Norway’s Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) took the biggest win of his career when he outsprinted Frenchman Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step) and the home favourite, Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), in the bunch finish of Het Nieuwsblad in Ninove.
A last-minute replacement by his team because of the strong headwind in the final part of the race that was likely to nullify attacks, 24-year-old sprinter Wærenskjold came out of the slipstream of Ineos Grenadiers’ Sam Watson, who was the first rider to launch his effort. Going up the right-hand barriers, the Norwegian then held off Philipsen and the fast-finishing Magnier, who came through to clinch second place.
As was widely predicted prior to the start, the headwind put a brake on attacking racing and the first race of Opening Weekend in the Classics wasn’t the thriller that it tends to be. Seven breakaway riders went clear from the start, and the peloton was happy to let them spend most of the race at the front.
Although UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Visma | Lease a Bike did attempt to break the deadlock on a number of occasions, their efforts always came to nothing. Ineos Grenadiers’ Josh Tarling did manage a long sortie off the front of the bunch, the Briton attacking 50km from home, but he was eventually reeled in on the Berendries climb, with 29km remaining, and the seven escapees were caught moments later.
Alpecin-Deceuninck and Soudal Quick-Step had played a prominent part in those efforts and then applied themselves to neutralizing late attacks. A group of 18 did go clear after the penultimate climb, the Muur in Geraardsbergen, but these riders never managed to forge a race-winning gap.
On the race’s final climb, the Bosberg, Lidl-Trek’s Mathias Vacek, one of the strongest on the Muur, went full bore again but, like so many before him, he couldn’t beat the headwind and the front group came together again.
With 10km left, time trial specialist Küng did break the elastic with a typically committed solo effort. He managed to carve out a lead of 15 seconds with 6km to the finish, at which point the two groups behind him merged, providing more firepower to the pursuit of the Swiss.
Küng held his advantage with 4km to go, but then it was gradually whittled away. Eight seconds clear with two kilometres left, the Groupama rider was caught just before the kilometre-to-go banner.
All eyes were then on the sprinters and primarily on Philipsen and Magnier, whose teammates had done so much to keep the pair in contention. But Uno-X had also carefully guided their fastman Wærenskjold over the hills in the closing 50km, and the Norwegian repaid that work with a very rapid turn of speed and perfect timing.
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 2025
1 Søren Wærenskjold (Nor) Uno-X Mobility, in 4:37:53
2 Paul Magnier (Fra) Soudal Quick-Step, st
3 Jasper Philipsen (Bel) Alpecin-Deceuninck, st
4 Brent Van Moer (Bel) Lotto, st
5 Sam Watson (GB) Ineos Grenadiers, st
6 Lukáš Kubiš (Svk) Unibet Tietema Rockets, st
7 Piet Allegaert (Bel) Cofidis, st
8 Vincenzo Albanese (Ita) EF Education-EastPost, st
9 Marijn van den Berg (Ned) EF Education-EastPost, st
10 Lewis Askey (GB) Groupama-FDJ, st
