The Belgian Wout van Aert, of the Jumbo-Visma team, achieved his first victory of the current season this Saturday, in his first race of the course, by winning alone the 77th edition of the classic Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, valid for the UCI World Tour and disputed over 204.2 kilometers between the Belgian cities of Ghent and Ninove.
Van Aert, 27 years old and who launched a definitive attack with thirteen kilometers to go, he prevailed alone and stood out in the goal of Ninove with 22 seconds margin over a group of nine runners led by the Italian Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Victorius).
No one was able to respond to the Belgian champion’s attack when he broke away from the leading group just before the final climb, the Bosberg. he to the top with a lead of about 10 seconds and single-handedly cruised to the finish to take victory in his first race this season.
Colbrelli won the sprint for second place ahead of fellow Belgian Greg Van Avermaet (Ag2r Citroen), which completed the podium. Van Aert capped off a dominant performance from the Jumbo-Visma team.
Va Aert succeeds the Italian Davide Ballerini, winner in 2021, in the race history.