There is a particular kind of Belgian one-day race that does not announce itself with famous names or mythologised climbs, but still has a way of producing exactly the riders it deserves. Leeuw-Oetingen sits in that category. The Pajottenland roads are not Flanders and the Zavelberg is not the Muur, but by the time the peloton has spent five laps of the local Oetingen circuit navigating cobbled sectors and punchy terrain, the field is precisely as small as the race intended it to be, and the sprint that follows rarely goes to the rider who was expected to win it without some work.
Photo Credit: RDL CyclingThe 2026 edition covers 140 kilometres from Sint-Pieters-Leeuw to Oetingen on Wednesday, 11th March, 12 kilometres further than last year’s 127.9-kilometre edition. The additional distance comes from extended opening loops incorporating two new laps through Sint-Pieters-Leeuw following a minor rerouting of the original parcours. The character of the race remains unchanged. After those preliminary loops, the peloton heads towards Oetingen and into a 12-kilometre local circuit completed five times, with two cobbled sections per lap at 500 metres and 1.1 kilometres respectively. The Zavelberg crests just three kilometres from the finish in Oetingen, 700 metres at an average of four per cent with a sharper ramp near the summit, and it is here where the race is consistently decided. Four of the five previous editions have ended in a sprint from whatever reduced group survived the Zavelberg, with only the 2023 summer edition, raced in August following a snowstorm postponement, won from a long breakaway.
Previous Winners
2025
Julie De Wilde
2024
Lorena Wiebes
2023
Simone Boilard
2026 IXINA Leeuw-Oetingen p/b Lotto route
2026 IXINA Leeuw-Oetingen p/b Lotto live TV coverage
Race Date: Wednesday 11th March 2026
Live coverage is available in Belgium via Proximus Pickx, with a free online stream at cycling.pickx.be.
Broadcast images are expected from approximately 13:15 GMT
2026 IXINA Leeuw-Oetingen p/b Lotto startlist
2026 IXINA Leeuw-Oetingen p/b Lotto contenders
Photo Credit: GettyThe most obvious place to start is Lorena Wiebes of SD Worx-Protime, who won here in both 2022 and 2024 and arrives having taken three WorldTour victories at the UAE Tour Women in February. The 2024 win was emphatic, a sprint from a group that had been torn apart by the Oetingen circuit but could not prevent her winning with what looked like ease. She did not start the 2025 edition, meaning this is her first return to Oetingen since that victory, and the race will want to know whether she can repeat it against a field that has grown stronger in the intervening year. With Femke Gerritse alongside her, who won Omloop van het Hageland in 2025, SD Worx carry two genuine finishing threats rather than one, which changes how other teams must manage the final lap.
The clearest individual threat to Wiebes is the defending champion herself. Julie De Wilde of Fenix-Premier Tech won here in 2025 from a reduced group, confirming that when the race does its job and thins the sprint, she has the finishing speed to beat the fastest finishers in the peloton. Racing on home roads as a Belgian in a race that has rewarded her before, she will not be short of confidence. Teammate Marthe Truyen arrives with momentum of her own after finishing third at Le Samyn earlier this week, a result that demonstrates she has the legs to survive hard, selective racing and still produce something at the end. Fenix had four riders in the lead group at last year’s Oetingen finale, and the team’s ability to put numbers into the decisive move rather than rely solely on their leader is a tactical advantage that other teams will need to account for.
The most in-form rider arriving from UAE Team ADQ is Lara Gillespie, who won Le Samyn on Monday after getting into the decisive ten-rider breakaway and outsprinting her companions in Dour, finishing the job that her teammate Elynor Bäckstedt had set up with a commanding ride at the front of the move. That result, combined with second at Omloop van het Hageland last weekend, confirms Gillespie is in the form of her life and that UAE arrive here with two riders capable of featuring in the right move. Gillespie is not a pure sprinter in the Wiebes mould, but she is fast enough to win from a reduced group and smart enough to get herself into the right position before the Zavelberg. The other UAE card is Megan Jastrab, who moved from Picnic PostNL to UAE for 2026 and brings the kind of classics versatility that suits a race where the final sprint is rarely clean. Jastrab is still defining exactly what type of rider she wants to be, but a cobbled Belgian semi-classic with a punchy finish is precisely the territory she has identified as her best ground.
Lidl-Trek send Anna Henderson, whose 2025 season at the team included a stint in the maglia rosa at the Giro d’Italia and who brings the ability to read a chaotic, repetitive race and still be present when the final circuit begins to separate the field. She is not the fastest finisher if Wiebes and De Wilde arrive in the same group, but if the Zavelberg reduces the sprint to a smaller number, Henderson becomes significantly more dangerous. Clara Copponi provides a genuine sprint alternative, a rider with the raw finishing speed to be competitive if the group arrives in reasonable numbers and the bigger teams do not perfectly control the lead-out.
Uno-X Mobility send Kamilla Aasebø, who was part of the Le Samyn breakaway on Monday and rode a strong race before Gillespie outpaced her in the finale, a performance that confirms she is in good condition and capable of being in the right move when the decisive selection is made. Susanne Andersen is the team’s sprint option if the group arrives in larger numbers, a rider with the finishing speed to be relevant when the circuit has not done enough to reduce the front group dramatically. Linda Zanetti adds a further option and brings a profile suited to surviving repeated hard efforts across the local circuit, the kind of rider who tends to be present in the front group at the finish, even if she is not the one who ultimately wins it.
AG Insurance-Soudal have a home interest here that goes beyond geography. Marthe Goossens finished second at Le Samyn on Monday from the same breakaway that Gillespie won, which is the most direct recent evidence of a rider who can survive hard Belgian racing and still produce at the finish. That result gives her the form reference and the confidence that a top result at Oetingen is within reach if she gets into the right move. Ilse Pluimers is the secondary AG option and brings the ability to survive a tough finale and sprint from a smaller group, the kind of profile that matters more here than raw finishing speed over a large bunch.
Team Visma | Lease a Bike arrives with a reduced squad of four rather than a full six, which limits their ability to control the race but keeps the selection focused. Nienke Veenhoven is the sprint option and the name to watch if the group arrives in reasonable numbers, while Martina Fidanza provides a second finishing threat from a rider who brings track speed to a road sprint and whose ability to accelerate sharply over a short distance suits the Zavelberg run-in well. A four-rider team can still be dangerous at this kind of race if the sprint reduces to the point where organisation matters less than individual quality, and both Veenhoven and Fidanza have that quality.
Lotto-Intermarché Ladies race on home ground with genuine ambition. Lani Wittevrongel is the name to watch: a Belgian sprinter steadily building her classics palmares who, on roads she knows and in front of a home crowd, represents exactly the kind of opportunity that can produce a breakthrough result when the pressure of expectation sits on the WorldTour teams instead. The team was upgraded to ProTeam status for 2026 and arrives at this race with increased resources and a squad that contains enough experience to put Wittevrongel in the right position when the local circuit begins to bite.
Georgia Baker of Liv AlUla Jayco is one of the faster pure sprinters in the confirmed field and arrives as a genuine factor if the race ends in a bunch or near-bunch scenario. The Oetingen circuit will test whether she can survive the repeated cobbled sectors and the Zavelberg to still have something left at the line, but if she does, her finishing speed makes her a threat to anybody.
Team Picnic PostNL bring two riders with very different but complementary profiles. Rachele Barbieri is an experienced sprinter who has contested these kinds of Belgian finishes many times and knows how to position herself in a messy, reduced sprint without a perfect lead-out. Lucie Fityus provides support through the harder sections of the circuit and gives the team options if the race fragments earlier than expected.
Human Powered Health’s card here is Marta Jaskulska, a rider who suits races that are hard enough to thin the sprint but not so selective that only pure climbers survive. The Oetingen circuit fits that description well, and if the Zavelberg does its job without eliminating the faster finishers entirely, Jaskulska is capable of being in the right group at the finish.
Paula Ostiz is better known for her stage racing credentials, and Movistar’s decision to send her here is an interesting one given the race’s sprint-first character. The most realistic scenario for Paula Ostiz is one where the circuit is aggressive enough to reduce the sprint to a small group and remove the pure sprinters, at which point her ability to survive hard racing and still finish strongly becomes more relevant than it would be in a controlled bunch finish.
Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi bring two riders worth noting. Arianna Fidanza carries track speed into road sprints in the same way her sister Martina does, and her presence in the front group at the finish would make her a genuine podium threat if the sprint is reduced but not tiny. Marjolein van ‘t Geloof is the team’s second option and provides support through the demanding local circuit before the final climb. Both riders already have wins in the 2026 season.
VolkerWessels Cycling Team race as the local wildcard, and Eline Jansen and Scarlett Souren are both riders capable of being present in the front group if the race develops in a way that suits their ability to follow moves rather than initiate them. A Belgian semi-classic on home roads with an unpredictable finale is precisely the kind of race where a smaller team can produce a result that surprises the field, and VolkerWessels will not arrive simply to make up the numbers.
Top 3 Prediction
⦿ Lorena Wiebes
⦿ Lara Gillespie
⦿ Linda Zanetti
