Bredene Koksijde Classic 2025

March 21, 2025 The Bredene Koksijde Classic is traditionally a sprinters race but they have to work for the right to sprint at the end of the race. The route takes the riders away from the coast in Bredene down towards the most Western part of Flanders to find some hills. The first berg is the Baneberg at 127KM to go and is quickly followed by the Monteberg which leads into the Kemmelberg from the Belvedere side. They loop back around to the Baneberg again, 22KM later with another passage of the Kemmelberg, this time starting from the ossuary. The riders start their journey back to the coast but not before going through De Moeren, an infamously windy section of road. Three full laps around Koksijde will add a few more kilometers, totaling 200 for the day at the finish. Seven riders made the early break but cross winds split the peloton in half and the increased speed caught them before they reached the Baneberg for the first time. The bunch had rejoined when the climbing began but with 115KM to go, the peloton was split once again as they made their way back to the Baneberg for the second time. The front group was around 80 riders with the remaining riders around 45 seconds behind. Eight new riders got away with 108KM to go including Warre Vangheluwe of Soudal Quickstep, Robbe Ghys of Alpecin-Deceuninck, Vito Braet of Intermarché-Wanty, Jakob Söderqvist of Lidl-Trek, Ethan Vernon of Israel-Premier Tech, Erik Nordsæter Resell of Uno-X Mobility, Aivaras Mikutis of Tudor Pro Cycling, and Tim Marsman of VolkerWessels. The pace slowed down in the first peloton and the large second peloton joined together with 105KM to go at the base of the Baneberg. The leaders hit the steep side of the Kemmelberg with 100KM to go and a gap of over 90 seconds the peloton. They stayed together over the top but the peloton split in numerous groups across the road after the Kemmelberg. A group of seven broke clear including Luke Lamperti of Soudal Quickstep, Aimé De Gendt of Cofidis, Florian Vermeersch of UAE-XRG, Edward Theuns of Lidl-Trek, Nils Eekhoff of Picnic-PostNL, Alessandro Romele of XDS-Astana, and Alec Segaert of Lotto. The wind was blowing around 25KM/HR with gusts up to 50KM/HR from the South East which gave the riders a cross-tail wind for their way back to the coast in Koksijde. With 80KM to go, the eight leaders had 50 seconds on the chase group of seven and 1 minute 40 seconds on the main peloton of 70 riders led by Q36.5 who were not represented in either of the front two groups. With 57KM to go, the two front groups came together to make 15 in the lead. Wagner-Bazin WB and Jayco AlUla added firepower to share the chasing with Q36.5 and reduced the gap 47 seconds. When the front group hit the finish line for three laps remaining, they still had 48 seconds on the peloton. Tudor Pro Cycling added a man to the chase with 13KM to go and when they got the bell for the last 11KM lap, the bunch were 28 seconds behind. A crash in the peloton split the group to around 35 riders but it did not dissuade the chase. Söderqvist and Vangheluwe buried themselves to keep the break away for Theuns and Lamperti but their gap was just 8 seconds with 5KM to go. Uno-X Mobility and Israel-Premier Tech started to wind it up for a sprint 1500M from the line but they still had 6 seconds to close. Söderqvist gave one final mammoth turn and took the break through the final corner at 350M. The remnants of the peloton caught on with 300M to go as Theuns wound up his sprint. Lamperti came off Theuns's wheel with 100M to go but could not get around and Theuns took the win in dramatic fashion. Lamperti's bike throw was enough to stay ahead of Eekhoff for second place with the Dutchman in third, his second podium on three days. The results were mixed with riders from the peloton and ones from the break best placed rider from the peloton was Stian Fredheim of Uno-X Mobility who managed to finish in eight place.