Embed from Getty ImagesMathieu van der Poel rides away on the Muur van Geraardsbergen. His breakaway companions are out of the picture and from here on the result felt inevitable.Embed from Getty ImagesWhat colours do you associated with Belgium? Black, yellow and red are on the flag. Football fans will say the red devils. But for cycling fans the palette is grey, brown and green. Muddy fields, barren trees and brown brick homes sit under leaden skies. Watching the Sporza coverage Helicopter shots of houses with solar panels suggest wild optimism. Of course summer happens in Belgium too, its just thats rarely televised.After one early move failed, five got away in Clment Alleno (Burgos-BH), Alexys Brunel (Total), Alexis Renard (Cofidis), Vincent Van Hemelen (Vlaanderen-Baloise) with Jelte Krijnsen (Jayco) who had been in the first move. Forlorn? With hindsight they all had foresight as Renard would hold out for a top-10 and precious UCI points, while Krijnsen and Vincent Van Hemelen salvaged a top-20.Finishing today meant surviving and one feature of this years edition were the multiple crashes with riders going down like pins in a bowling alley strike. The new course was supposed to split the field up but it was more a tweak than a radical redesign. Either way the race didnt open up early. You could see the stress in other ways as flags slapped in the wind and a compact peloton raced hard into the danger points . At times the course was less cobbled sectors and more a wooden chopping block as riders were butchered. Others had mechanicals and other problems, game over for the likes of Tom Pidcock, Paul Magnier and Jasper Philipsen with over 60km to go.Embed from Getty ImagesKasper Asgreen took a flyer on the Wolvenberg but he was by himself and his move didnt have the effect of poking a wasps nest. Instead the decisive point came on the Molenberg with 46km to go. Florian Vermeersch was lead out by his team and went hard. Behind Tudors Rick Pluimers led the chase but he wiped out on a corner, his back wheel jack-knifed and in one pedal stroke he was floored. Mathieu van der Poel was on his wheel but served like the Matrixs Neo around Pluimers head. Van der Poel even unclipped his left foot but you needed slow-mo to spot this as he reconnected with the pedals and turned on the power in an instant. Red Bulls Tim van Dijk managed to stay in contact. Behind others lost the race in this split second. A Visma rider unclipped too but halted, this blocked others and the gap formed as Van der Poel, Vermeersch and Van Dijk were clear.Embed from Getty ImagesThe trio bridged across to the breakaway and the lead five suddenly got what theyd dreamed of as they were able to hitch a ride on the race-winning move, albeit only for a while.Embed from Getty ImagesVisma tried to chase but they were down on riders and few other teams had numbers to chase. Lotto-Intermarch were helping too until a crash took out Arnaud De Lie.Geraardsbergens Muur came and Van der Poel didnt attack, he just rode away as the slope kicked up on the way out of town leaving Vermeersch and Van Dijk to race for second place.Embed from Getty ImagesThe Bosberg as the final climb is often home to suspense. Not necessarily decisive but a place where doubt can still exist and opportunities can be seized. Can the solo rider hold on? Can the breakaway riders make it? Would a move here work? This time it hardly featured and looked like a mere cobbled boulevard on the way to Ninove.Embed from Getty ImagesThe VerdictNo surprises. Marec, Nieuwblads cartoonist had it right, this mornings newspaper sketched Van der Poel sitting alone at the finish with time to read the newspaper. Van der Poel made it look as easy in real life, escaping when the field slowed down behind, then appearing to ride away in Geraardsbergen.Van der Poels swerve around Pluimers helped to set things up but had Pluimers stayed upright the result would have probably been the same given the Dutchman was in position and primed to move. Maybe a Visma rider would have been able to join the attack? Otherwise there were few moves, and alas a lot of the action came because of crashes rather than attacking.Van der Poel will know nobody has ever won the Omloop and Ronde in the same year. These anecdotes tend to interest the media more than riders but with his first win in this race now done, his big goal has to be the holy week double of the Ronde and Roubaix.Van Dijk was satisfied with his ride and its his best result in a classic. Better still it feels as if weve already seen more of Red Bull on the cobbles than last year. Vermeersch gets his first podium in a spring classic too.Christophe Laporte came in for fourth place and the chocolate medal ought to taste good after a long absence from Flemish roads. His Dutch team came up empty but looked strong collectively and without the Molenberg mishap they could have shaped the race more.Finally a mention of events 800km to the south. Paul Seixas won the Faun-Ardche classic. The main climb of the day was the Mur des Royes, a backroad version of the Col de Gazareau and it was here with 45km to go that Seixas gradually rode the field off his wheel before dropping last witness Matteo Jorgenson with 41km remaining. He rode the final hour solo for the win.Embed from Getty ImagesThe post The Moment The Omloop Nieuwsblad Was Won first appeared on The Inner Ring.

Mathieu van der Poel romped to victory in the 2026 Omloop het Nieuwsblad using what appears to be an unreleased set of Shimano Dura-Ace C50 wheels with carbon spokes. The Dutchman broke clear of the peloton with UCI Gravel World Champion, Florian Vermeesch, on the Molenberg with just under 30km to the finish after narrowly avoiding a Tudor Pro Cycling Team rider who had slipped and crashed on the slippery cobbled climb. After joining the remnants of the days main breakaway, van der Poel attacked again on the final ascent of the iconic Muur van Geraardsbergen and soloed to victory. Prior to the race start in Ghent, we got a close look at his bike and spotted the unbadged wheelset aboard both his race bike and his spare bike on a team car. Lets take a look at what we can glean from our photographs, and what other tech choices van der Poel made for the first race of the Flemish Opening Weekend. Dura-Ace hubs and carbon spokes The carbon rims may be unbranded, but the hubs appear have 'Dura-Ace' printed on them. Simon von Bromley / Our Media Although the carbon rims lack any branding, van der Poels wheelset was built up with Dura-Ace-branded hubs. The most obvious difference between the wheels on van der Poels bike and existing Dura-Ace wheels is the carbon spokes, plus the hidden nipples at the rim. On Shimanos current range of Dura-Ace wheels, including the C60 wheelset his bike was equipped with at last years Tour de France, all options use steel spokes with external spoke nipples. The unreleased wheelset is constructed using carbon spokes. Simon von Bromley / Our Media Carbon spokes have become increasingly popular on high-end road bike wheelsets in recent years, as a means of cutting weight and improving stiffness, without impacting aerodynamic performance. Hidden spoke nipples should also confer another small aerodynamic advantage. The trade off is that the wheels tyre and rim tape must be removed in order to true the wheel, but thats of little concern for a top professional like van der Poel (who has a team of dedicated mechanics to service his bikes). Stickers on the rim wall indicate the rims likely dimensions and maximum tyre pressures with various tyre sizes. Zooming in on one of our photos we can also see rim stickers that denotes the rim has dimensions of 622 x 23TC. This means the rims are 700c and have a 622mm diameter, with a 23mm internal rim width and are Tubeless Crochet or hooked, as opposed to hookless or Tubeless Straight Side (TSS). In contrast, the existing Dura-Ace WH-R9270-C50-TL wheels feature a 21mm internal width. Another sticker indicates the maximum permitted tyre pressures with various sizes, denoting the rims are designed for tyres between 28 and 45mm-wide. Stop me if youve seen these wheels before This looks like the same wheelset we spotted van der Poel using last Spring could an official release be just around the corner? Simon von Bromley / Our Media Although its hard to be certain, as we only had a few grainy race photos to ogle last time, these appear to be the same, or at least a very similar wheelset to the one van der Poel trialled last spring. Certainly, the unbranded rims, hidden nipples and hubs appear very similar. If thats the case, these wheels could be set to launch in the near future perhaps as part of the next generation of Dura-Ace, R9300. Cyclings governing body, the UCI, requires brands make prototype equipment commercially available within 12 months of their first use in competition, after all. Manufacturers can request an extension to this based on relevant justified grounds (as per article 1.3.006 of the UCIs technical regulations), but this can only be requested once and equipment must be available for sale by the time the extension expires. Big chainrings, small cassette The dutchman stuck to a fairly standard setup for the opening cobbled classic of the 2026 season. Simon von Bromley / Our Media Beyond the wheelset, van der Poels race setup was only subtly different to what he was using when he last saw his bike up close in Lille, last July. He was using the same 30c P Zero Race TLR RS tyres, for example, and was on his favoured Canyon road frameset the Aeroad CFR. MVDP's wheel's were shod with 30c Pirelli tubeless tyres. Simon von Bromley / Our Media The Canyon Aeroad CFR is van der Poel's preferred bike for most races. As at last years Tour, van der Poel is still using the Aeroads classic drops rather than the interchangeable aero drops. Canyon introduced the flared aero drops as an alternative option to the straight classic drops, with the launch of the current Aeroad CFR platform in 2024. The narrower brake hoods and extra reach provided by the aero drops is claimed to offer a potential performance advantage of up to 14 watts, according to Canyons lead design engineers, Lukas Birr. It seems van der Poel is content to leave such potential gains on the table in favour of his preferred setup, however. 55/40t chainring's for van der Poel. Simon von Bromley / Our Media Mathieu van der Poel has been using this white Selle Italia Flite SLR saddle for a number of years. Simon von Bromley / Our Media One thing that has changed since Lille is van der Poels big chainring. His Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 R9200 groupset featured a 54-tooth big chainring in France, but he had a 55t on his bikes in Ghent. This was paired with a tight, 11-30t cassette out back, despite the days challenging parcours. Up top, van der Poel continues with his favoured Selle Italia Flite SLR saddle, which is customised white a rare sight amongst the sea of black saddles in todays pro peloton. A relaxed Mathieu van der Poel Canyon Aeroad CFR had time for photos with his fans prior to dominating the 2026 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. Simon von Bromley / Our Media

A single 54T chainring and 30mm tyres headlined Yorkshiremans Spring Classics race rig

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