'Ridiculous' - Breakaway experts lambast team tactics at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad Women as escapee Lotte Claes seals win
Updated 01/03/2025 at 18:29 GMT
TNT Sports' cycling experts on The Breakaway were highly critical of the top teams in the women's peloton as a surprise duo held off the bunch to win Omloop Nieuwsblad. Belgian rider Lotte Claes outsprinted her breakaway companion Aurela Nerlo to win her first-ever pro race, while the major teams were left scrambling behind for the one remaining podium spot after leaving the chase until too late.
'Bluffing, massive mistakes, blame' - What was behind chaotic tactics in women's Omloop?
Video credit: TNT Sports
The opening day of the Spring Classics campaign served up plenty of surprises, and once again team tactics in the women's peloton came under fire.
TNT Sports' experts on The Breakaway criticised the teams of the pre-race favourites, as a small breakaway in the women's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad was allowed a huge 14-minute advantage and two riders clung on to contest the victory, finishing more than three minutes ahead of the peloton.
Belgium's Lotte Claes (Arkea-B&B Hotels Women) secured her first pro win on a huge stage as she outsprinted breakaway companion Aurela Nerlo (Winspace Orange Seal), with Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) forced to settle for bronze.
"All of the DSs were bluffing, none of the teams were taking any sort of responsibility to chase," former pro Dani Rowe said on The Breakaway. "Is this now a problem, because of the spread of the top riders throughout the entirety of the peloton now, that they're looking at each other as if to say, we're not going to chase, and unfortunately they've made a massive mistake?
"They've let it get away.
"They completely underestimated the break, as well. Obviously when [the breakaway's advantage] gets to 14 [minutes] it's a completely different kettle of fish."
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'Bluffing, massive mistakes, blame' - What was behind chaotic tactics in women's Omloop?
Video credit: TNT Sports
One of the biggest pre-race favourites, new FDJ-Suez signing Vollering, attacked on the Muur climb around 13km from the finish and took multi-discipline talent Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) with her, dropping the rest of the bunch.
The pair stayed away but had left it too late to bridge the gap to the breakaway survivors, and eventually finished 3'25'' down, with Vollering pipping Pieterse to the final podium spot.
Dutch sprinter Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime), another one of the major favourites, led in the main group of riders another 10 seconds back.
Steve Cummings, sports director at men's team Jayco-AlUla, said: "It's always great to see the breakaway win, but, if I had any hair I would have pulled it all out. You're watching this gap grow and grow and grow... If you're Demi Vollering, you're third, she was clearly stronger than the rest of the field. I think one of the DSs somewhere has made a calculation mistake."
Adam Blythe placed much of the blame on the race favourites, rather than on team management.
"They're [the riders] not puppets," Blythe said, "They'll take instruction, but that instruction coming from the DS is ultimately the one they have to hear to ride.
"There'll be a big game going on in the team cars behind, where they're like, 'we're not riding, no matter what' [to bring the break back].
"That to me is ridiculous. You can put the blame on FDJ the most, because they had the strongest rider in the race. Demi wanted that race to be hard. For Demi's team, she's new in this team, she's got a lot of money to come to this team, she's their big star."
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'She can barely believe it!' - Claes takes surprise win at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
Video credit: TNT Sports
Vollering moved from super-team SD Worx-Protime over the winter in a high-profile and sometimes acrimonious split, with tactics and perceived divisions within the team frequently grabbing headlines over the last season.
"If I was Demi I'd be like, 'Why are we not riding? I know I can win this race, you're not giving me the chance to win it - you're taking that chance away from me if anything'," Blythe continued.
"The other teams might be looking at it going, 'You're taking that chance away from Demi to win', so it becomes personal, which the riders shouldn't be bothered about. If I was a rider in that situation I'd be back at the team car giving the director a mouthful, no matter what team I'm in."
"It's a shared responsibility. If you don't have the race within your grasp to win, what's the point?" added Cummings.
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Emotional scenes as Claes' team-mates savour her momentous Omloop win
Video credit: TNT Sports
The tactics shown by the peloton ensured a famous win for one of women's cycling's smaller teams, without the might and resources of the likes of FDJ-Suez and SD Worx.
"Regardless if you've got that [strong] rider in that team, this rider in that team, they're all there for one thing, and that's to win the bike race," Blythe added. "What they did today was trying to stop them from winning, and by stopping them from winning, they were taking themselves out of the equation, too concentrated on another ride in another team. They took themselves so far out of the race they didn't even let their team leader have a chance. It's daft!"
Both the men's and women's races produced unexpected winners, as Norway's Soren Waerenskjold (Uno X-Mobility) outsprinted Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step) and Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) for the biggest win of his own career earlier on Saturday.
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