The Spring Classics start Saturday. No fanfare, no WorldTour stage race build-up. Just a 200-kilometer loop through Flemish farmland and short, brutal cobbled climbs that will shred any rider who isn’t ready.

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, February 28th. The season opener.

Van der Poel is in. Van Aert scratched late — reported illness, which tells you everything about how marginal the condition window is at this point in the calendar. One bad week and you miss your opening race. The parallels to amateur training are more direct than they seem.

Quick Answer

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on February 28th kicks off the Spring Classics season with 11 Flemish climbs and 7 sections of cobbles. For amateur cyclists targeting spring fondos (Flanders Sportive, Paris-Roubaix Challenge, local sportives with punchy climbs), this weekend is a real-time reference for the exact fitness you need to build right now. Van der Poel’s positioning and pacing choices on the Berendries and Wolvenberg tell you more about base-to-race transitions than any training article.

Best for: Riders with 8+ weeks of base training targeting a spring fondo or classics-style sportive in March-May The race is: Saturday February 28th, approximately 200km, Ghent to Ninove What to watch for: How the race unfolds on the short climbs — the accelerations, the recovery, the selective group formation

Why Omloop Matters More Than You Think

Most cyclists with any interest in the classics know Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. Fewer actually watch it closely enough to learn from it.

The race is relatively short by classics standards — 200-odd kilometers, no single climb longer than two kilometers. It doesn’t have the iconic finish of the Tour of Flanders or the cobbled trenches of Roubaix. What it has is the same ingredient list: short Flemish climbs (bergs), sectors of cobblestones, and a race that rewards repeated high-power efforts over moderate-length climbs rather than sustained climbing ability.

That ingredient list is exactly what most spring fondos test. The Flanders Sportive goes over the Koppenberg and Paterberg. The Paris-Roubaix Challenge hits the same pavé sectors as the pros. Smaller spring sportives across Belgium, northern France, and even events in the UK and US that mimic this style of riding — they all share a common physiological demand.

The demand: punchy, repeated efforts over short climbs. High power for 2-5 minutes. Brief, incomplete recovery. Then do it again.

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad is essentially a 200km stress test of that specific fitness. Watch it Saturday and you’ll see what it looks like when that fitness is there — and what happens when it isn’t.

The Van der Poel Situation

Mathieu van der Poel making his 2026 road debut at Omloop is significant, but not for the reasons cycling media tends to focus on. He’s not the story because he’s the favorite. The story is what his presence tells you about base fitness timing.

Van der Poel rides cyclocross through January. His road base for spring classics is compressed — typically 6-8 weeks of serious road-specific preparation before Omloop. Yet he’s consistently competitive at this race, often winning or finishing in the front group.

What that demonstrates: the base-to-race transition for short, punchy classics doesn’t require months of road-specific prep if your underlying aerobic base is deep. Van der Poel’s cyclocross season gives him exceptional high-intensity conditioning through winter. The road-specific layer builds on top quickly.

For amateurs, the parallel is clear. If you’ve put in a genuine 8-week winter base (consistent zone 2, two intensity sessions per week), you’re not far behind where you need to be for a May fondo. The base-to-race transition from here to your event is a 6-8 week project, not a 6-month rebuild.

Van Aert scratching late is the other lesson. He likely overtrained or got ill during an aggressive late-February build. Cost: missing the race he’d been preparing for. For amateurs pushing February intensity to peak for early spring events, that’s a real risk. If you’re feeling run-down this week, backing off and targeting a later event is smarter than trying to muscle through.

What the Flemish Climbs Actually Demand

The climbs at Omloop — the Berendries, the Wolvenberg, the Leberg — are nothing like the climbs at alpine cycling events. They’re short (500 meters to 1.5km), steep (gradients of 7-14%), and surrounded by fast flat roads that keep average speeds high.

The physiological demand of these climbs is specific. You’re not grinding a 20-minute Alpe d’Huez-style climb. You’re:

1. Riding at 40-45kph on flat roads in a large group
2. Hitting the base of a climb at speed, needing to accelerate rather than settle in
3. Producing 5-6 minutes of power at well above threshold
4. Recovery happening at 35-40kph on the descent and flats before the next section

That pattern — high-power burst, partial recovery, repeated — is the exact thing threshold training alone doesn’t prepare you for. You need both the aerobic base (to keep baseline power high on the flats) and the capacity to go well above threshold repeatedly (to get over each climb without cracking).

If you’ve been doing mostly zone 2 this winter and adding some sweet spot work, your aerobic base is probably solid. But your ability to produce 5-6 minute efforts at 110-120% FTP repeatedly will need specific training over the next 4-6 weeks. Fixable. Start now.

Reading the Race Saturday: What to Watch For

1. How groups form on the Berendries

The first significant climb of Omloop typically sees the first hard selection. Watch which riders are on the front going into the climb versus which are scrambling at the back. The riders at the front are there because they’ve been managing power on the preceding flat sectors — not going too hard, positioning without burning matches.

The amateur parallel: your biggest risk on a spring fondo isn’t the climbs themselves, it’s going too hard on the flat sections between climbs. Arriving at the first berg with legs already compromised by excessive flat-road effort is how a manageable climb becomes a death march.

2. How riders pace the cobbled sectors

The cobbles in Omloop are harder than the climbs for most amateur cyclists to manage — not because of the vibration, but because of the positioning and power requirements. Riders who lose the wheel on a cobbled section face an almost impossible chase back on smooth roads. Staying on wheels in the cobbled sections requires momentary power surges, quick pedaling on rough surfaces, and bike handling that doesn’t come from indoor training.

For amateurs planning a Paris-Roubaix Challenge or similar event: if your current training is entirely on smooth roads or indoors, add rough-road or gravel riding before your event. The bike-handling stress of cobbles is real.

3. When the final selection happens

Omloop typically comes down to a group of 5-15 riders in the last 40km. Watch specifically when the front group shrinks from 30+ to its final racing size. It usually happens at one of the late climbs — the Wolvenberg or the finishing circuits around Ninove. The riders who get dropped aren’t getting dropped because they can’t climb. They’re getting dropped because their ability to produce repeated high-power efforts is exhausted.

This is the fitness gap that matters most for spring fondo riders. Your legs at kilometer 150 of a 160km fondo will tell you whether your training built genuine endurance or just early-ride fitness.

The Training Translation

Here’s what watching Omloop Het Nieuwsblad Saturday should make you do on Monday.

If your spring fondo is 6+ weeks away:

You have time to build this specific fitness properly. The spring classics base-to-race training guide covers the 4-week block in detail. The short version: two more weeks of threshold-based work, then 2 weeks of VO2 max and race-specific power, then a taper.

Start the base-to-race transition this week. Not next week.

If your spring fondo is 3-5 weeks away:

You’re in the final build window. The work that matters now is over-threshold intervals (5-8 minute efforts at 105-112% FTP) and long rides with climbs built in. If you don’t have access to climbs, replicate them with tempo intervals on a climb-free route. Sustained high power on flat roads isn’t the same thing physiologically, but it builds the capacity.

Check the February peaking block for a tight 3-week structure that fits this window exactly.

If your spring fondo is 8+ weeks away:

You’re watching Omloop for motivation and calibration, not urgency. Use the race as a reference point for what you’re training toward. Continue building base with two intensity sessions per week. The pressure isn’t there yet — but don’t waste these extra weeks on junk miles.

The Session the Classics Demand

I’ll give you the exact workout that trains the Omloop physiological pattern. You can do this Saturday evening after watching the race, or Monday if you need a rest day first.

Flemish Berg Repeats

This session replicates the on-off demand of a classics-style race. You need a 3-5% grade for at least 4-5 minutes of climbing, or you can simulate it with power targets on flat roads.

• Warm-up: 20 min progressive, include 3x1 min at 90% FTP
• Main set: 5x5 min at 108-115% FTP (RPE: 8.5-9/10)
  • Recovery: 5 min at 55-65% FTP between efforts (partial recovery, not full)
  • The partial recovery is the key — you want your legs incompletely recovered before each repeat
• Between sets 3 and 4: 8 min at zone 2 (simulate the flat section between climbs)
• Cool-down: 15 min easy

Without a power meter: Effort 8.5-9/10 — breathing hard enough that speech is broken. The 5-minute efforts should feel worse by interval 4 than interval 1. That progressive deterioration is the training signal.

The goal isn’t to hit perfect power across all five intervals. The goal is to complete five efforts at high intensity with incomplete recovery. That’s what Omloop demands of its finishers.

Equipment Check: What the Classics Tell You

Professional teams use Omloop and the early classics as equipment testing. Wheel choice for cobbles, tire pressure experiments, bike position under race stress. They’re confirming decisions, not making new ones.

If you’re doing a spring fondo on cobbles or rough roads, use this weekend as a reminder to check your own setup.

Tire pressure for cobbled or rough terrain is lower than most amateurs run. If you’re riding 25mm tires at 90-100 PSI on smooth roads, drop to 70-80 PSI for rough terrain. The comfort improvement is real and the rolling resistance cost is small. For 28mm tires, 65-75 PSI.

Bike fit under fatigue matters too. The position that feels fine for 50km often becomes a back or neck problem at 130km. If you haven’t done a longer ride in the position you plan to use for your fondo, do one before the event. Problems discovered in training are fixable.

For power meter users: if your spring classics fondo has significant cobbled sections, your power numbers on cobbles will look erratic. Normal. Rough surfaces create transmission interruptions and pedaling irregularities. Don’t try to hold target watts on the cobbles. Ride feel and RPE.

Van der Poel’s Base-to-Race Timing

There’s one more professional parallel worth taking seriously.

Van der Poel’s cyclocross season ends in late January. His road season for the Spring Classics doesn’t fully begin until late March (Ghent-Wevelgem, Tour of Flanders). The period from late January to late March — approximately 8 weeks — is his base-to-race transition for cobbled classics.

Eight weeks. For one of the best classics riders in the world.

That framing is useful for amateurs who feel like they’re behind. If you’ve been training consistently this winter, you have the base. Eight weeks from now, if you structure the training correctly, you can be fit for a spring fondo. You don’t need six months from scratch. You need a structured transition from base fitness to event-specific fitness.

Watch Omloop Saturday. See what that fitness looks like on 200km of Flemish roads. Then use the following 6-8 weeks to build toward your version of it.

The early season race prep guide covers the broader arc of getting from February base training to your first spring event. And if you want to understand what’s happening physiologically during the base-to-race shift — why your zone 2 fitness doesn’t automatically translate to race fitness and what specifically bridges the gap — Intervals.icu’s fitness model is free and will show you your CTL, ATL, and form in real time.

The classics calendar will keep moving: Strade Bianche on March 7th, Paris-Nice starting March 8th. Each race is another reference point. This weekend is the first one.

Watching the Race

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on February 28th is broadcast live on FloBikes and available via GCN+ for subscribers. The race starts mid-morning Belgian time (roughly 10:00-10:30 CET, so early morning US EST). If you can’t watch live, the GCN highlights package typically goes up same-day.

The ProCyclingStats Omloop Het Nieuwsblad page will have live results and splits once the race is running.

If you want to understand the climbs before Saturday, the Omloop route profile breaks down each berg. The Berendries (max gradient 14%), the Wolvenberg (max 15.4%), the finishing circuits — worth knowing before the racing starts so you can identify the key moments as they happen.

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Post written February 27, 2026. Race details based on team announcements available as of publication. Van Aert withdrawal reported pre-race. Van der Poel start status confirmed. Training targets use FTP percentages — recalibrate if your last test was more than 3 weeks ago.

Photo: Bryan Lucas on Unsplash