Male Team 27 Feb
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
200 Kilometers
The race will be broadcast live on Eurosport 2 and GCN+, at 14.00 CET on Saturday 27th February.
The Northern Classics are back – just four months after last year’s. Professional cycling returns to the Belgian cobblestones in its traditional spring slot after a quite different, ‘autumnish’ campaign in 2020, where the Movistar Team started setting the foundation of its renewed gamble on one-day events. And in 2021, the Blues will line up at the Omloop with the man who aims at leading the team in the long term: Spaniard Iván García Cortina.
The removal of the Tiegemberg is the main change on this year’s Omloop route, over 200km from Gante to Ninove, with thirteen climbs and as many cobbled sectors. Even if evenly distributed over the course, the hardest difficulties are mostly placed into the last 50km, after the final passage through Oudenaarde and the Wolvenberg (145km) climb, followed by the Haaghoek cobbles (162km), the subsequent Leberg ascent and the steep Berendries (169km) and Elverenberg (172km).
The decisive climbs, however, should be the last two, in a remembrance of the 2000s Ronde van Vlaanderen route, with the ascents to the Kapelmuur (183km) and Bosberg (187km). A brutal, well-known final selection, with no hiding place.