The surprise winner of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad is Søren Wærenskjold, a fast man from Uno X who wasn't even supposed to be at the race: he was originally scheduled to only race Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, but at the last moment he took Markus Hoelgaard's place.

"Actually I was only planning to race tomorrow, but then things turned out this way – Wærenskjold explained – and it's wonderfully surreal that I ended up winning. With the headwind, we understood there would be a real chance of a sprint, and I have no words to describe the joy I feel!"

In this just-begun season, the 2000-born Norwegian has 7 race days under his belt, and this is his second victory after the second stage of Etoile de Bessèges, bringing his career wins to 14. Today he managed to find the right space in the bunch and execute a perfect sprint, beating the French Magnier and Belgian Philipsen. "The plan was to go left because I was afraid of being blocked on the right. Initially I went right, but as soon as I saw a gap on the left I continued on that side."

And to think that in the last kilometer he wasn't in the leading positions: he had to work hard to find space. "I tried to save energy along the route, but I was behind when the crash happened on the Molenberg. I tried to catch up immediately, but I didn't have the legs for it. So I decided not to go all out on the climbs and bet everything on the finale. In the end, I pulled out the absolute maximum in a very tight sprint."

Søren Wærenskjold grew up in Uno X, the team that turned him professional in 2021. "It's a fantastic feeling to cross the finish line first. This is the biggest victory of my career, a huge step that I honestly didn't think was possible."