As tradition dictates, the Omloop het Nieuwsblad will be the first World Tour race in Europe and many important riders will be at the start of this Classic. Ghent prepares to kick off the great cycling festival, which opens the Flemish spring season. At the start today will be Wout van Aert, Tiesj Benoot, Arnaud De Lie, Tim Wellens, Florian Vermeersch, Paul Magnier, Tom Pidcock, Biniam Girmay, Matej Mohoric and Jasper Philipsen and many other men who will race to win.

Visma - Lease a Bike will try to attack early, to avoid having to arrive at a sprint finish with Van Aert who would then be forced to fight against Philipsen or Meeus. The Dutch team will try to make the most of their numerical advantage, with van Aert who has shown he is in great form. We must not forget that in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, many different scenarios can unfold, with riders who can break away on both the walls and the pavé. We cannot exclude a small breakaway group that will fight for victory or even a group sprint. In other words, while the Omloop het Nieuwsblad might seem straightforward in some aspects, it actually hides pitfalls and surprises.

The Visma-Lease a Bike leader has already been seen in action last week at the Clasica Jaen and Volta ao Algarve and we know he won this race in 2022. However, this year we must not forget riders like Tiesj Benoot, Matteo Jorgenson and Victor Campenaerts who could have their say. The other team to watch is the UAE Emirates XRG who will have to do without Tadej Pogacar, but can count on Portuguese rider Antonio Morgado, the twenty-one-year-old who started from the starting blocks as one of the best and has already completed thirteen days of racing, during which he won the Castellón Grand Prix and the Figueira Champions Classic. The Portuguese rider has made a huge step forward since he made his mark last spring, with fifth place at the Tour of Flanders. The Emirates team can also count on a very strong Jhonatan Narváez, who will have the help of Nils Politt, Tim Wellens, as well as Mikkel Bjerg, Filippo Baroncini and Rune Herregodts.

For Belgium, Arnaud De Lie will also be there, who as everyone knows has winning a spring Classic as his main objective and the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad could be his first opportunity.

Watch out for Tom Pidcock. The Omloop will be the only pavé classic he will participate in this spring and, consequently, his only chance to win in Flanders. In his first year with Q36.5, expectations are certainly high and the Swiss team will definitely try to support him.

Several years have passed since a victory at the Omloop came after a sprint. If this were to happen, then the number one favorite would certainly be Jasper Philipsen. The Alpecin - Deceuninck sprinter has achieved excellent results in the Classics, including victory at Sanremo, and has done well at Paris-Roubaix, but on the Flemish hills he cannot be a favorite in an attacking strategy.

If it comes down to a sprint, in addition to Philipsen, we'll need to look at Biniam Girmay. After winning the green jersey at the Tour de France last summer, the Intermarché-Wanty leader has made an important step forward in the classics and no longer wants to use bad weather as an excuse and is certain that his time has come to surprise everyone by winning in races like this. Girmay wants to win the Classics, but his main objective remains Milan-Sanremo. In the absence of Jonathan Milan, Jasper Stuyven will be the flagship man of Lidl-Trek and will fight to obtain a good result. There are also Bob Jungels, Joshua Tarling and Ben Turner who will try to do something with the INEOS Grenadiers jersey. Ivan Garcia will be the leader of Movistar, Oliver Naesen and Pierre Gautherat will be the leaders for Decathlon AG2R. With the colors of Picnic PostNL will be John Degenkolb, while Alberto Bettiol will defend the colors of XDS Astana and Joe Blackmore will be the captain of Israel-Premier Tech. Jonas Abrahamsen and Rasmus Tiller for Uno-X Mobility and Matteo Trentin and Rick Pluimers for Tudor.

We have said that this is a truly unpredictable race and therefore we must also imagine some outsiders. Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe will field the defending champion Jan Tratnik, Oier Lazkano, the Van Dijke brothers and Jordi Meeus. Matej Mohoric and Fred Wright will lead the Bahrain Victorious troops, while EF Education EasyPost hopes for former winners Michael Valgren and Kasper Asgreen. Finally, Groupama-FDJ will play its card with Stefan Küng.

START LIST
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
1. TRATNIK Jan
2. ADRIÀ Roger
3. MULLEN Ryan
4. LAZKANO Oier
5. MEEUS Jordi
6. VAN DIJKE Mick
7. VAN DIJKE Tim

Team Visma | Lease a Bike
11. VAN AERT Wout
12. AFFINI Edoardo
13. BENOOT Tiesj
14. BRENNAN Matthew
15. CAMPENAERTS Victor
16. HAGENES Per Strand
17. JORGENSON Matteo

Alpecin - Deceuninck
21. PHILIPSEN Jasper
22. DILLIER Silvan
23. GHYS Robbe
24. GROVES Kaden
25. MEURISSE Xandro
26. RIESEBEEK Oscar
27. VERMEERSCH Gianni

Intermarché - Wanty
31. MARIT Arne
32. BRAET Vito
33. VAN BOVEN Luca
34. PETIT Adrien
35. REX Laurenz
36. RUTSCH Jonas
37. VAN SINTMAARTENSDIJK Roel

Soudal Quick-Step
41 LAMPAERT Yves
42 REINDERINK Pepijn
43 EENKHOORN Pascal
44 GELDERS Gil
45 MAGNIER Paul
46 PEDERSEN Casper
47 VAN GESTEL Dries

Arkéa - B&B Hotels
51. BIERMANS Jenthe
52. CAPIOT Amaury
53. GRONDIN Donavan
54. EPIS Giosuè
55. SCOTSON Miles
56. SÉNÉCHAL Florian
57. THIERRY Pierre

Bahrain - Victorious
61 MOHORIČ Matej
62 ERMAKOV Roman
63 GOVEKAR Matevž
64 GRADEK Kamil
65 PASQUALON Andrea
66 STANNARD Robert
67 WRIGHT Fred

Cofidis
71 TEUNS Dylan
72 ALLEGAERT Piet
73 COQUARD Bryan
74 DE GENDT Aimé
75 RENARD Alexis
76 ROBEET Ludovic
77. MAHOUDO Nolann

Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
81 NAESEN Oliver
82 BISSEGGER Stefan
83 DE BONDT Dries
84 DE PESTEL Sander
85 DEWULF Stan
86 PEDERSEN Rasmus Sojberg
87. POLLEFLIET Gianluca

EF Education - EasyPost
91 ASGREEN Kasper
92 ALBANESE Vincenzo
93 DOULL Owain
94 HONORÉ Mikkel Frølich
95 MIHKELS Madis
96 VAN DEN BERG Marijn12h
97 VALGREN Michael

Groupama - FDJ
101 KÜNG Stefan
102 ASKEY Lewis
103 BYSTRØM Sven Erik
104 GENIETS Kevin
105 JACOBS Johan
106 LE GAC Olivier
107 RUSSO Clément

INEOS Grenadiers
111 JUNGELS Bob
112 HEIDUK Kim
113 SHMIDT Artem
114 SWIFT Connor
115 TARLING Joshua
116 TURNER Ben
117 WATSON Samuel

Lidl - Trek
121 STUYVEN Jasper
122 DECLERCQ Tim
123 HOOLE Daan
124 THEUNS Edward
125 SKUJIŅŠ Toms
126 VACEK Mathias
127. TEUTENBERG Tim Torn

Movistar Team
131 GARCÍA CORTINA Iván
132 AULAR Orluis
133 BARRENETXEA Jon
134 CIMOLAI Davide
135 MILESI Lorenzo
136 MORO Manlio
137 NORSGAARD Mathias

Team Jayco AlUla
141 DONALDSON Robert
142 FOLDAGER Anders
143 KRIJNSEN Jelte
144 O’BRIEN Kelland
145 REINDERS Elmar
146 STEWART Campbell
147 SÜTTERLIN Jasha

Team Picnic PostNL
151 DEGENKOLB John
152 EDMONDSON Alex
153 FLYNN Sean
154 LEIJNSE Enzo
155 NABERMAN Tim
156 EDDY Patrick
157 VAN DEN BERG Julius

UAE Team Emirates - XRG
161 POLITT Nils
162 MORGADO António
163 BJERG Mikkel
164 HERREGODTS Rune
165 NARVÁEZ Jhonatan
166 VERMEERSCH Florian
167 WELLENS Tim

XDS Astana Team
171 BALLERINI Davide
172 BETTIOL Alberto
173 BOL Cees
174 GAZZOLI Michele
175 ROMELE Alessandro
176 SCHELLING Ide
177 TEUNISSEN Mike

Israel - Premier Tech
181 BLACKMORE Joseph
182 BOIVIN Guillaume
183 LOUVEL Matis
184 PICKRELL Riley
185 SHEEHAN Riley
186 STEWART Jake
187 VAN ASBROECK Tom

Lotto
191 DE LIE Arnaud
192 TAMINIAUX Lionel
193 BEULLENS Cedric
194 DE BUYST Jasper
195 GRIGNARD Sébastien
196 LIVYNS Arjen
197 VAN MOER Brent

Uno-X Mobility
201 ABRAHAMSEN Jonas
202 HVIDEBERG Jonas Iversby
203 HOELGAARD Markus
204 JANSEN Amund Grøndahl
205 RESELL Erik Nordsæter
206 SKAARSETH Anders
207 TILLER Rasmus

Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team
211 PIDCOCK Thomas
212 CHRISTEN Fabio
213 FRISON Frederik
214 MAŁECKI Kamil
215 PARISINI Nicolò
216 STEIMLE Jannik
217 ZUKOWSKY Nickolas

Team Flanders - Baloise
221 COLMAN Alex
222 DEMAN Brem
223 DEWEIRDT Siebe
224 VANDEVELDE Yentl
225 VANDENSTORME Dylan
226 VANHOOF Ward
227 VERCOUILLIE Victor

Tudor Pro Cycling Team
231 TRENTIN Matteo
232 FROIDEVAUX Robin
233 HALLER Marco
234 KELEMEN Petr
235 LIENHARD Fabian
236 MAYRHOFER Marius
237 PLUIMERS Rick

Unibet Tietema Rockets
241 DE VRIES Hartthijs
242 GELEIJN Owen
243 HUENS Axel
244 JOHANNINK Jelle
245 KOPECKÝ Tomáš
246 KUBIŠ Lukáš
247 STOCKMAN Abram