Jan Tratnik (Visma-Lease a Bike) won the 2024 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in a two-up sprint with Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates).
It was the rider who finished second who'd done the majority of the work to keep the chasing group at bay, but then had nothing left for the sprint.
Tratnik's win saved the day for Visma-Lease a Bike: for a time, they had three riders in a lead group of six – which didn't include Tratnik – but then allowed the peloton to come back to them and looked like they may have blown it.
As it was, the super-team still got first, third and fifth, but there was a nervy few kilometres where it looked like they might come away with nothing.
The race coming back together made for a more exciting and less predictable finale, while the strongest team still came out on top – even if the actual winner was a surprise to most.
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 2024 men's race: How it happened
On a chilly day with some noticeable wind, the riders of the men's peloton headed out of Gent towards Ninove for the 2024 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. Between the two Flemish towns stood many sectors of cobbles and a few climbs. Sometimes the climbs had cobbles.
There was some early chaos due to crashes that held up riders behind and caused splits in the peloton. With 60km to go, the race was calmer but a front group had 40 seconds, a gap the riders behind had to work hard to close if they were going to have any hope of winning.
Visma-Lease a Bike used the steeper slopes of the Wolvenberg to push on and shell a lot of riders out of what had been a fairly large group. The resulting group of seven, which soon dropped to six, included three from Visma: Wout van Aert, Christophe Laporte and Matteo Jorgensen. The other three were Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), Toms Skujiņš (Lidl-Trek) and Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Dstny).
Despite having a man up the road, Lidl-Trek's Tim Declercq was doing most of the pulling on the front of the chasing peloton. Even so, the time was going out and was soon over 50 seconds.
Skujiņš looked very strong going up the cobbled ascent of the Molenberg. Pidcock didn't look his best on the climb, which may have been why Ineos Grenadiers were seen driving on the front of the peloton for a short while up the cobbled climb.
However, over the top, Pidcock was the first to react to Laporte's attack. Stripping away his gilet and grabbing a bidon as he went, Pidcock was soon on the wheel. But then the other four caught up too.
Spread across the road and already looking defeated, the peloton seemed to have sat up with 38km to go. The gap to the lead group grew accordingly and went out over a minute. Into the Haaghoek the pace went up a bit, but most riders seemed happy to lose now rather than try to win but possibly end up losing later anyway.
Skujiņš fancied it on the Berendries and, despite the best efforts of the crowd to get in the way, he came round the group and got ahead. Van Aert took responsibility for chasing but the gap went out. Meanwhile, Pidcock was temporarily distanced, but came back to the group as the group came back to Skujiņš.
The cameras moved back to the peloton, where they found Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quick Step) on the ground after a crash including several riders and some traffic calming bollards. This was after the Frenchman had already had at least two bike changes. On a day when he would have wanted to make a statement with his riding, it was a race to forget for Alaphilippe.
At this point, it looked likely that the win would come from the group of six. But then it all kicked off.
Just over 21km to go, Jorgensen dropped off the back of the group and accelerated into the slipstream to launch an attack. His teammates were happy to see him go while the three individual riders looked at each other.
Behind them, the gap was temporarily dropping to the chasing peloton.
De Lie took to the front of the five on the Muur-Kapelmuur, Pidcock went out the back and Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates) passed him on the steeper gradients. It hadn't looked likely just a few kilometres before, but now the peloton appeared to be within touching distance of the leaders.
Arguably questionable tactics from Visma-Lease a Bike for your stronger two riders to sit up and allow your weakest rider (of the trio) to go ahead, which opened the door for riders behind to come back. Skujiņš was dropped but got back on; Wellens replaced Pidcock in the second group.
Wellens took it up on the Bosberg, but the group behind went even harder and groups two and three almost merged before stringing out and breaking up again. Jorgensen was caught just over the top.
Van Aert had a pop but didn't get clear.
Van Aert's teammate Jan Tratnik went next to provoke a reaction from Visma's rivals. Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirate) obliged and made it a lead duo.
Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) took up chasing duties, but the Politt-powered duo was holding its advantage. The pair staying away wasn't guaranteed, with the peloton in sight up the finish funnel.
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 2024: Results
1. Jan Tratnik (Slo) Visma-Lease a Bike, 4:31:27
2. Nils Politt (Ger) UAE Team Emirates, at 00:03
3. Wout van Aert (Bel) Visma-Lease a Bike, at 00:08
4. Oliver Naesen (Bel) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, same time
5. Christophe Laporte (Fra) Visma-Lease a Bike, st
6. Laurenz Rex (Bel) Intermarché-Wanty, st
7. Jasper Stuyven (Bel) Lidl-Trek, st
8. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, st
9. Matteo Trentin (Ita) Tudor Pro, st
10. Arnaud De Lie (Bel) Lott Dstny, st
