Tour of Bruges 2026 preview, profile, favourites & predictions - Tour de France-level sprint field battles it out in the strong winds

The 2026 Tour of Bruges (Ronde van Brugge) will be taking place on the 25th of March and is the first of the World Tour Belgian spring classics from the main block. The race formerly known as the Classic Brugge-De Panne is suited to the sprinters; however, usually on a route where the wind also causes chaos. We preview the race ahead, with its estimated start and finish at 13:00 and 17:05CET.

The race has gone through different formats through time, and for many years was known as the 4 Days of De Panne - a stage-race in the region which included cobbled stages, sprints and time-trialling. It was in this format that Roger Rosiers took the win in the event's first edition back in 1977, in a race that very quickly gained a top reputation in the peloton. Sean Kelly won it back in 1980, making it a very popular international, bringing it to the international eye. The likes of Johan Museeuw, Michele Bartoli and Peter van Petegem were also winners here, as were American George Hincapie and Briton David Millar most recently in 2010.

In 2018, it changed to a one-day race format, perfectly fit for the sprinters. With the exception of 2020, where the strong winds saw Quick-Step dominate and win with Yves Lampaert, every single edition has been won by a top sprinter: Elia Viviani, Dylan Groenewegen, Sam Bennett, Tim Merlier, Jasper Philipsen (both 2023 and 2024) and most recently Juan Sebastián Molano who conquered the Belgian classic ahead of Jonathan Milan in 2025 after a crash-marred finale.

The one-day race has been remodeled and what used to be a flat race starting far away from De Panne and having a long stretch before reaching the city is now more of a loop around the city of Brugge itself.

The race is 203 kilometers long and follows the same format, in the same region, only on different roads. There are three laps of a 60-kilometer-long circuit towards the end, and this one features a small cobbled sector which ends with 30 kilometers to go.

However, the threat of the race being influenced by the crosswinds diminishes as it becomes a more urban race, also with more corners and less consecutive time spent on exposed areas. The De Panne finale was extremely dangerous, however, and this was a rather logical decision at the end of the day.

Here the final kilometers have very little of technical necessities for the riders, meaning the speeds will be very high into the city and then on the city itself as well. A pure sprinter battle between many of the best in the world.

As usual in the area, the wind will be blowing very hard, in this case from the southwest. There will be several exposed areas with crosswinds where the peloton should split apart. However, in the final kilometers, we will have an almost full frontal headwind into Bruges, which means that attacks are very unlikely to succeed, and the peloton will always have the advantage. However, the riders have to survive the echelons to then make it.

Some teams will be favoured over others due to their ability to attack or defend themselves in the crosswind.

However because it's not often that we have a world-class pure sprint race, we can make a distinction between each team's leadouts, which can be quite valuable if the wind doesn't do much damage.

Tim Torn Teutenberg - Simone Consonni - Edward Theuns - Max Walscheid - Jakob Söderqvist

Jasper Philipsen - Gerben Thijssen - Simon Dehairs - Florian Sénéchal

Sam Welsford - Ben Turner - Sam Watson

Juan Sebastián Molano - Rui Oliveira - Florian Vermeersch

Cees Bol - Tord Gudmestad

Luke Lamperti - Marijn van den Berg - Vincenzo Albanese

Soren Waerenskjold - Erlend Blikra

Dylan Groenewegen - Elmar Reinders - Niklas Larsen

Milan Fretin - Stanislaw Aniolkowski - Alexis Renard

Arvid de Kleijn - Luca Mozzato - Robin Froideveaux

Phil Bauhaus - Daniel Skerl - Alberto Bruttomesso

We have Lidl-Trek missing Jonathan Milan; however, having Tim Torn Teuntenberg leading their world-class leadout will make for an interesting battle. There isn't a 'man to beat' in this race, Jasper Philipsen will certainly want the win in order to increase his confidence ahead of the classics, as he hasn't taken a pure sprint win this year; Juan Sebastián Molano is the defending champion and alongside Sam Werlsford make for pure sprinters that have a lot of quality here; Dylan Groenewegen is in a similar situation only with a lot of confidence after several sprint wins... Several other riders are, honestly, at the level to win this race as well.

Furthermore we should also have other fast men be part of the finish such as Astana who are certainly backing up several riders such as Max Kanter, Davide Ballerini and Aaron Gate; Or Lotto with Vito Braet, Milan Menten and Stefan de Schuyteneer; Pavel Bittner for Team Picnic PostNL; Itamar Einhorn and Hugo Hofstetter for NSN Cycling Team; Laurenz Rex for Soudal - Quick-Step; Amaury Capiot and Luka Mezgec for Team Jayco AlUla; Matteo Milan and Paul Penhöet for Groupama - FDJ; Tom Crabbe for Team Flanders - Baloise; and Emillien Jeannière, Jason Tesson and Lorrenzo Manzin for TotalEnergies.

*** Jasper Philipsen, Dylan Groenewegen, Juan Sebastián Molano
** Sam Welsford, Tim Torn Teutenberg, Soren Waerenskjold
* Luke Lamperti, Marijn van den Berg, Cees Bol, Milan Fretin, Arrvid de Kleijn, Phil Bauhaus, Max Kanter, Pavel Bittner, Paul Penhöet, Emillien Jeannière

Pick: Dylan Groenewegen

How: Regular bunch sprint, but not with a compact peloton.