Soren Waerenskjold sprints to thrilling Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 2025 win ahead of Paul Magnier & Jasper Philipsen

After a thrilling and frantic opening to the 2025 Spring Classics, a bunch sprint decided the day in Ninove, with Uno-X Mobility's Soren Waerenskjold narrowly defeating Paul Magnier and Jasper Philipsen.

With Classics season getting underway, there was a palpable tension and excitement at the startline. As the racing began, 7 riders quickly turned that adrenaline into an attack, forming the breakaway of the day. Those riders being Giosuè Epis (Arkéa - B&B Hotels), Elmar Reinders (Team Jayco AlUla), Enzo Leijnse and Julius van den Berg (Team Picnic PostNL), Siebe Deweirdt and Victor Vercouillie (Team Flanders - Baloise), plus Hartthijs de Vries (Unibet Tietema Rockets). Quickly, their advantage grew towards the five minute mark. 

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Into the final 70km, the iconic climbs of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad really began and immediately the lead of the break started to be cut. By the time the cobbled Eikenberg climb began at around 57km to go, the breakaway's lead was down to just over three minutes. Immediately the pace was ramped up on the climbs too, primarily by Team Visma | Lease a Bike. The first move to get real separation from the peloton though, came from INEOS Grenadiers' Joshua Tarling. Contrary to the pre-race predictions though, things hadn't truly ignited just yet. 

On the Molenberg, Alpecin-Deceuninck came to the front and finally the race did begin to truly split up. Among the rider caught out though, were Wout van Aert, Jan Tratnik and Arnaud De Lie. Understandably, Team Visma | Lease a Bike were leading the chase behind, but as the peloton caught the break and Tarling at 30km to go, the Van Aert group remained off the back. Although the split was ultimately undone a few kilometres later, the extra energy spent to close the gaps was paying for some as De Lie immediately got dropped again, ending the Belgian national champion's hopes of victory. 

At the front meanwhile, disaster struck at the worst possible time for last year's winner Jan Tratnik at 17km to go as the Slovenian got an ill-timed mechanical issue. On the penultimate climb of the day, UAE came to the front with Tim Wellens and Jhonatan Narvaez, but there was still a sizeable group together at the front by the time they reached the summit.

With an elite group of around 20 together at the front over the top of the final climb, co-operation wasn't great in the lead group, allowing the chase group to still hold hopes. At almost exactly 10km to go though, a big attack from Stefan Kung got a gap solo at the front. As the chase group re-made contact with the Van Aert group behind Kung at around 8km to go though, the Swiss's chances of holding off the rest of the riders looked slim.

At 5km to go though, Kung was still 17 seconds clear. At 3km, the gap was 11 seconds, but still Kung dangled out ahead solo. Finally though, at just over 1km to go, Kung was swallowed by the chase. Then, it was all about the sprint, and with some notable fastmen present in the lead group, there was a frantic fight for the finish line. In a tight finale though, Soren Waerenskjold narrowly defeated Paul Magnier and Jasper Philipsen to take the win.

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