Omloop Het Nieuwsblad: Jan Tratnik clinches dramatic triumph, Wout van Aert finishes third

Jan Tratnik was the unlikely winner as he clinched his maiden Classic at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in Belgium.

The strong squad his Visma-Lease a Bike team started with meant they were the firmest of favourites to, between them claim victory in what is commonly viewed as the curtain-raiser for the spring classics.

And in various formulations the Dutch outfit dominated the race from start to finish.

After allowing a small group to briefly break away, they pushed the pace early and hard. Along with Ineos Grenadiers and Lidl-Trek, they were the primary antagonist responsible for breaking the bunch into two pieces before the halfway point had been reached. Theirs was effectively a sub-peloton unit of 31 riders at its maximum, from which the race winner looked sure to come as their built a lead of more than a minute over the rest.

Into the final third of the race and it was the chasing group that achieved a greater cohesion, bringing the lead group back within spitting distance as they weaved their way around the narrow Belgian lanes. Hearing the news of their impending catching over the team radios forced the leaders and with a smaller, six rider selection - of which Visma-Lease A Bike made up 50% - broke clear. Van Aert was the clear favourite from the group. Toms Skujins (Lidl-Trek), Arnaud de Lie (Lotto-Dstny) and Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadier) could only rely on each other for any sort of support.

The six appeared to work well enough together to re-establish their advantage over the rest.

As the race’s showpiece, penultimate climb, the Muur van Geraardsbergen, appeared on the horizon Matteo Jorgensen (Visma-Lease a Bike) attacked and went clear. If not him then it looked certain the win would come from the five behind, most likely Van Aert or Christophe Laporte. The peloton had not admitted defeat completely, however, and it was Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates) who led their surprise resurgence towards the summit of the Kapelmuur.

Jorgensen held out until just beyond the final climb, the Bosberg, when the race effectively came back together.

Tratnik, one of the few riders from the Dutch team to have missed out on the early split, had been able to minimise his effort by hiding in the bunch. He was therefore one of the few riders with enough left in his legs to go with a final attack on the run-in.

The Slovenian rider broke away from the pack on the final stretch alongside UAE Team Emirates’ Nils Politt.

The pair went all out in search of victory. Though they eked out an advantage of no more than 20 seconds, on the long straight run-in to Ninove, it was enough. As the metres counted down, Politt seemed happy to settle for silver, leading around the final bend. With 200m to go Tratnik kicked out against the German counterpart who had no response. Tratnik surged to the finish line to wrap up a dramatic finish.

Tratnik was, he said afterwards, "a little surprised to win that, because we know [Visma-LeaseABike] have such a strong team for the classics. In the past I didn't do many classics and today I was more in domestique role but still. The guys did a really good job in the first half of the race. I just missed behind but I could... not relax behind but we had five guys up front. Then it was a case of keep believing. We caught back all the guys and then I just went to counter-attack. This may be the biggest win in my life."

Visma-Lease A Bike’s Wout van Aert won the sprint for third behind Politt, wrapping up a double podium for the Dutch team and complete a successful day’s business for the favourites.

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