Dark Horse Jan Tratnik won the season-opening Belgian cobbled classic Het Nieuwsblad, refusing to work with his escape companion, UAE’s Nils Politt, and eventually overcoming the tired German in a dramatic cat-and-mouse chase.
Tratnik was the least predicted winner of the yellow and black Visma-Lease a Bike squad, which clustered around the front of the race across 12 hills and nine cobblestone sections. Despite low-hanging gloomy skies and 202 kilometres of tiny roads in Flanders, there were massive crowds cheering the race from Gent to Ninove in cycling-mad Belgium.
The neighbouring Dutch team known last season as Jumbo-Visma won for the third time in a row here. They also took third place Saturday with Wout Van Aert, who acted as a foil for Tratnik, and celebrated his teammate’s win enthusiastically.