Belgium's opening weekend tends to focus on homegrown powerhouse Sourdal-Quickstep, but in recent years, the Netherlands' Jumbo Wisma has grabbed the top team spot in the opening round of the Omloop Het Niusbrod.

Last year, it was Wout Van Aert who won the race, soloing 13 km from the finish to claim his first team victory since 2011. This year, the Belgian star did not make the start line in Ghent, but the team still dominated the race throughout the afternoon to take another victory.

Like Van Aert last year, Omloop was Dylan Van Baarle's debut race and his first with Jumbo Visma.

The victory began with a move to split the peloton with 105km to go. It was all part of the plan, team director Arthur van Dongen said later.

"We had a plan to move ahead here. We always start with a plan, and this was one that we executed, and it worked really well and was really strong," Van Dongen told Cycling News after the finish. 'We had a really good group of riders and we were well prepared.'

"The plan was to make the race hard from the cobbles of Lange Munthe. We have strong sprinters and it is good that other teams have to chase them. We also sent some riders to the front so that the group of riders could benefit. That was exactly the plan we executed."

At that point, in addition to van Baar, Jumbo had five other riders in the lead group of 14: Taige Benoot, Jan Tratnik, Tim van Dijk, Christophe Laporte, and Nathan van Hooydonk. Although this was not enough to win the day, it showed the will and strength of the team.

Tratnik and Van Hooydonk quickly formed a small lead group, but with 65 km to go, all the groups were back together.

On the cobbled climb up the Molenberg with 41km to go, Laporte and Van Baar moved from the lead group and turned into a winning attack by Van Baar.

He proved to be the strongest from a group of four that included Jonathan Milano (Bahrain Victorious), Florian Vermersch (Lotto Doustony), and Mathis Lebert, the survivor of the Alcare Samsic escape.

Van Baar beat them one by one until Mathis' heroic run was over and he was left alone in Mur van Geraalsbergen.

"I think it was a great day for the team. I think it was a great day for the team. I can't thank everyone on the team enough.

"It was very important for the team to do the race we wanted to do. For me, it was my first time doing a race like this, but I think I fit in very well."

When asked, "How do you know when to attack?" he added, "It's intuition. The team told me to "rely on it" and I could see the "right moment to go" in tricky sections."

Van Dongen said he was impressed by the strength of Van Baar's attack, adding that he jumped instead of Laporte or Bunut because he felt the moment to go, not because it was a planned decision.

"He showed strength when he attacked. 'There was a really strong rider like Jonathan Millan who was having a hard time holding his wheels. That's when I knew he was in really good shape and could make a difference. It's a good team effort and I'm really happy."

"It's all about the moment and the feeling. Between the cobbles and the climbs, he always feels strong and can make a difference. It was the same today and he has that feeling and that strong intuition.

"The chase was close, though. But they also know that if they give Dylan 10 or 15 seconds, it will be difficult to get him back. Christophe is also important, and if Dylan is there, they are always thinking about him. It was a good situation."

After celebrating his second win in two years at Ninove, Benoot said in the Sporza studio that he had never been part of a team plan that worked so well.

"That was discussed at the meeting. I've never seen a plan executed so perfectly. We agreed yesterday that we would take control of the race at Lange Munthe and not stop after that."

"With Dylan and Christophe, I was to hit the breakaway in Molenberg. Dylan handled it well and Christophe stayed with the chasers after Mule. I think it was a good race. That was our goal and we had a good race. [The training camp] is paying off. We prepared well behind the scenes. It was a great team performance and I'm proud of it."