PREVIEW | Classic Brugge-De Panne 2025 - Milan, Philipsen and Merlier face off once again at 'sprinter World Championships'

On March 26th, the World Tour peloton encounters its first Belgian classic in weeks with the Classic Brugge-De Panne. While primarily designed for sprinters, the unpredictable weather often transforms it into a different race altogether. We preview the race ahead.

The 197-kilometer race takes a traditional route into the Atlantic sea. It's now a fully sprinter-guided classic and the profile shows it. There are only around 250 meters of climbing throughout the whole day, not a single climb, no cobblestones, nothing but pan-flat roads that will set up for a bunch sprint in De Panne.

It is a day with very little to detail. After the start in Brugge the riders head towards the southwest until reaching De Panne. Then, the riders take on three laps of a long circuit in the town around the towns of Koksijde and Veurne.

Pan-flat and wide roads. Perfect leadout territory, all sprinter teams will need to study the final kilometers in full detail. The riders will also have the chance to practice throughout the day. The finale is not technical but not easy, they will leave the main road with just 600 meters to go and go into an urban fast road. It will be a relatively narrow finale with a slight right-hander with 300 meters to go.

The wind won't be incredibly strong, but it will blow! From the north-northeast, it means that in the opening 55 kilometers of the race we should have almost full crosswinds in an area that is fully known for being very windy and exposed. Riders cannot ignore any warning, and race-deciding splits can happen at any moment within the first hour of racing. In the final circuit it won't be as noticeable, and solo wins won't be easy as there's a headwind in the final kilometers and sprint.

This is a true sprinter world championships and the best in the world are almost all present, as was the case at the UAE Tour. A one-day race World Tour victory at this point of the year is key and you will have over a dozen teams with ambitions of taking a top result in a sprint here. We can take a look at the main leadouts present, by order of their quality:

Jonathan Milan - Simone Consonni - Edward Theuns - Daan Hoole

Sam Welsford - Danny van Poppel - Mick van Dijke - Ryan Mullen

Dylan Groenewegen - Luka Mezgec - Max Walscheid

Alexander Kristoff/Soren Waerenskjold - Erlend Blikra

Olav Kooij - Dan McLay - Tosh van der Sande - Niklas Behrens

Jasper Philipsen - Jonas Rickaert - Timo Kielich

Tim Merlier - Luke Lamperti - Bert van Lerberghe

Alberto Dainese - Maikel Ziljaard

Arnaud De Lie - Elia Viviani - Cedric Beullens

Fabio Jakobsen/Tobias Lund Andresen - Casper van Uden - Bram Welten

Juan Sebastián Molano - Rui Oliveira

Phil Bauhaus - Nikias Arndt

A few will be interesting to watch. Something that is important here is that, even if the wind does some impact, the leadouts will likely arrive to the final kilometers relatively fresh, and this is also a rather technical finale... There will be massive fights for positioning, and often being behind a big leadout causes you to miss position. So teams have to get their tactic straight and have some luck as well. A few of the main favourites such as Philipsen and Merlier definitely don't have a strong leadout for such a field, but if they grab the wheel of a rider like Jonathan Milan it won't really be a problem.

The likes of Alberto Dainese and Juan Sebastián Molano for example are very fast in the pan-flat stages and have experienced leadout men behind them, whilst someone like Arnaud De Lie for example will have an interesting first experience with Elia Viviani as a leadout.

Furthermore, there are more sprinters who should be in the fight for the win, and this includes extremely fast men such as Milan Fretin and Arnaud Démare who have already shown great legs in recent weeks; Madis Mihkels, Gerben Thijssen and Davide Bomboi as solo leaders; and the likes of Astana's Matteo Malucelli and Max Kanter; Groupama's Matthew Walls and Paul Penhöet and Movistar's Fernando Gaviria, Ivan García Cortina and Orluis Aular.

*** Jonathan Milan, Jasper Philipsen, Tim Merlier
** Dylan Groenewegen, Alberto Dainese, Sam Welsford
* Alexander Kristoff, Soren Waerenskjold, Olav Kooij, Arnaud De Lie, Tobias Lund Andresen, Fabio Jakobsen, Juan Sebastián Molano, Phil Bauhaus, Milan Fretin, Arnaud Démare, Madis Mihkels, Matteo Malucelli, Matthew Walls

Pick: Jonathan Milan

How: The man in form and the man in my opinion with the best leadout. No stopping the Italian locomotive.