Koen's report from the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne

The West-European cycling season kicked off last weekend with the traditional season opener or opening weekend in Belgium, with the Omloop het Nieuwsblad on Saturday and with Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne on Sunday.

After coming back from Oman I only had a single day at my parents' house in Liempde before I was already on the road to Ghent to reconnoiter the race route of the opening weekend. I was pretty wrecked but it was good to go over the route once gain, to test our material on the cobbles and to decide on the right tyre pressure.

So to the races, on the morning of the first classic of the year, the Omloop het Nieuwsblad, I didn't feel 100% recovered from riding the two tours in Qatar and Oman, the travelling and making up the three hour time difference but a little tiredness and good form, you can still have your best days. Luckily the weather was good, it was sunny and not at all cold with 12C. We started the race with John Degenkolb as our designated leader because he has shown himself to be good at these type of races and with his strong sprint, he can take wins and finish off the teams work. My role was to stay with him as long as possible in the finale and to let him know about what was coming up along the race route as I have more experience than him. The race really began on the Taaienberg so I brought John to the front several times and I was well placed at the front myself, ending up in the first chasing group after the Taaienberg. It was clear that a very dangerous leading group had gotten away with several of the top favourites and so I started off to carefully ride on the front between the Taaienberg and the Eikenberg climbs to try to minimise the advantage of the group away to keep our hope of winning alive. After the final tough climb, the Molenberg, we were in a group of 35, I took to the front to led the group and try to catch up as much of the breakaway riders that were ahead of us. Very quickly several other riders came to help with the chase and after the Lippenhovenstraat, with about 30km to go to the finish, about seven riders led the chasing group and we caught all but three riders. We were riding for fourth place and in the end we crossed the line only 25 seconds after the winner. I rode on the front for as much as I could during the race, so as to make sure that Degenkolb had a chance to take fourth place. Unfortunately he was not as strong as we hoped in the sprint and he came 11th. I crossed the line in 32nd place, just after Philippe Gilbert. If I can manage to finish just after Gilbert more often this season, then I'll have some really nice results! I was fairly pleased with the race. I can't remember riding better and having such a good feeling during the opening weekend races in Belgium. During the climbs I didn't have any problems to follow the group and in the final 40km I rode on the front of the peloton a lot, which is a good sign for the coming period. Hopefully a good result from me or from one of my teammates will follow.

I have alot less to say about the race on the following day, in Kuurne. I started the race even though I felt very tired, as sometimes I can recover during a race but not in this edition of Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. It's probably tough to ride both races of the opening weekend and if you go full blast in the Omloop and you are already tired from the previous batch of races, then it can all become too much. That happened me during this race and to ensure I don't ride myself into the ground, I decided to stop after 100km.

This week I'm going get some more good training sessions followed by some rest and then I should be ready for Paris-Nice!

Greetings,
Koen