The 2025 edition of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad marks the opening salvo of the European spring classics season, with the peloton set to tackle the familiar roads and cobbled climbs of Flanders. Last year, Marianne Vos delivered a masterclass in timing and tactics, responding to repeated attacks before outsprinting Lotte Kopecky in Ninove. Elisa Longo Borghini rounded out the podium, having played her part in a tactical finale that left little margin for error.
The race has evolved significantly since its debut in 2006, rising through the ranks to join the Women’s WorldTour in 2022. While its status may be relatively new at the highest level, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad has long been a key fixture on the calendar, with a roll of honour that features some of the biggest names in women’s cycling. Annemiek van Vleuten, Anna van der Breggen, Chantal van den Broek-Blaak, Lucinda Brand, Lizzie Deignan, Amy Pieters, Emma Johansson, and Kirsten Wild have all stood atop the podium in Ninove.
Photo Credit: GettyThis year’s race sticks to the tried-and-tested formula, finishing with the legendary duo of the Muur van Geraardsbergen and Bosberg—the old Tour of Flanders finale that has defined recent editions. Since the course adopted this layout, solo victories have become the norm, with Van den Broek-Blaak, Van Vleuten, Kopecky and Van der Breggen all winning alone in recent years. A big bunch sprint is a rare sight – Christina Siggaard’s 2018 triumph remains the last time the race finished that way.
Previous Winners
2024
Marianne Vos
2023
Lotte Kopecky
2022
Annemiek van Vleuten
Omloop het Nieuwsblad Women 2025 Race Profiles
Live TV Coverage
Saturday 1st March 2025
Live on Discovery+/TNT Sports 2/Max, Sporza in Belgium often shows an extra 30mins of coverage before others start
Live from 16:00-17:30
All times in GMT
Twitter: #OHN25 or #OHNwomen
Startlist: FirstCycling
Omloop het Nieuwsblad Women 2025 Contenders
SD Worx’s Lorena Wiebes finally gets a clear run as the undisputed leader at this year’s Omloop het Nieuwsblad. For the first time since her DSM days, Wiebes won’t be another option with Vollering or Kopecky, she’s the main option. I fully expect that new-found freedom to be rewarded as well. She was massively dominant at the UAE Tour in her sprints, with none of her major rivals even getting a sniff of victory. Her climbing is looking super strong too with 20th on Jebel Hafeet that wasn’t even an all-in effort. Her near-misses here include 2nd behind teammate Kopecky in 2023 and 3rd in 2022, being first in the bunch behind the duo ahead that contested the win. Mischa Bredewold will also be worth keeping an eye on after winning a stage of the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana but should be leading out Wiebes or stepping up after a crash/mechanical incident.
In a way, Demi Vollering is in a similar boat to Lorena Wiebes this year. After last year’s triple threat saw her having to battle against her own teammate Kopecky, FDJ-Suez is set to back her to the hilt. They got a confidence-building GC + stage win at the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana, which Demi said helped to build the trust between her and her new team. She was 2nd in the 2022 Omloop het Nieuwsblad when she looked set to win, having ridden on the back wheel of Van Vleuten for 10-15km. However, she surprisingly lost the sprint-a-deux in a year where Van Vleuten had her number. If she dials up that attack she did to drop Van der Breggen, she’s going to be tough to keep up with the Muur van Geraardsbergen.
Neither of Movistar’s main hopes have made the top 10 at Omloop het Nieuwsblad before, which isn’t ideal. Marlen Reusser has often knocked on the door of that milestone though, with a few placings in the teens, but Liane Lippert only has a best of 23rd place. Part of that is down to not being able to get in the frontmost group on the Muur van Geraardsbergen and then struggling to make a dent in the sprint finish in the chasing bunch. We’ve seen Reusser in very encouraging early form this year, keeping up with Mavi Garcia on a nice diesel gradient before outsprinting her at Trofeo Palma Femina. There’s a chance she can make it to the front group over the Muur and ride that to the line.
One of the more versatile line-ups comes from Canyon SRAM. Lots of eyes will be on Kasia Niewiadoma and she was 7th here last season. She had a fairly quiet opener at Setmana Ciclista Valenciana finishing 18th overall there and wasn’t able to go with the GC-winning attack from Vollering. That’s hopefully a sign that she’s riding into form for goals later on but this may still be too early compared to others in that cycle. Chiara Consonni opened up with 2nd place at Trofeo Marratxi-Felanitx for her new team but then only managed 7th in the UAE Tour before getting hurt on the final stage crash. She needs a big group to come to the finish together here to improve on her best of 16th in 2022. Soraya Paladin can be called upon if Consonni isn’t there though. The Italian is often consistently just outside of the top-10 in Ninove but did finish 9th in 2023. We can probably rule out 2013 winner Tiffany Cromwell, who does have 6 top-10 finishes here but none since 2016.
Puck Pieterse is always going to be considered a threat in a cobbled classic. She was 8th here last year after just missing out on the lead group but making the 2nd one of the road. She had a so-so cyclocross season but it had fewer races as the Dutch rider somehow successfully balances 2-3 seasons without any serious off-season gap. Her sprint is potentially her weaker point compared to rivals but she should still be in the mix. Teammate Christina Schweinberger was 8th herself in the 2023 edition of Omloop het Nieuwsblad but had a very quiet UAE Tour as the Fenix-Deceuninck team there was almost invisible. In theory, the Austrian should be in the service of Pieterse here.
Thalita de Jong finished 5th and best of the 2nd group in last year’s edition. Now on the Human Powered Health team, she should get more support than before too. The Dutch rider has already got 2025 off to a good start, winning the Trofeo Binissalem-Andratx last month. She was also consistent across all 4 stages of the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana on her way to 10th in GC after 3 top-10 finishes. She has the chance to make the podium here. Teammate Lily Williams is also one to watch after her 2nd place from the break at the UAE Tour. That bodes well for her form coming into this but the Muur probably sees her miss out on the front group of the race after that point. If it does come back together, she’ll be a useful lead-out for De Jong.
It’s tempting to look at Elisa Balsamo but I think Lidl-Trek’s main hope will be in the direction of Emma Norsgaard. She’s been knocking on the door of the win in previous years with finishes of 2nd, 4th and 6th in recent years. She’s got that ability to mix it on the Muur, hang on over the Bosberg and be quick enough to really challenge in the final sprint too. It’s tough to see her beat someone like Wiebes but the make-up of any front group with her in it could work in her favour. Balsamo was 4th herself in 2022 and 10th last year and winning the bunch sprint behind the winners feels like what she can manage. She had a disappointing UAE Tour but got her confidence back at the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana with 2 victories in Spain. Anna Henderson might also be a useful threat to have with a best of 7th in 2022 but should be one of the elitest of domestiques here. The same goes for the 2016 winner Lizzie Deignan who went 3rd, 3rd and 1st but that was 8 to 10 years ago.
Picking a top contender from Liv Jayco AlUla is a little tough at the moment. It should be Ruby Roseman-Gannon who has almost made the top-10 in 2 of the last 3 seasons but had a very quiet Australia season. She was 4th in the nationals criterium but then only a best of 12th across the rest of the UCI races at home. Hopefully, that means she’s going to come on strong now but it’s tough to tip with confidence. It’s a similar story to Letizia Paternoster who has no result of note here before and found trouble in the UAE Tour when she crashed, somersaulted and then got ridden into on the floor too. She’s recovered but it’s not an ideal start to the year.
Pfeiffer Georgi should be a solid threat for Team Picnic-PostNL. The Brit appears to have come back well from a neck fracture in securing 10th in GC at the UAE Tour Women. That featured a major climb which isn’t quite her strength but she was up there with a solid finish and was able to stay out of trouble on the other stages with the crosswinds, the echelons good practice for the spring classics season. She will probably need to go solo to win or launch a decisive late attack but the podium is potentially there if all goes well.
UAE Team ADQ is full of confidence at the moment after winning their home tour at the start of February. The winner from that race isn’t here but Silvia Persico put in a huge effort to deliver the win on Jebel Hafeet and was strong enough to push on and finish 2nd herself still that day. With a big goal early on, there are riders on that team clearly in form already and Persico appears to be one of them. She was also 2nd at the Trofeo Binissalem-Andratx and 3rd at the Trofeo Palma Femina. She doesn’t have a great history here but a new best should be on the cards. There will also be a solid backup in Eleonora Gasparrini with the Italian finishing 4th and 8th at Setmana Ciclista Valenciana and joining Persico in the top-10 in both of the earlier Spanish races too.
Uno-X Mobility has relegation points to worry about and they’ve started the 2025 season strongly too. Linda Zanetti took the win at the Vuelta CV Feminas and was 2nd last weekend at the Clasica de Almeria too. She’s the team’s purer sprinter option and whether she can translate her current form into a result over the Muur will be new ground for the Swiss rider. Ingvild Gåskjenn doesn’t have a result of note here before either but was 2nd on the 3rd stage of the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana before finishing 7th on the final day too. The Norwegian is a nice bridge between Zanetti and the other major Uno-X option of Maria Giulia Confalonieri. The Italian was 3rd in 2018 and 8th in 2022 with both races finishing with quite large groups coming to the line together. She was 9th on the 2nd stage of the UAE Tour and might’ve been building up to a result at this year’s Omloop het Nieuwsblad.
VolkerWessels hasn’t raced at all so far in 2025 so their form is hard to gauge at the moment. They’ve got the likes of Eline Jansen and Margot Vanpachtenbeke lining up here though as their leaders, plus the intriguing signing of Lonneke Uneken. Jansen and Vanpachtenbeke both had breakthrough years last season, with both riders securing results across plenty of different races across the calendar. For Vanpachtenbeke, that saw wins at the Thüringen Ladies Tour and the Giro Toscana (Stage + GC). Jansen took a win herself at the Tour de l’Ardeche. For Lonneke Uneken, her move away from SD Worx is a chance to reboot a career that was just kinda stalling. She was once the next big young thing after some early results on that team but got stuck down the pecking order once they brought in Kopecky and Wiebes. This could be an early opportunity.
EF Education-Oatly is another one of those teams that’s slightly harder to pick a solid favourite from. I’m going with Letizia Borghesi after recent finishes of 7th at the Clasica de Almeria and 11th at Trofeo Palma Femina. Those show she is climbing well enough to contest wins, even if those climbs aren’t exactly replicas of the Muur van Geraardsbergen. She doesn’t have a top-20 finish yet here. Teammate Lotta Henttala feels like a longer shot to survive the Muur herself but does have a win already in 2025 thanks to the Trofeo Marratxi-Felantix.
The Arkea-B&B Hotels pair of Michaela Drummond and Marjolein van’t Geloof will hopefully be in the hunt for a result here. Both have gone well already in 2025 with Drummond finishing 4th at the Vuelta CV Feminas and 5th at the Trofeo Marratxi-Felantix. That bodes well for any sprint here but once again, it’s the Muur and Bosberg finish that may prove to be too much for the Kiwi rider who is taking part in her first Omloop het Nieuwsblad. Teammate Van’t Geloof surprisingly doesn’t have a good history here with a best result of only 40th. It feels like a race where she should be finishing higher than that and this will be another opportunity after finishing 9th at the Trofeo Marratxi-Felanitx herself.
Finally, Cofidis’ strongest option should be Victoire Berteau but her lack of sprint limits what she could potentially do here. She was 16th last season but could crack into the top-10 with a good ride. She had a reasonably quiet UAE Tour Women, just getting through it with the odd break here and there. Teammate Amalie Dideriksen looks to be enjoying the freedom to go for sprints again after taking 3rd on the final day in the UAE but it’s sometimes hard to see her doing a role that isn’t part domestique here unless the team is backing her to crest the Muur near the front. We might see Nadia Quagliotto as the furthest forward Cofidis rider and the Italian has been flirting with the bottom end of the top-10 already this season in Spain. She took 10th on Stage 3 at the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana but has also been finishing in the teens elsewhere.
Omloop het Nieuwsblad Women 2025 Outsiders
For AG Insurance-Soudal, Alex Manly has never raced Omloop het Nieuwsblad and Gladys Verhulst-Wild has only taken part in one edition back in 2021 (59th). Both have the rider type that could work in their favour, particularly if they’re in the right group sprinting for the line and maybe the top-10. Manly is coming off a strong Australian part of the season, which may mean her form from January is over but also gave her some confidence. 5th in the Surf Coast Classic was her best result at home. Gladys Verhulst-Wild meanwhile used her time in the UAE Tour to finish 5th and 6th, dodging the incidents to great effect and securing some top results against full sprinters. That bodes well for this race.
Petra Zsanko has some promising results already this season for Ceratizit Pro Cycling. The Hungarian finished 7th at the Trofeo Binissalem-Andratx for her best result so far in 2025 and a couple of other decent results in Spain too. She’s still developing and moved up a solid step this season in level but has a decent kick that she hopefully will get to use here.
Sophie von Berswordt had some promising results last season in cobbled classics, all whilst working for leaders like Marianne Vos. With no such worries this year, maybe we will get a chance to see what the former mountain biker can do for her own chances. Her recent results in the UAE Tour hide that she was working full for Pauline Ferrand-Prévot there so hopefully aren’t an indication of where her own form is at.
Top 3 Prediction
⦿ Lorena Wiebes
⦿ Demi Vollering
⦿ Marlen Reusser
