The Minerva Classic Brugge-De Panne will be the first race of the final block of cobbled classics and it is set to be one for the sprinters. It is a race with a lot of history and a lot of recent changes to it's format, which currently consists in a flat race in West Vlaanderen.
The route is exactly what you’d expect from a coastal Belgian ride. 232 meters of climbing throughout 206 kilometers of racing which means the riders won’t find a single road that resembles a climb. It is as flat as it can be, but that may pose an issue as the wind is very strong in the region and the roads are exposed, a completely different challenge.
The peloton will head towards De Panne where it will ride through 3 laps of a final circuit around the nearby towns. The finale, which is expected to be in a sprint, will be technical. The final straight is 750 meters long, however from 3 kilometers to go to the flamme rouge, the roads are rather narrow and windy. There will be a big run-up to this residential area, but the final straight is at the same time big enough to regain a bit of position, but leadout will be crucial.
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- Most of these have nothing to do with rider safety or are completely unachievablevappaxbipmv23-12-2024
- Depends on how fast the Cipressa would be beforehand and in what condition Philipsen would bevappaxbipmv23-12-2024
- Some things sound crazy until they aren't, what if he's actually right? 🤷vappaxbipmv23-12-2024
- Why make a comment to state the obvious? Of course MvdP is much better at CX than Pogacar, does anyone doubt that But that wasn't his pointvappaxbipmv23-12-2024
- If you look at road alone obvi Pogacar is the better rider. But maybe MVDP is the better overall rider since he can win in three plus disciplines?mobk23-12-2024
- Correction on 2021 Olympics. It was mainly the Dutch ladies who didn’t know who was leading the race. Other teams like the Germans and Italians knew that Kiesenhofer was out front.mobk23-12-2024
- A champion turning into a sore loser. Or is he on coke again?
UltimateOpportunist23-12-2024 - If you look at the major races they’ve both been in, van der Poel had the early edge as lately Pogacar has had the advantage. It’s all on procyclingstats.RidesHills23-12-2024
- I wouldn’t assume Tadej can’t win at cross. He did a cross race, not a World Cup, a few years ago and crushed the field. It was a minor race. But he can win anywhere.mij23-12-2024
- I wonder what would happen if Pogacar attacked on the Cipressa instead of the Poggio in San Remo? Would MvdPoel still be able to follow?Ride197423-12-2024