Classic Brugge-De Panne 2025

March 26, 2025 The classics continue with the mid-week World Tour race of Brugge-De Panne. The profile is pan flat with fewer then 1,000M of elevation over the 198KM route. There are three large 43KM laps on the route with the exposed and often windy section through De Moeren featuring on each clockwise lap. It is traditionally a sprinters race with Jasper Philipsen and Tim Merlier as winner over the last few years. Nearly all of the big sprint names were on the start line including Philipsen who was going for three wins in successive years after having won the last two editions. Only about 10KM/HR wind was forecast for the day and with temperatures sitting at a comfortable 12C (54F), it was shaping up to be a nice day for a bike race. Five riders went up the road in the early break including António Morgado of UAE-XRG, Victor Vercouillie of Flanders-Baloise, Michiel Lambrecht of Wagner-Bazin WB, and Joren Bloem and Hartthijs De Vries of Unibet-Tietema Rockets. Their lead had been as high as 3 minutes but was reduced to 90 seconds with 75KM to go as Visma-Lease a Bike, Lidl-Trek, and Soudal Quickstep teamed up to do the chasing in the peloton. The race was relatively calm and formulaic for next 30KM. Tim Declercq of Lidl-Trek led the peloton through the bell for the final 43KM lap, 1 minute behind the break. The bunch changed demeanor with around 35KM to go. A lot more nerves started to show and riders were dive-bombing every corner to gain any extra position they could. De Vries attacked the front group 15KM from the finish. Morgado was on the wheel but could not accelerate as quickly, forcing him to sit back down and work with the others to chase. The rest of the break would not see De Vries again and would be caught by the peloton. De Vries still had 37 seconds when the peloton hit De Moeren for the last time with 12KM to go but the wind was not strong enough to do any damage. A crash with 5KM to go took down nearly all of the Tudor Pro Cycling team, including Alberto Dainese, and split the last third of the peloton off who were held up as a result. About one kilometer later, Gerben Thijssen and some of his Intermarché-Wanty teammates crashed, putting him out of contention. Inside the final 3KM, around 10 riders were involved in a third crash right near the front, including Milan Fretin of Cofidis, Arnaud De Lie of Lotto, and Arnaud Démare of Arkéa-B&B Hotels. Fewer than 40 riders were left in the front group under 1KM but incredibly, a fourth crash happened on a squeeze of the road which took down at least 20 riders. There were no lead out riders left in the front group which gave Juan Sebastián Molano of UAE-XRG the opportunity to take a flyer at 450M. Erlend Blikra of Uno-X Mobility was the first from the rest of the front group to start his sprint. They caught Molano right on the line but it was too late. Molano took the win with Jonathan Milan of Lidl-Trek and Madis Mihkels of EF-Education EasyPost behind in second and third respectively in what was the messiest last 5KM many can remember.