The race that heralds the start of the Spring Classics season is coming up fast this weekend, with both the men’s and women’s editions of the 2023 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday, February 25.

Where can I watch Omloop Het Nieuwsblad?

The race will be live on DSTV’s Supersport channel 206 from 15h00, and on GCN’s racing channels (but probably geo-blocked, so fire up that VPN!)

We certainly hope they step it up and actually have announcers for BOTH races this year. Yep, that’s right: if you wanted to watch the 2022 women’s edition of the race, the only audio accompaniment was helicopter noise because only the men’s race featured an announcer.

The men’s race (207.3km) will start at 15h00. The women’s race (132.2km) is kicking off at 17h25, with some form of cross-broadcast, hopefully.

Riders to watch

Wout Van Aert’s (Jumbo-Visma) solo breakaway at 13 km from the finish made last year’s win look easy for him, but he has announced that he will be skipping the race this year in favour of targeting Strade Bianchi, hoping to win a Monument in 2023. That will leave all eyes on Tom Pidcock (Ineos-Grenadiers) as the favourite to win on Saturday.

If there are any descents of note, take a sneak peak of Tom’s little run down Tuna Canyon with Saffa Brian, as a warm up. Scary, skilful stuff.

On the women’s side, last year’s winner Annemiek Van Vleuten (Team Moviestar) will undoubtedly be hunting for another win this year after Demi Vollering (SD Worx) really made her work for that top spot on the podium in 2022. As AVV winds down her incredible career during what she has announced will be her last season, she is still the top rider to beat this year.