There was a particular chill within the air as followers hurriedly made their method by the streets of Gent on the primary chilly however vibrant Saturday of March. Omloop Het Nieuwsblad marks the beginning of the European Classics season, one of the thrilling intervals within the WorldTour race calendar. The males’s race kicked off first simply after 11 am, adopted afterward by the ladies’s race.
Omloop begins subsequent to the well-known ‘t Kuipke Velodrome in Gent and takes place in an outdated plane hangar-style constructing subsequent door. The huge curved ceiling allows gentle, however it’s nonetheless a bit of dingy within the far corners. Before lengthy, the group buses and automobiles are pulling in, racking up the group bikes and making their remaining preparations because the riders signal on and put together for the race.
The WorldTour season kicked off in January, and we’re at this level conversant in the vast majority of new bikes and part permutations; nonetheless, the classics create their very own particular calls for, and larger tyres and some tweaks right here and there are nonetheless the order of the day.
I toured the pits earlier than the primary race of Opening Weekend and noticed as a lot attention-grabbing tech as I may. First up, I’ll say it now: I feel riders are beginning to run extra headset spacers to assist them keep aero positions for longer. There have been numerous wholesome spacer stacks within the pits. I additionally discovered there are new tubeless tyres from Specialized within the works, which have been getting used at Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe, in addition to some thriller Roval wheels that the group remained tight-lipped over.
There’s loads of attention-grabbing tech to pore over in right here, I’ve my eyes on just a few extra attention-grabbing bits of tech for the second installment, which can come after Kuurne- Brussel-Kuurne tomorrow.
The majority of groups pull into this huge hangar-style constructing subsequent to the velodrome. Before lengthy, the constructing was full of excited followers, busy group workers and varied media shops.
First, I visited Cofidis, the one WorldTour squad operating Campagnolo Super Record WR gear this 12 months. The group was utilizing 30mm Vittoria Corsa Pro tyres, and because of the sealed rim mattress, their Bora wheels don’t require tubeless tape.
Spot the protecting tape on the rear of the Look fork, it seems prefer it escaped the mechanics final wash, although…
The Groupama-FDJ Wilier Triestina paint jobs look implausible. The group welcomed new wheel and part sponsor Miche onboard at first of the 12 months.
A pleasant customized contact right here on Luxembourg nationwide champion Kevin Geniets’ machine
Stefan Küng had round 30mm of spacers beneath his stem, he wasn’t the one rider with a wholesome spacer stack both. Slammed entrance ends could also be much less fashionable than they as soon as have been.
The Unibet Tietema Rockets Cannondale Supersix bikes stand out, the color co-ordinate Vision wheel brand’s match completely.
Perfect Pirelli / Vision coordination.
EF Education-Easypost Cannondale’s with 54/40T FSA Ok Force chain-rings.
A bit further branding by no means hurts, proper? This is an additional sticker on the EF MOMO carbon fibre handlebar.
3D printed saddles are extremely popular now; this might properly be a brand new Fizik Adaptive mannequin.
An Intermarché-Wanty rider drew the brief straw and appeared to have been chosen to run this digital camera for onboard footage throughout the group presentation. This is actually not aero.
These followers have been additionally wanting bemused on the unusual version on the Cube Litening Aero’s handlebars earlier than the race rolled out.
A neat Effetto Mariposa sicker serving to the Intermarché-Wanty mechanics to trace sealant adjustments and ranges.
Here’s a fast shoutout to Matteo Trentin for having presumably the classiest handlebar setup on the race for Tudor. Spot the fantastically even handlebar tape wraps, too.
This appears to be a reasonably particular fueling technique. Get your self over the Muur, and also you’re on the house straight.
The UAE mechanics instructed me they’re nonetheless receiving Y1RS bikes and that not each rider has one but. They additionally mentioned the primary few bike builds have been difficult, however that they’re getting used to the brand new machines now.
I feel it is a customized aero transponder attachment for the UAE Colnago Y1Rs fork legs.
The neat UAE aero laptop mount was manufactured by Hinloopen Design.
Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe are presently utilizing some new, as but unannounced Roval wheels and Specialized Turbo tyres. They would not inform me a lot, however we are going to be taught extra because the season goes on. Spot the contrasting tyre colors right here.
Short cranks could also be all the craze in the meanwhile, however it appears there are nonetheless some 175mm crank arms within the peloton.
The Red Bull mechanics weren’t giving a lot away, however there is a new Turbo TLR tubeless tyre within the works, and that is it.
The tread nonetheless appears pretty advantageous, and the mechanics wouldn’t say something concerning the tyres’ predominant goal. I believe it is a new race tyre.
The Lidl Trek bike additionally had a typical Zipp stem and one other wholesome spacer stack.
I headed exterior at this level to try to discover the groups who hadn’t had room to slot in the hangar. First up was Uno-X Mobility, who’re racing on the brand new Ridley Noah Fast this 12 months. The new Noah will need to have the deepest head tube round in the meanwhile, it actually is a sight to behold.
A freshly waxed chain and CeramicSpeed OSPW for Uno-X. The setup helped Søren Wærenskjold take an surprising victory within the males’s race.
This is the brand new Ridley Nimbus cockpit, which pairs properly with the dropped headtube. It appears not the entire group riders have them but.
Some bikes had commonplace stems and quite a lot of spacers, which in all probability is not fairly as quick. Though it did not gradual the boys’s winner down.
Belgian bikes, Swiss wheels, Norweigan energy.
The Ineos Grenadiers Pinarello Dogma’s seemed as clear as ever, spot the carbohydrate combine quantity written on the bottles.
Ineos bikes use a neat built-in race transponder mount on the body’s drive facet fork leg.
The Ineos tubeless valves have been by far the shortest round. A slight marginal aero achieve, maybe…
This is Josh Tarling’s bike. At properly over six toes tall, he, as you may think, has fairly an extended stem and an aggressive place.
Astana’s X-Lab bikes are the latest entry to the peloton, changing Wilier at first of the 12 months.
The X-Lab AD9 has a deep aero-profiled fork dropout.
Astana are operating Dura-Ace cranks with Miche chainrings with electrical tape over the logos to remain sponsor right. Spot the tape on the highest left of the chainring.
The Team Flanders-Baloise group race on Eddy Merckx branded bikes…
But they’re really Ridley Falcn RS frames. A brand new Merckx body is in improvement for the group in the meanwhile. Ridley and Merckx are owned by the identical dad or mum firm.
Finally, I do not know what this implies, however a contented tyre should certainly be a quick tyre.