{"id":526649,"date":"2026-03-08T11:29:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T11:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/526649\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T11:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T11:29:07","slug":"podium-celebrations-omloop-fall-outs-and-ed-sheeran-in-a-bike-shop-this-week-in-cyclings-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/526649\/","title":{"rendered":"Podium celebrations, Omloop fall-outs and Ed Sheeran in a bike shop – this week in cycling’s social media"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, cycling’s social media was dominated by one thing: Opening Weekend. From podium celebrations to Belgian beers<\/a> and road-side crashes, it’s clear that the Flemish openers offer a mix of risky, tough, high-octane racing – and many riders love it.<\/p>\n

We’ve had pros go missing mid-race or fall in ditches under the blue Belgian skies. But it has also been one of the race’s most dangerous editions yet, according to Arnaud De Lie and a slew of other riders who emerged from the race battered and bruised – some out of contention for the next few races.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We’ve left this insta-dump of sorts with Demi Vollering<\/a>, as she sips coffee on her way to Strade-Bianche<\/a>. Lock in, racing is upon us!<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

1. Anyone else remember being forced to do \u201ccompliment circles\u201d at school? In theory: great idea. In practise, it was pretty lost on a class of 25 awkward teenagers. The Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto <\/a>Generation team survived the ordeal much better than we did. This is your team for 2026!<\/p>\n

2. The dreaded bonk. That horrible going on-empty feeling can, however, be avoided with these hot tips to bonk-proof your fuelling.<\/a><\/p>\n

3. From Matthew Brennan <\/a>passing a sip of beer (he\u2019s celiac) to Jordi Meeus<\/a> tossing it towards the crowd – are the days of on-stage pints (a ‘bolleke?’) done?<\/p>\n

The Ename beer on the podium looks to have hit the spot with Laurenz Rex<\/p>\n

\u2014 @inrng.com (@inrng.com.bsky.social<\/a>) 2026-03-08T09:31:14.165Z<\/a><\/p>\n

4. Celebrations were briefly paused for Demi Vollering<\/a> as the FDJ-SUEZ <\/a>rider got champagne in her eye. It looks like it didn\u2019t dent her thrill too much, as the 29-year-old celebrated her first Omloop Nieuwsblad<\/a> title.<\/p>\n

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

5. The before and after of a weekend of Flemish racing. Margot Vanpachtenbeke finished in 36th place on Saturday\u2019s Omloop Nieuwsblad.<\/p>\n

6. Opening Weekend was, according to Arnaud De Lie<\/a>, “the most dangerous Omloop of my life<\/a>,” with riders crashing out with broken teeth, collarbones and fractured femurs. A day later, Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne saw Tim Wellens <\/a>crash and fall into a ditch as the bunch squeezed on a narrow road. He broke his right collarbone.<\/p>\n

7. A break from the Opening Weekend content in the form of Ed Sheeran – can someone double check this isn\u2019t AI slop? Two worlds collide. Lead Out Sports were apparently lucky enough to meet the singer and songwriter on his LOOP Tour through Australia.<\/p>\n

8. The rain in the UK has, fortunately, let up in the last few days. If we do end up with another bout (please no), here is a tried and tested technique for tackling flooded roads.<\/p>\n

9. Or you could just hop over the puddles?<\/p>\n

10. After victory at Omloop, Vollering<\/a> headed to the Strade-Bianche<\/a>, where the weather is fine and the coffee is good. Her team ended up winning through Elise Chabbey<\/a>, so it was worth the journey,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week, cycling’s social media was dominated by one thing: Opening Weekend. From podium celebrations to Belgian beers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":["post-526649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}