival of Mathieu van der Poel, should seriously worry their rivals.

  • Additionally, the fact that one of the world’s top sprinters, Jasper Philipsen, appeared to sail through such brutal climbs with apparent ease on both days creates serious problems for every other team with Classics aspirations.

    • If the other team leaders can’t drop Philipsen before the finish line, Van der Poel and Alpecin will hold the ultimate trump card at the front of any race since they can simply sit tight and feel confident in any eventual reduced sprint finish.

3) The Shocking Contrast Between Their Last Two Opening Weekends Should be a Cause for Concern at Visma: Perhaps the most shocking thing about the weekend was how invisible Visma was at the front of the group, especially after their show of force in 2024, when they split the peloton early and often and went on to win both races. 

• The two main things that stuck out the most to me about Visma were:

  • Matteo Jorgenson was essentially forced to act as his own teammate throughout the early climbs of both days.

    • In years past, Visma would have deployed a train of strong domestiques through the early climbs to break up the peloton for their strongest rider at the moment. But this past weekend, Jorgenson was often forced to ride the front to soften his competition's legs before trying to attack and/or respond to other attacks.

      • This speaks to just how depleted Visma’s Classics roster has become due to a mixture of injuries (Dylan van Baarle), illness (Christophe Laporte), transfers (Tim and Mick van Dyke) and medical issues (Nathan Van Hooydonck) over the last season.

  • Wout van Aert’s absurdly poor positioning at the most attack-friendly points of both races was fairly shocking, especially when contrasted with the fact that these were the same points where he was on the front and pressing the issue in years past.

    • This is most likely due to Van Aert's lack of top form, which forced him to survive on the toughest sections of the course and attack on easier sections of the course, and doomed any chance of riding clear. However, it is worth mentioning that former star sprinter and in-race commentator Robbie McEwen threw out the theory that this poor positioning could result from Van Aert being wary of riding in the pack after suffering multiple bad crashes in 2024.

      • Unfortunately for Visma, both options present an issue. Even though Flanders and Roubaix are over a month away, Van Aert’s form appears to be well below what it was at the same time of the season in years past, and it will be difficult to surpass his already in-form competition.