For the third year in a row, Visma-Lease a Bike came away from the first half of Opening Weekend at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad with a win as Jan Tratnik followed Wout van Aert and Dylan van Baarle in adding his name to the honour roll in Ninove.
The dominant Dutch squad began in the same manner as they did last time out, filling two-thirds of the podium as Van Aert filled the Christophe Laporte role in third place.
They had animated the race all day, long before the television broadcast started, first blowing the peloton apart in the crosswinds 130km from home and then ending up occupying half of the six-man group that survived well into the final.
But even when the reduced peloton made its way back to the front of the race on the final climb of the Bosberg, the team made use of their numerical advantage to rack up another triumph.
Despite his third-place finish, however, Van Aert said that he's not yet at his best – understandable given that the height of spring Classics season still lies some weeks away.
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"I'm satisfied, though I was on the limit a few times. There's still room for improvement," Van Aert told the assembled Belgian media after the finish, despite also admitting that he could have won the race himself.
"We couldn't have made anything more out of it today. I could have won myself, but we said beforehand that we had several riders who could win. We showed that; it was great how we dared to take the initiative and we were rewarded for that."
His team's plan to blow up the race in the heavy winds well before the halfway mark was put into action later than they had hoped, Van Aert said.
Rather than pushing the pace after passing through Tour of Flanders finish town Oudenaarde with some 150km remaining, they instead had to wait a few towns over, before the wind picked up after passing through Kruisem.
The resulting move, which left Visma with five men up front in a group of 23, made the race, shaping the action for the rest of the afternoon, even if the first two steps of the podium – with Nils Politt a valiant runner-up – were filled by riders who had missed the initial break.
"It's funny that it wasn't on television," Van Aert said. "There was a lot of wind and there were some sections where we could pull the peloton to one side. We planned to take the initiative and at the second or third attempt there was a split in the peloton, and we had five in front.
"We had planned to do it earlier, but after Oudenaarde the wind wasn't really right yet. It really came after Kruisem. It didn't stop after that anyway.
"We knew it would be a war of attrition anyway, thanks to the wind, and then we were at an advantage as the strongest team."
Victory pancakes for Tratnik
Visma-Lease A Bike general manager Richard Plugge couldn't hide his happiness at yet another successful start to the spring Classics season for his charges.
The Dutchman called the race a "confirmation" for the condition of the riders in the squad, which could also count newcomer Matteo Jorgenson – who split the splitters with a move at 54km to go before later going solo off the front 21km out – among their impressive number.
"It's very important. It's a confirmation for everyone that they're in such good shape," Plugge said.
"We once again showed a great team effort and played it out well with the entire team. It's another 'beyond' victory and a very nice win for us."
Plugge said that the groups coming back together in the final – which resulted in a 30-plus man group at the head of the race rather than the six there previously – meant that the result was perhaps less certain than his preferred scenario, a rider such as Jorgenson going solo to Ninove.
However, with a first and third as well as Laporte in fifth, he can hardly be too put out about the outcome.
"From those six at the front, we would have preferred one to go solo to the finish," he said. "At the same time, if you see how many men we still had in the final group then that was also good.
"We saw that Wout also won the sprint for third, so it's true that Jan could gamble a bit and stay in the wheel after his attack.
"The pancakes are for Jan Tratnik now. It was his birthday yesterday, so he'll get quite a few pancakes with a good dollop of whipped cream, jam, and candles," he concluded jokingly.
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