No two roads to Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and the Opening Weekend are ever identical, but for former winner Michael Valgren (EF Education-EasyPost), his long countdown to Saturday’s start in Gent is perhaps one of the rarest and most tenacious of recent years.
Valgren was victorious in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in 2018 before going on to clinch the Amstel Gold Race the same spring. However, in June 2022, at the Route d’Occitanie, a major crash left the Danish rider with a fractured pelvis, two ruptured knee ligaments and a ruptured meniscus. That evening, doctors were unwilling to say if a return to racing was ever going to be possible or if Valgren’s career was over.
