September 20, 2023
Omloop van het Houtland 2023 🇧🇪 – Eernegem – Lichtervelde : 195,2 km
Omloop van het Houtland (“Circuit of Houtland”) is a single-day road bicycle race held annually in Lichtervelde in the region of West Flanders, Belgium. Since 2007, the race is organized as a 1.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour.
Gerben Thijssen (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) powered to his fourth win of the 2023 season, taking out the Omloop van het Houtland ahead of Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla) and Cedric Beullens (Lotto Dstny).
Thijssen made the decisive front split after Tim Merlier (Soudal-Quickstep) shattered the peloton with an acceleration with 30km to go and, despite a flurry of attacks, was unshakable.
Team DSM-Firmenich had four riders in the move but couldn’t deliver, while Intermarché timed their efforts perfectly.
The 195.2km flat route from Eernegem to Lichtervelde. finished with nine laps of a 12.1km circuit and seemed destined to be a bunch sprint.
Jonas Rickaert (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Abram Stockman (TDT-Unibet), and Tom Sexton (Bolton Equities Black Spoke) formed the early move but never gained more than three minutes and were caught on the closing circuits.
Results :