It’s time to kick off the Classics season with the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Spar Omloop van het Hageland.
On Saturday Rozemarijn, Eva, Cathalijne and Britt line up for their second Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. Charlotte and Emily make their debut. On Sunday our youngster Julia joins the team for the Spar Omloop van het Hageland.
I’m looking forward to kicking my season off this weekend with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Omloop van het Hageland. I haven’t raced either before, but I know to expect some brutal racing. Not only are the courses challenging and rain forecast, but I think all teams will be looking to perform on opening weekend – including us!
I am not sure of my personal form right now. After a tough time in Valencia, I’ve been resting as much as possible this week and I’m hoping for better legs this weekend. Either way, we are coming into the race with a strong team and I know if we work together we can be present at the front end of the race.
DS Kelvin Dekker looks forward to the opening weekend as well. It will also be his Omloopx2 debut:
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad is a special race for everyone, big and smaller teams alike. It’s a big race with a class A entry list. To be part of this race is an honor. We expect the typical Spring Classics conditions and that won’t make things easier. We do hope to continue on the same path as Valencia although we need to wait and see how everyone digested that race.
Being such a young team, knowledge of the course is not yet optimal but it’s up to me and Huub to coach them as good as we can. We will see where we end up and hopefully that will be pretty far.
Sunday’s race doens’t have the same ring to it but it is a challenge we will face head on. We are there with almost the entire and very motivated. It is really nice we can offer our riders a full opening weekend. That is a first and it will contribute to their development.