Jumbo Wisma may have dominated the opening weekend with a one-two finish in the Kuhne Brussel Kuhne to cap off a weekend of one-three finishes in the Omloop Het Niusbrod.

The third step of the podium in the Coone was taken by Bahrain Victorious and their Slovenian star Matej Mohoric. He made the split in Le Bourlique at km 84 and had the strength to contest the final with the five-man group that formed afterwards, but lost out to a sprint contest between Tiesj Benoot and Nathan Van Hooydonk and missed out on the glory.

Despite spending almost half of the race in front of the field and a near miss, the feeling in the Bahrain Victorious camp afterward was one of satisfaction that they had done all they could to make the race a success and to go for a third win in 2023.

"I think we rode really well," Fred Wright told Cycling News on the long N50 road where Sunday's start and finish took place.

"We may not be on the same level as Jumbo Visma, but I think we rode really well as a team today."

After celebrating hard for his first podium of the season, Mohoric told Cycling News that he was satisfied with his work today.

"I'm happy because I did the best I could do. I'm happy because the parcours in the final wasn't hard," he said.

"I mean, if I had the legs to compete with Nathan, I could have won, but I didn't.

"Yeah," he added when asked if it was too flat to make a difference in the finale.

"Also, Taco [van der Hoorn, 4th] was gambling a lot and I was expecting a big, big attack from him. That would have made it easier for me to counter. But in the race everyone races his own race. This is the way it should be."

The result sheet showed that Jumbo Visma was dominating the race. Apart from a counter by Mohoric with 3.5 km to go, Benoot and Van Hooydonk alternated in the lead group and made a final push as they rounded the final bend into the home straight.

As Benoot jumped out, Tim Wellens looked back and spotted Van Hooydonk. Mohoric said that going after Benoot in the final would mean missing the podium. Jumbo Visma had played a perfect numbers game.

"I didn't want to close the gap to Teej," he said. I didn't want to close the gap to Teege because that would have drawn the other guys in and I would have lost my chance in the sprint. So third place was fine."

Wright, who missed the winning attack but was happy with his form on the day, said he thought his teammates were the strongest in the move, which began when Jumbo-Visma accelerated uphill on the 1.3km, 6.1% Le Brulique.

The Dutch team, with Mohoric, Wellens, and Peter Sagan in tow, caught up with Van der Hoorn and the rest of the breakaway before the group was reduced to five riders on the cobbled Mont St. Laurent 5km later.

"I was second-guessing," Wright said of the cobbled hill. 'Matej was in front of me and I missed the split. But on the cobblestone climb, I think I had the legs to go that far if I hadn't made the wrong positioning."

"It's a shame because Matej was there and was the strongest in the break. But with two jumbo riders it is always going to be difficult. Johnny (Milan) was there in the last sprint. 0]

During the long post-split chase (the gap had opened up to 1:45 on the Kruisberg climb with 52km to go, but then gradually narrowed, with the leading group closing to within a minute in the final kilometer), several Bahraini riders, including Wright, shook off the bikes leading the peloton was seen.

The British riders admitted that the slipstream behind their bikes affected their ability to avoid the sprint teams catching Mohoric.

"The bikes are outrageous in this race. 'The bikes shape the race. But I'm sure there were bikes in front of Matei, so it's a win/win situation."

After the tough climb up Mont St-Laurent, the lead group was reduced to four riders, with Mohoric, Benoot, and Van der Hoorn responding to Wellens' acceleration. Van Hooydonk was gone, but not for long, and Benoot negotiated that he could not run with the others behind him.

His fellow Belgian returned after a few kilometers and the rest, as they say, was history.

"I dropped Nathan, Mohoric said. 'But of course Tigge didn't give us a turn at the front. [It was clear that if we didn't wait for Nathan, Tighe wouldn't win out. That's the reality. In a race like this you have to race as a team.

But Mohoric and Bahrain's Kuhne were not all smiles: after 193 km of hard riding and a podium finish, he had his Garmin stolen at the finish. He later joked on Twitter, "Whoever stole my Garmin from my bike after the finish, I'll give you the device, send me today's file."

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