The 71st edition of the
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad was held on 27 February 2016.
It was won by Belgian
Greg Van Avermaet in a five-man sprint before
Peter Sagan and
Tiesj Benoot.
The race started and finished in
Ghent, Belgium, covering 200.8 km.
The ''Omloop'' marked the start of the
cobbled classics season in Europe and was rated as a
1.HC event of the
2016 UCI Europe Tour
The 2016 UCI Europe Tour was the twelfth season of the UCI Europe Tour. The 2016 season began on 28 January 2016 with the Vuelta a Mallorca, Trofeo Santanyí-Ses Salines-Campos and ended on 23 October 2016 with the Chrono des Nations.
French rid ...
.
Preview
Route
The Omloop Het Nieuwsblad started in
Ghent,
East Flanders, and addressed the
Flemish Ardennes in the south of the
province, featuring numerous short climbs, before returning to Ghent.
This edition, organizers needed to find an alternative for the traditional start and finish location on
Sint-Pietersplein
The Sint-Pietersplein (; "St. Peter's Square") is a city square located in the south of the historic centre of Ghent, East Flanders, Belgium. The square is named after St. Peter's Abbey, which is located along its east side. It is Ghent's l ...
. In 2016 organizers chose , the site adjacent to the
Kuipke velodrome, as the start location. The finish was on
Emile Claus thoroughfare, close to the starting place.
At 200 kilometres and with a dozen climbs in the ''hill zone'', the course was challenging and arduous. Additionally, there were several flat stretches of cobbles.
The race featured one new climb, Boembekeberg, as a replacement for the
Molenberg, which was skipped because of road works.
There are thirteen categorized climbs:
Pre-race favourites
Britain's
Ian Stannard, the winner of the previous two editions, was not present in this year's event. World champion
Peter Sagan was among the key favourites, together with classics specialists
Alexander Kristoff,
Tom Boonen,
Greg Van Avermaet and
Philippe Gilbert
Philippe Gilbert (born 5 July 1982) is a Belgian former professional road bicycle racer, who is best known for winning the World Road Race Championships in 2012, and for being one of two riders, along with Davide Rebellin, to have won the three ...
. Former world time trial champion
Tony Martin made a first appearance.
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Teams
25 teams were invited: 12
UCI WorldTeams and 13
continental teams. In total, 199 riders were at the start.
Race report
Twelve riders, among which
Alexis Gougeard
Alexis Gougeard (born 5 March 1993 in Rouen) is a French cyclist, who currently rides for French amateur team VC Rouen 76.
He specializes in time trials and track cycling. He became professional in 2014, as a member of the team. He was named in ...
, were in the early breakaway, as and held them within range of the peloton.
Greg Van Avermaet,
Luke Rowe and
Tiesj Benoot broke clear on
Taaienberg, immediately being joined by
Peter Sagan on the descent. The four riders caught the remaining early escapees and dropped them all on the last cobbled sections, except for Gougeard. Powering on to Ghent, the elite group stayed clear until the finish and the race was decided in a five-man sprint. Van Avermaet led out the slightly uphill sprint from afar and sealed his first win of the season. Sagan was second, Benoot third.
Jens Debusschere won the sprint for sixth place, nine seconds behind Van Avermaet.
Results
Notes
References
External links
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{{Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad – Men's race
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad