Tudor rider breaks two teeth, Mathieu van der Poel makes a miraculous save, De Lie calls Omloop Het Nieuwsblad edition 'The most dangerous Omloop of my life'

Mathieu van der Poel puts on a jacket after winning Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 2026.

The Molenberg can be where Omloop Het Nieuwsblad is won, but on Saturday, it very well could have been where Mathieu van der Poel lost the race. In a split second on the rain-slicked Belgian cobbles, the difference between his maiden victory and a hard crash was measured in millimeters.

Before Van der Poel won his maiden outing in the opening Spring Classic with a solo attack on the Muur van Geraardsbergen, he was behind Rick Pluimers of Tudor Pro Cycling on the Molenberg. There, with 45 kilometres to go, Pluimers slid out on the greasy cobbled ascent and crashed hard, face-first.