ProTeam Arnaud De Lie offensively kicked off the opening weekend

The finale of the 79th edition of the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad opened up already on 140km from the finish. 23 riders, with Arnaud De Lie and Jasper De Buyst representing Lotto Dstny, went on the move. They joined the initial breakaway, but with the gap around 40 seconds the bunch never seemed too far behind.

Another selection was made on the Wolvenberg. De Lie could follow the best riders and went along in a group with 5 other riders. Attacks all over the place, and with 20km to go, Matteo Jorgensen went solo. In the meantime in the background a part of the bunch returned. After the regroupment where everything came together again, Jan Tratnik saw his chance of attacking with 9km to go and he was joined by Nils Politt.

Lotto Dstny was really active in the back to try to close the gap to the front, to get De Lie still in a winning position. Tratnik and Politt managed to stay upfront, Tratnik won. De Lie took a 10th place in the reduced bunch sprint: "It was a super hard race and I did my best, but it was difficult with three guys of Visma. I came to win, not for a top 10 result, but I gave my all. I felt really good today, so I'm happy about the feeling. My form is in growing lign, I felt I could follow the best on the climbs so it's a good sign towards Samyn on Tuesday and Paris-Nice. It was a difficult race, but at the end 130km à bloc is also a good training", said De Lie after the race.

After his crash, Sébastien Grignard didn't finish the race and got some stitches on his knee.