Van der Poel Nearly Rode Over Rival’s Head, Key Pogačar Helper KO’d in Chaotic Classics Opener

Mathieu van der Poel won Omloop Het Nieuwsblad with a trademark solo attack, but the real story of Opening Weekend was the carnage, crashes, and chaos that could be a harbinger of a spring classics season at full warp speed.

Crashes ripped through both Omloop and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, leaving a trail of broken teeth, fractured bones, a shattered wheel, and 39 DNFs in the men’s race alone.

Tim Wellens, a key member Tadej Pogačar’s northern classics campaign, was headed to surgery overnight with a fractured clavicle. Swiss classics powerhouse Stefan Küng will be sidelined with a femur fracture, and Ben Swift suffered a fractured pelvis. The women’s peloton endured similar chaos.

If this was a tone-setter for the cobbled campaign, it means spring classics could be off the charts in speed, mayhem, and drama.

Arnaud De Lie captured the mood after Saturday’s Omloop.

“This was the most dangerous Omloop of my life,” De Lie told Sporza after the race. “There was a huge amount of nervousness in the peloton, especially with this wind. Only five kilometers from the Muur, someone fell next to me, and I broke my wheel. That was the end of the story.”

That sense of gloom and doom echoed across the bunch.

There were at least a half dozen crashes Saturday involving the likes of Magnus Sheffield, Rune Herregodts, Kaden Groves, and Matej Mohorič. Visma-Lease a Bike’s Matthew Brennan, who would win Kuurne on Sunday with stunning ease, also crashed out of Omloop and did not finish.

In total, 39 riders abandoned the men’s race, with 28 DNFs in the women’s field. On Sunday, 36 riders abandoned KBK, and 71 did not finish Omloop van het Hageland.

If it’s this bad on the first classics of the season, what’s next?

Van der Poel nearly rides over rival’s head

Van der Poel was in the untouchable zone in his 2026 road season debut, but it required a miracle on wheels to avoid disaster.

With 45km to go on the race-breaking attacks on the Molenberg, Dutch rider Rick Pluimers slid out on the greasy cobbles directly in front of the Dutch star.

Van der Poel showed off his world-class bike handling skills to avoid crashing  and came within millimeters of riding over Pluimers’ head.

Somehow he stayed upright and won.

“I want to say sorry to the rider of Tudor, because I almost rode over his head,” Van der Poel said. “How I stayed upright on the Molenberg? I don’t know myself.

“I couldn’t really avoid that Tudor rider, so I half-ran over him with one foot out of my pedal. I hope I didn’t hurt him too much. And I didn’t see what happened behind me, but it must have been chaos.”

Once powering clear of the traffic, Van der Poel finished all alone in the photo and sent out an early warning flare to his spring classics rivals in his 2026 road season debut.

Two new teeth mask the disappointment

For Pluimers — a rising Dutch talent on Tudor Pro Cycling — the weekend ended with two broken front teeth and a mix of regret and relief.

“I was just coming off the head of a cobblestone when I felt my wheel slip. Then I hit the ground face down. That was really frustrating,” Pluimers said. “I think I could have done a lot today, because I felt good. But when you crash, you can’t show it.”

Thankfully, he wasn’t too seriously injured, and he quickly had a new set of shining perlies.

Six hours later, Pluimers was already smiling thanks to a team connection.

“Luckily, the wife of one of our caregivers is a dentist, so we can still arrange something on a Saturday evening,” he said. “I was there at the time. I think something good could have happened today.”

Küng and Swift out, Wellens key UAE loss

The injury list continued to mount across the weekend.

The long-suffering Küng suffered a femur fracture that will require surgery and end his classics campaign before it began.

The bad-luck Swiss time machine at Tudor will miss the spring classics, where he’s always an outsider favorite for the podium.

“Stefan Küng sustained a fracture to his left thigh following a crash during today’s Omloop Nieuwsblad. Given the injury’s location and severity, surgery is necessary,” his team reported. “Stefan will remain in the hospital in Belgium overnight. He’ll be transferred to Switzerland as soon as possible, where he is scheduled to undergo surgery early next week.”

Ineos Grenadiers veteran Swift also saw his spring campaign take a hit.

“Following Ben Swift’s crash at Omloop Nieuwsblad yesterday, medical examinations have confirmed he has sustained a fractured pelvis,” Ineos Grenadiers confirmed. “He is currently under the care of our medical team, and we wish him a smooth and speedy recovery.”

Sunday delivered another blow with UAE’s Wellens, who crashed heavily before the key climbs and cobbles of Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne. The Belgian national champion, a key engine for Pogačar in the spring classics, fractured his right clavicle.

“Unfortunately, Tim Wellens sustained a right clavicle fracture from his crash today. He will undergo surgery this evening before beginning a recovery period at home under the supervision of team medical staff,” said UAE’s Dr. Adrian Rotunno.

That means he will definitely miss Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo, if not more.

Tire blowup adds to the chaos

It wasn’t just bodies taking hits; bikes took a few blows as well.

There was a slew of new tech on display all weekend, but one big blowout caught the headlines.

Amaury Capiot (Jayco-AlUla) endured a dramatic rear wheel blowout at Omloop, with photos revealing the tire completely separated from the rim and spokes sheared away from the hub.

A team representative told Velo that Capiot kept riding over the cobbles on a puncture while awaiting assistance, causing the tire and wheel to end up in tatters. Capiot did not crash and later finished 96th after a bike swap.

From 100kph crash to the top 10

Not all stories ended in ambulances.

Laurenz Rex returned just four weeks after breaking three spinous processes in his back in the horrendous 100kph crash at the AlUla Tour to finish sixth at Kuurne.

It was out of the frying pan and into the fire for the Soudal Quick-Step rider.

“I’m super happy. I think this morning there was a bit of a question mark about how my back would survive,” Rex told CyclingProNet. “I was quite scared at the beginning of the race because it was super hectic and there were a lot of crashes again.

“But then at one moment I just said that I need to turn the switch off and go,” he said. “Then from there on, I was in the race, and I could race like all the times before.”

Rex was one of three riders who went down in the horrific high-speed crash in Saudi Arabia. Davide Stella (UAE Team Emirates-XRG Gen Z), who suffered deep abrasions to his buttocks, legs, and back, and Fabien Grellier (TotalEnergies), who suffered a ripped anus, have not yet raced.

“Of course, four weeks ago I was lying there on the ground, my back broken, but now I think with this result I have even more motivation, and it gives me wings for the future,” Rex said.

Yellow cards

If the chaos was not enough, a fresh rash of yellow cards was doled out by the UCI cycling police.

Visma’s Christophe Laporte caught an obvious one at KBK when he was raising his hands in celebration, a big no-no.

Rasmus Pedersen (Decathlon CMA CGM) also saw a yellow card for the use of “sidewalks/pavements, paths or cycle lanes that do not form part of the race route.”

That raises the number of sanctions to 19 so far in 2026, as the UCI continues to deploy its sometimes-controversial warning card system.

The wild Opening Weekend hints at even more drama as the spring classics hit full speed, with Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo stacked up next.