Belgian Champion Yves Lampaert begins the "serious" part of his season starting with the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on February 29. The race kicks off a string of one-day Cobbled Classics, ending with Paris-Roubaix in April.

Lampaert captains the Deceuninck-Quick Step team with riders like Bob Jungels, Zdenek Stybar, and for the Tour of Flanders, Julian Alaphilippe.

"Yeah, for sure, I'm looking ahead to the Classics," Lampaert told FloBikes.

"I'm ready for Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. At the team presentation on the velodrome [in Ghent], you get goose bumps from all the people who are there, and then you know: OK, what was before, the Tour of Valencia and Algarve was a bit playtime, but now it's serious business. I'm looking forward to the Cobbled Classics."

Lampaert signals Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) as possible Belgian star cyclists in the years to come. After winning Dwars door Vlaanderen in 2018 and placing third in Paris-Roubaix last year, Lampaert also hopes to carve out his own slice of the pie with a big Classic win.

"We are all waiting for the new Eddy Merckx and maybe we found him with Remco Evenepoel, but the road is still long and the climb's still steep for him so let's see what the future gives, but I hope that I can win some some Classics. I don't think Remco is the guy for the Cobbled Classics, but maybe in the future after he won a lot of other races — like Julian Alaphilippe is doing, coming to Flanders," Lampaert continued.

"But for the international world, the Cobbled Classics are really popular and really important, for every team. So they invest more in the materials, they invest more in the recons. They invest more time, every team. So of course it becomes difficult more and more every year."

Belgium's last Classics super hero Tom Boonen – winner of the Tour of Flanders three times and Paris-Roubaix four times – retired in 2017.