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