Jumbo-Visma are the new super team in town after Omloop Het Nieuwsblad dominance – despite no Wout van Aert

Before the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 2023 rolled out of a cold humid Ghent this morning, the opening bout of Opening Weekend had been billed as the most open edition in years.

In the absence of Wout van Aert, and his life-long rival Mathieu van der Poel, the bookies certainly had no idea. The odds they were offering were all over the place. Who’s that up there as a favourite? What’s he doing among the no-hopers?

From a certain point of view the race did manage to live up to that billing. Because, in retrospect, almost any rider could have won it. As long as they happened to be wearing the yellow of Jumbo-Visma.

Previously, “pick one of seven from Quick-Step” was a decent rule of thumb for predicting the spring Classics. But there’s a new super team in town and that label surely now applies only to the Dutch outfit.

That’s not to take anything away from the performance of Van Baarle, which was nothing short of astonishing. He was so strong that even when he had company, through the final 40km of the race, he was effectively a lone wolf. Up against three chasers (plus one team-mate hitchhiker) in the final phase of the race, he not only kept all of the 20-second advantage that he carried onto the Muur van Geraardsbergen but added to it.

It is a testament to the fact that whatever wonders Jumbo-Visma have been working all winter on Mount Teide, the benefits have been fairly evenly applied – accruing to all as individuals and as a collective.

Before Van Baarle made his self-professed instinctive move, on the third crossing of the Haaghoek, much less than sheltering in the wheels from the Flandrien chill, he had contributed every inch of his fair share of the workload that kept the race under Jumbo-Visma’s spell from first flag to last. The lesson seems to be that there’s no need to save matches when you’ve got a bigger box than everyone else.

In his post-victory interview, the rider seemed, if anything, a tad embarrassed to be standing there. Almost as if it wasn’t supposed to him.

As the newest of new boys, it probably wasn’t.

His response hit all the usual notes; he was as humble as you’d expect. “The guys did an incredible job,” he said. “The guys rode incredible.”

Of course it’s not unusual for a race winner to go to great lengths to thank their team-mates. That goes doubly, trebly or quintuply so for one making his debut for a new outfit. Everyone wants to fit in.

Still, it is rare for such a speech to ring as true as it did on Sunday and Van Baarle’s eyes gave away not even a glimmer of anything but gratitude.

Jumbo-Visma cannot, and will not, win every race, but a team does not finish first and third by accident. As well as giving us a sublime solo victory, this showed us how one team can completely dominate a race. We haven’t seen the likes of it for a while, but we surely won’t have to wait long before seeing it again.

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