Classic Brugge-De Panne Women Live – Sprinters eye victory in Belgium

Official start has been given! 

155 km to go

A few riders appear to have been asking for assistance in the neutral section including Mylène de Zoete of CERATIZIT-WNT Pro Cycling Team but all seems to be in order now.

The riders have rolled out for the neutral start 

Outside of the top favourites for a sprint in Balsamo and Kool we also have UAE Team ADQ’s Chiara Consonni, Vittoria Guazzini and Gladys Verhulst of FDJ – SUEZ, Anniina Ahtosalo of Uno-X Mobility, as well as the fast-finishing Emma Norsgaard for Movistar and Chloe Dygert of Canyon//SRAM making her season debut. 

It doesn’t look like we’ll be in for a repeat of last year’s crosswind action this time as the forecast shows only light winds and sunshine for today’s race. 

Amongst the current crop of sprinters, both Lorena Wiebes and Elisa Balsamo have taken one win each at De Panne. Balsamo will take to the start line today as will Team dsm-firmenich PostNL’s sprinter Charlotte Kool.

However Wiebes, who has been on the podium three times at this race, will not be racing, nor will any of her SD Worx – Protime teammates. The Dutch squad issued a press release earlier this week stating that injuries sustained by Wiebes and Chantal van den Broek Blaak at Nokere Koerse as well as a number of other riders being busy on training camp or other race programmes meant they were unable to field a full team for the race. 

This will be the seventh edition of the race for the women with the first taking place in 2018. In keeping with the men’s race, the women’s De Panne has usually culminated in a sprint however there have been two solo victories by Grace Brown, who held off a chasing peloton to take a solo win in 2021 and Pfeiffer Georgi who, after some skilled riding in the crosswinds by her teammate, Megan Jastrab rode away to victory in 2023. 

Welcome to Cyclingnews’ live coverage of the Classic Brugge-De Panne.