Race Preview: Saturday sees the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad kick off the ‘proper’ 2022 season with the first Belgian Classic race of the year. The Flemish race has everything we ever wanted from a Northern Classic – Short, stiff climbs, cobbles and race deciding weather conditions. Ed Hood gives us his Omloop preview.Het Nieuwsblad – A race for hard ridersPEZ soothsayer and mentor Vik reckons that all races thus far in 2022 are irrelevant. Sorry, Wout Poels, Remco Evenepoel, Nairo Quintana, Alessandro Covi, Benjamin Thomas. . .Sorry Wout, it means nothing!He has a point; sunshine and photo ops arent going to feature this Saturday. Quilted jackets, bobble hats, frites and pils surely will though. Temperatures near freezing, bone cutting winds and maybe some icy rain and/or snow are most likely to be the order of the day.Don’t expect any sunburn on SaturdayOmloop Het Nieuwsblad, originally Omloop van Vlaanderen then Omloop Het Volk but GentGent or just plain old, Omloop if youre a Gentenaar. Parcours-wise we have no desert, beaches or vineyards – just 200 unforgiving kilometres through unglamorous Flemish farmland including nine sections of cobbles kasseien and 13 mostly cobbled, short sharp jousts with gravity called, hellingen.No World champ, but ‘Stybie’ will be thereThe last two are tapped right into the nostalgia well the savage Gerardsbergen Kapelmuur at 184 kilometres and the less severe but deceptively strength sapping Bosberg at 188 kilometres. This duo is straight out of the pre finishing loop era of the Tour of Flanders. Parcours 2022Lets have…
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