Formerly known as Brugge-De Panne, the main three-week period of cobbled Classics kicks off on Wednesday and Thursday with the men’s and women’s Ronde van Brugge, freshly renamed for 2026 and with new finishes in Bruges.
The new routes both start and finish in Bruges, moving the race away from the coast in De Panne, meaning they miss out the windy De Moeren sector, which could radically change the race. The windy exposed sections have previously shaped the event and made important selections, but the 2026 editions could be more straightforward, as they are still pan-flat and missing that key action point.
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Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech)
Jasper Philipsen won this race in 2024 and 2023, albeit on the old finish, and will return this year still looking to prove himself after a slow start to the year. The Belgian finally took a victory at Nokere Koerse last week, but looked significantly off the pace at the Volta ao Algarve and Tirreno-Adriatico. Put it all together and a win at WorldTour level would go a long way to just lifting his stock up again.
On paper, 10x Tour stage winner Philipsen should be the strongest sprinter on the start list on Wednesday, but his competitors will be smelling weakness, and there are a lot of motivated sprinters who will be jumping at the opportunity to take a big win before the harder cobbled Classics…
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