Race History: Ed Hood loved the ‘race chase’, Italy, France, Spain, it didn’t matter, but he loved his trips to Belgium – Flanders to be precise. The ‘Opening Weekend’ of the Omloop Het Volk (Het Nieuwsblad’s earlier name) and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne was the start of his spring race calendar and always made the most of every minute. Ed Hood took a stroll down ‘Memory Lane’ a few years ago for a look at a dozen top editions.
# You can see the full ‘PEZ 2025 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad Preview’ HERE. #
Jean Bogaerts – Two time winner
1945: The very first edition was called the ‘Omloop van Vlaanderen’ but this upset the rival Het Nieuwsblad newspaper because it sounded too much like ‘Ronde van Vlaanderen’ which was their baby; hence it became ‘Het Volk’ with Belgian hard man, Jean Bogaerts taking the first of two wins – he’d win again in 1951.
Albert Sercu in 1947
1947: have you ever wondered why the late, great Patrick Sercu was so fast and versatile? He chose his parents well; with dad Albert winning this edition of Het Volk.
Ernest Sterckx – Triple winner
1956: Ernest Sterckx becomes the first triple winner after wins in ’52 and ’53 – a real Belgian ‘Classicer’ with wins in Flèche Wallonne, Gent-Wevelgem and two wins in Paris-Brussels, which was a huge race back in those days.
Shay Elliott ahead of Anquetil
1959: Shay Elliott of Ireland makes history as the first ‘Anglo’ to win a Classic, it would be 55 years before the feat was repeated by that man, Stannard. And on the subject of Irish hard men, this was a race well suited to the skill set of ‘King Kelly’ but second to Etienne De Wilde in 1989 was as a close as he got – and there were also two third places for him.
Roger’s first win
1969: Roger De Vlaeminck wins, ‘yes, but he won a lot of races,’ I hear you say. This was his FIRST ever professional event – class, he’d win again a decade later in 1979.
Jos Bruyere
1980: Eddy Merck’s right hand man, Jos Bruyere becomes the second rider to, ‘do the triple’ after wins in ’74 and ’75. A giant of a man, hard as nails, oblivious to atrocious weather his palmarès include two Liege-Bastogne-Liege wins and a long spell in the maillot jaune in 1978.
De Fons on De Muur
1982: Englishman Graham Jones was class and it took a man of even greater class, Home Boy, Fons de Wolf to deny Jones the win in this edition. A good year for Anglos, Jones second, Kelly third and the late Paul Sherwen eighth. Jones could have been so much more but in true Gallic style of the time was raced to a frazzle by Peugeot.
The late Gerrie Kneteman and Paul Sherwen in Omloop Het Volk 1983
1988: Rony Van Holen wins and it’s one of the few times in recent history when you might say; ‘who?’ of an Omloop winner. Despite sporting an extravagant mullet, Van Holen was classy; World Junior Road Race Champion in 1977 he won an enormous number of races as an amateur and whilst he perhaps never reached the heights expected as a pro he won the Pino Cerami, Brabantse Pijl, Samyn and the Jef Scherens twice.
Johan Museeuw, Frank Vandenbroucke and three time Het Volk winner Peter van Petegem on the Molenberg
2002: and ‘De Pete’ aka Peter Van Petegem joins ‘Recordmen’ Sterckx and Bruyere on three wins after his ’97 and ’98 wins. A real Flandrian hard man with two Rondes and a Paris-Roubaix among his palmarès. Vik and I were over in Belgium for the National Championships one year and passed the great man in our car whilst he was out on a training run. We rolled down the window and gave him a shout; a nod and a grunt were returned. When we told our Belgian buddies, they reckoned we must have caught him in a chatty mood.
Juan Antonio Flecha 2010
2010: A Spaniard winning a cobbled classic? And one born in Argentina? Juan Antonio Flecha provided the fledgling Team Sky with a huge boost when he won the Omloop and got their season off to a terrific start – however, that was as good as it got for the team that year; before their remorseless ascendancy began.
Ian Stannard in the Omloop 2015
2015: We’d watched Ian Stannard beat GVA to win in 2014 but this year, when he was away in the final with THREE Quick-Steps – Super Stars Tom Boonen and Niki Terpstra plus human freight train, Stijn Vandenbergh, his chances of a repeat win looked slim. ‘Stunned silence’ doesn’t adequately describe the eerie quiet in the bar where we watched the last few kilometres, when Stannard rolled all three of them – remarkable.
Ed Hood will be in Flanders this weekend in spirit
# Stay PEZ for the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad race report on Saturday and all the news, including Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, in EUROTRASH Monday. #
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