With the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, the 'real' season kickܫs o🧔ff for many fans this weekend's Opening Weekend double header.

The 2023 season has, of course, been underway for over a month, taking in races in Australia, the Middle East, and around Europe, but the first Belgian races mark the start of the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Spring Classics.

Om🐻loop is the bigger race of the two, featuring a tougher parcours as opposed to the sprinter-friendly Kuurne. It's also the first Belgian race of the new season and the famous hills such as Berendries, Bosberg, and the fabled Muur van Geraardsbergen are on the menu.

As ever, the top cobb⛎led Classics stars will mix in with ൲promising young hopefuls on the start line. The race is frankly too far away from the main slate of April Classics to serve as a real indicator of form, but a top result is a real confidence booster heading into the cobbled period as well as something to savour in its own right.

One factor which takes some starry sheen off the race will be the absence of 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Mathieu van der Poel and 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Wout van Aert at the start in Gent.

The two career-long ri🦂vals raced full cyclocross seasons over the winter, culminating in a duel for the ages at the Worlds in Hoogerheide. As a result, they won't make their season road debut until Strade Bianℱche next week, the first in a series of mouth-watering clashes set to take place throughout the spring.

For Van der Poel, missing Omloop is nothing new – the Dutchman has never☂ taken part in the race – but Van Aert is the reigning champion, having soloed to glory in Ninov💜e on his fourth appearance 12 months ago.

Had they been racing on Saturday; the duo would surely be right at the top of the bookmakers' odds li🃏sts. Their absence, then, will have a great effect on the race, but how?

"That's already two places won. Of course, it's nice for the race if they are there, but for my results, it's better that they're not at the start," AG2R Citroën co-leader 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Oliver Naesen joked in conversation with earlier this week.

"That's not meant in a negative sense; I just take my hat off to the level they're at. If Wout pins on a number like last year's Oml🅠oop, we have no recourse against it. I tried on the flat last year, but he just countered me and rode away from ꩵeveryone."

Naesen added that before Van der Poel and Van Aert started riding full seasons on the road a few years back, the list🎃 of potential winners at Opening Weekend was much longer. That's likely to be the case once again this weekend, then.

"Without Wout and Mathieu, nobody stands out and it's a bit more open," his teammate, double Omloop winner, 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Greg Van Avermaet agreed. "🦩Few canꦛ ride away in the way Wout did last year.

"Still, if I have to be honest, I'd rather have them there. That gives some extra cachet to the race, just like cycloc꧋ross," he added while acknowledging that the race is still a major event regardless of the names on the s🥃tart list.

"It's different without Wout and Mathieu. Then, you try to ride as good a race as possible. Following them is really difficult, and you basically start hoping for a good placing. Now it's going to be up t🅰o others."

Van Avermaet named several "men from the second line" – such as Jumbo-Visma's impressive list of Van Aert super-lieutenants 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Dylan van Baarle, Christophe Laporte and Tiesj Benoot – would be among the top favourites on Saturday, while he joined in the chorus of those tipping 𓂃Lotto-Dstny wunderkind Arnaud De Lie for contention.

The AG2R duo will be prime among the contenders, too, as will Ineos Grenadiers' 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:demon descender Tom Pidcock, Jasper Stuyven at Trek-Segafredo, new Uno-X leader Alexander Kristoff, Groupama-FDJ's Stefan Küng, Soudal-QuickStep's coterie of Classics stars including 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Yves Lampaert, Kasper Asgreen, and more besides.

168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Sep Vanmarcke, who saw his spring last year derailed by a series of illnesses, will head up Israel-Premier Techꦇ's challenge.

"I haven't really looked into it yet and haven't paid attention to the Classics men yet. I'm mainly concerned with myself," the 2012 winner told Het Nieuwsblad. "I'm mainly focussed on ge✃tting to a good level where I think I can ride finals.

"It opens up prospects for everyone that Van der Poel and Van Aert are skipping Omloop this year. At the same time, it also means that teams will race more freely and openly🏅."

The two biggest stars of the Classics peloton may be giving Omloop Het Nieuwsblad a miss this time around, but the first Vlaamse klassikier of 2023