Already a subscriber? Log In Belgian sprint ace Jasper Philipsen won a bunch finish to claim the Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne classic on Sunday. Philipsen was also third in Saturday's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad one-day race making the Alpecin rider the form sprinter coming into the European season The two races that make up "Opening Weekend" both feature narrow roads marking the start of the one-day classics in Belgium Philipsen edged Dutch sprinter Olav Kooij of Visma and Frenchman Hugo Hofstetter of Israel PT for his first win of the 2025 season He won the Tour de France green jersey in 2023 and last year won Milan-San Remo who won last year with Wout van Aert from a breakaway tried to set up Kooij over the final kilometer of the 197km run Get the most important Cycling stories delivered straight to your inbox Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne factsDateSunday March 2, 2025Start locationKortrijk, BelgiumFinish locationKuurne, BelgiumLength196.8 kilometresUCI categoryProSeriesLast edition2024 Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne2025 winnerJasper Philipsen (Bel) Alpecin-Deceuninck Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne: Jasper Philipsen overpowers rivals with textbook sprint to open 2025 account After receiving a perfect leadout, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) surged to victory at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne and claimed his first victory of 2025 Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) finished second and Hugo Hofstetter (Israel-PremierTech) was third in a bunch sprint While Omloop het Nieuwsblad uses much of the course for the Tour of Flanders Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne only skirts the numerous bergs that pepper the Flemish Ardennes Cote du Trieu and Kluisberg but a flat final 61km tips the race in favour of the sprinters The race starts in Kortrijk in 2025 and finishes in Kuurne Wout van Aert won the race from a small breakaway beating Tim Wellens and Oier Lazkano.  Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne was first held in 1945 and is now about to hold its 74th edition.  Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne past winners Valère Olivier was the first winner and Belgians have gone on to dominate the race the decorated Tom Boonen holds the record of three victories The late February date has often seen wintery conditions and the race has had to be cancelled on three occasions: 1986 That makes it 73 editions in the past 76 years with Alfred De Bruyne and Leon Van Daele sharing the honours in 1961 after a close finish that the officials were unable to call.  The race organisers for Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne will use a similar 196.8km route as was used last year with the course around Kuurne tackling some of the most popular climbs of the Spring Classics leaving plenty of room for sprinters to rejoin if they're dropped Be one of the first to try our new activity feed Belgian Philipsen triumphs on his birthday denying Kooij and Hofsetter and showing fine form before defense of his Milan-San Remo title Jasper Philipsen triumphed in a hectic bunch gallop at the end of Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne Sunday He proved best in a mass sprint to the line at the end of the 196.9 km event, celebrating his birthday with a big victory. Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) was second and Hugo Hofstetter (Israel-Premier Tech) third “It is a little bit unbelievable to win today on my 27th birthday,” the Alpecin-Deceunink rider said “For sure it gives me maybe one year extra “It all came together today and we had a really strong team in the end Philipsen spent a lot of the race hidden in the peloton “In the end I knew the chances of a bunch sprint were pretty high there were some movements but there was always a big bunch fighting to get back I honestly I also didn’t have the strongest legs like yesterday on the climbs.” It turned out his legs were more than strong enough for the victory — Lady Starblade (@ladystarblade.bsky.social) 2 March 2025 at 15:49 Kooij accepted the result and that in the tussle with Philipsen “We did a good job in the sprint preparation It was man to man and I couldn’t get past.” Sunday’s Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne was the second race of opening weekend and seemed like a more straightforward prospect for the big sprinters While it had more hills than Omloop Het Nieuwsblad it lacked the taxing ramps of Saturday’s race It also offered a much flatter finale which would make a regrouping more likely Saturday’s race ended up in a big gallop due to headwinds in the finale; the big question was if Kuurne would be even more sprinter-friendly The day’s break moved clear with approximately 151km left on the clock Present were Dries de Bondt (Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale) plus Ceriel Desal and Axandre Van Petegem of the Wagner Bazin WB team Omloop winner Søren Wærenskjold got into difficulty 96km from home and was dropped Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) kicked clear a short while after that and while he was brought back several kilometers later he went clear again on the Côte du Trieu and joined another attacker Stefan Bissegger (Decathlon Ag2r La Mondiale) Artz had lost contact with the break but was brought back up by those two chasers Wellens and Bissenger dragged the move along while behind Wout van Aert followed up some aggressive riding by his Visma-Lease a Bike teammate Matteo Jorgenson and darted clear with slightly over 58km to go Roger Adrià (Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe) went with him but declined to do any work The time gaps were under a minute and the break seemed increasingly in danger when Lidl Trek Red Bull and Soudal Quick-Step started to drive the pace behind Each had big sprinters to ride for and wanted to get back on terms However De Bondt wasn’t up for surrender and attacked with 38km left with an insistent Wellens and Mayrhofer doing a lot of driving They did what they could but the peloton was drawing ever-closer with the adventure coming to a close with just after they crossed the finish line to begin the final 12km lap From there the sprinters’ teams tried to guide their fastmen into position EF Education-Easypost drove onwards inside 3km to go and were still at the front going under the kite Kooij’s Visma-Lease a Bike team pushed forward then with Alpecin-Deceuninck taking over to set Philipsen up sprinting powerfully and holding off Kooij and Hofstetter to heighten his birthday festivities What’s it like to be an American cyclist living in France Watch to get professional road cyclist Joe Dombrowski’s view Olav Kooij finished second in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne The 23-year-old Dutchman was unable to complete the excellent preparatory work of Team Visma | Lease a Bike having to settle for second place behind Jasper Philipsen The Flemish opening weekend traditionally concluded with Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne a race many sprinters had set their sights on Kooij made his return to competition for Team Visma | Lease a Bike after recovering from illness It took more than an hour of racing before seven riders managed to form the early breakaway The peloton remained relatively calm until about 80 kilometers from the finish when action started to unfold on the Mont Saint Laurent Wout van Aert and Matteo Jorgenson were among those who increased the pace Van Aert showed great determination throughout the race but the sprint teams gave him no room to escape It soon became clear that the race would end in a sprint in the streets of Kuurne Team Visma | Lease a Bike guided Kooij well towards the final kilometre “My teammates did a great job today,” Kooij said “It was a battle for positioning heading into the final corner Tiesj and Victor made sure I got through it well it was up to Wout and Matteo to launch the sprint But Alpecin-Deceuninck also had a strong lead-out Sports director Grischa Niermann reflected on the race and the rest of the weekend: “We had different cards we could play today Matteo and Wout tried several times to anticipate but there were many teams controlling the peloton Then it was clear we would go all-in for the sprint with Olav We’ve identified some areas for improvement over the past two days but it’s good to finish this opening weekend with a second place in Kuurne and we will now continue preparing for them.”  🇧🇪 #KBKA hard-fought second place. 👊 pic.twitter.com/1gvRVN3nNU Subscribe yourself for the Team Visma | Lease a Bike newsletter and receive previews for races While the road racing season got underway Down Under in early January, many consider the true start of the season Opening Weekend in Belgium with the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne Classics on 1st and 2nd March Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne’s route is slightly flatter than Omloop making it more of a sprinters’ race – evident from its honour roll Dylan Groenewegen and Fabio Jakobsen in recent years. Unlike Omloop there is no women’s race Last year Wout van Aert won in what was a second consecutive victory for the Visma-Lease a Bike team after Tiesj Benoot in 2023 Van Aert won the three-up sprint ahead of breakaway companions Tim Wellens and Oier Lazkano and it proved to be the Belgian’s only Classics victory in 2024 Unsurprisingly Belgium has enjoyed the most success here, winning 54 editions. It’s then a big gap to the Netherlands, which sits in second place with ten wins. Tom Boonen holds the most wins individually with three A UCI ProSeries race rather than top-level WorldTour, it still attracts a high calibre of riders, with Van Aert, Matej Mohorič, Biniam Girmay Jonathan Milan and Tim Merlier among the riders on the start list for 2025. A junior version of the race has run since 2000 producing such illustrious winners as Geraint Thomas (2003) and Remco Evenepoel (2018) Related questions you can explore with Ask Cyclist, our AI search engine.If you would like to ask your own question you just need to Login, Register or subscribe the 7km neutralised start meanders briefly through Kuurne before the racing proper begins near Harelbeke The Tiegemberg is the first climb to be scaled and then Boembeek just after the 50km mark.  It used to be Lepelstraat at 2.1km but this has been removed for Boembeek (1.1km) instead in 2025 The toughest section is likely to be as the race reaches the halfway point as it takes on three sharp climbs in quick succession: the Hameu des Papin reaches a gradient of 16.2% followed not even 10km later by another punchy climb at Le Bourliquet (1.3km max 15.3%) and Mont Saint-Laurent another 5km later which hits extremes of 17%.  The final climb of Kluisberg reaches a max 11% gradient and comes 59km from the finish flattish run in to the final sprint.  There's also Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious) who finished third here in 2023 and Belgium's Road Race Champion Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) who thrives in home races looking to pick up his second win of the season and biggest one-day win since Tro-Bro Leon in 2024 This will be one of the first races to be impacted by the closure of Eurosport in the UK. Viewers can subscribe to TNT Sports with cycling now part of a wider package that includes Premier League football, Premiership rugby, Moto GP and more for £30.99 a month, but there are ways to subscribe for less Elsewhere, Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne will be on Max and FloBikes in the USA, FloBikes in Canada, and Staylive for much of the rest of the world Racing starts at 12:05 local time and will finish at 17:00 with the UK and Ireland coverage on TNT Sports 2 from 13:30-16:30 GMT If it’s not being shown in your country, you may be able to watch coverage using a VPN – Virtual Private Network – which allows users to mask their IP address and watch geo-blocked content, provided they don’t need to pay for a subscription. This is also helpful for watching paid-for coverage while travelling abroad in countries without access. Find out which countries have free to watch cycling coverage here Data powered by FirstCycling.com To manage an existing Cyclist magazine subscription, please visit Manage your account or visit our subscription FAQ page. To subscribe, or for other enquiries, please contact us Sign up to the Cyclist newsletter to receive curated emails direct to your inbox Sign up to our newsletter Log in to access Cyclist Rides using your email pertaining to your subscription Don't forget a subscription to Cyclist includes: Log in to post comments and use Ask Cyclist our AI platform that answers your questions based on our articles Register to comment on our latest articles Occasional emails from selected third-party sponsors and advertisers Please enter your username or email address to reset your password Please note that this is an automated translation and it will not be perfect All articles have been written in English and if anything appears to not make sense The 2025 editions of Omloop Nieuwsblad (men) and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne will not go down in history Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) celebrates Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne victory it’s hard to draw compelling conclusions from Opening Weekend given both (men’s) races culminated in a bunch sprint And that means the Spring Classics remain fairly open That said, there are a few key takeaways from this first weekend in northern Europe, the first visit to the cobbles and climbs of Flanders – besides the massive lesson learned by much of the women's WorldTour peloton on Saturday, when the breakaway went all the way at Omloop Nieuwsblad Most would be delighted to only wait nine race days for their first victory of the season but Jasper Philipsen’s drought in the desert – two podiums but no wins at the UAE Tour – had some asking the Milan-San Remo and nine-time Tour de France stage winner if he’d sacrificed his sprint in favour of a one-day focus The Belgian himself quipped that perhaps he’d forgotten how to sprint his 2025 season has yielded arguably his best starting results in years Pure sprint results at the *snore* UAE Tour It would be generous to call Philipsen’s opening classics record before 2025 anything more than mediocre – even that is an over-statement although that would perhaps only really matter if they’d all ended in the same way But just because Philipsen is often disguised as a ‘pure sprinter’ that doesn’t mean he’d have been out of the picture had a smaller group made it all the way at Omloop or Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne Philipsen was on the move between the last couple of climbs With a third-place and victory in the first two races Philipsen and Alpecin-Deceuninck have made themselves the centre of attention as the Cobbled Classics begin and that’s before Mathieu van der Poel has so much as shown his face… After last season’s disastrous luck and Wout van Aert’s lengthy injury layoff the once-top Classics powerhouse came into this weekend with optimism but tempered expectations And at the close of Sunday’s Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne Visma-Lease a Bike may well be disappointed The Dutch squad started Saturday’s Omloop Nieuwsblad as the thrice reigning champions albeit without the past two winners in late-attacker Jan Tratnik now wearing a Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe jersey whose bad luck extended its own reign at the Tour Down Under where he broke his collarbone on stage 1 – Van Baarle did though make a quiet return to racing at this Sunday’s Faun-Drome Classic with Tirreno-Adriatico next on his programme Matteo Jorgenson looked pretty damn great on the Kapelmuur alongside the bobble-headed Van Aert (in the shiny aero helmet) 2022 champ Wout van Aert was present alongside Matteo Jorgenson a unique co-leadership at the head of a decent squad including Tiesj Benoot and Victor Campenaerts but the weekend didn’t start off as planned “We didn’t ride the race we had envisioned,” DS Grischa Niermann said in post-Omloop statement through the team website “Our plan was to make the race hard and to put the others under pressure We have to accept that we weren’t strong enough for that today.” Despite the Belgian’s struggles earlier in Omloop when he was out of position – “I didn’t have the best legs.” – Van Aert and Jorgenson were where they needed to be when it mattered over the Kapelmuur but with so many teams and riders still in contention for a final sprint it wasn’t in the cards for them on Saturday Van Aert seemed to turn up with better legs to Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne but with even lower expectations given the sprinter-friendly parcours and teammate Olav Kooij in the bunch it mattered less that he had power on his side even with the number 1 of reigning champ on his back Perhaps if he’d been able to go sooner and drawn out a few other puncheurs … Alas and Roger Adría was an anchor on his wheel sending Van Aert up the road and holding up the bunch behind him but with no one but Roger Adrià alongside the Belgian (now in a good old-fashioned vented helmet) and the Spaniard working a team role so never pulling through the attack was over almost before it had begun While Kooij is an obvious headliner with a runner-up result at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne having stayed almost completely invisible all day long Matteo Jorgenson has – once again – shown himself to be a huge threat But is the reigning Dwars Door Vlaanderen champ being given the agency he deserves Two teams with differing standings in the Classics hierarchy are Lidl-Trek and Soudal-QuickStep might be said to have swapped places in the one-day standings – Lidl-Trek on the up as the old Belgian super-team sagged Last spring marked an extraordinary step-up for the American squad with Toms Skujiņš and Jonathan Milan joining Mads Pedersen and Jasper Stuyven as worthy leaders bolstered by the unparalleled Tim Declercq to grind down a breakaway’s advantage and rival teams’ resolve we saw a coming-of-age of sorts for Mathias Vacek although frankly that’s doing the 22-year-old Czech rider a disservice Vacek had already made a name for himself way back in 2022 when he won an aggressive UAE Tour stage from the breakaway but he was propelled into the public consciousness in the opening week of last year’s Vuelta a España – 2nd in the opening TT and in the stage 7 sprint behind Van Aert but he can clearly climb as well as crush it on flat terrain as demonstrated at the Figuiera Classic in mid-February and on the Kapelmuur at Omloop Nieuwsblad where he never left the front having led the bunch into the foot of the climb Vacek sat on the front and stayed on the front for the duration of the infamous wall It didn't quite work out on Sunday's Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne where sprinter Jonathan Milan sprinted to sixth but there was no shortage of oomph from the team throughout the race the once-unstoppable classics squad came into Opening Weekend with most of the pressure on the shoulders of a 20-year-old Frenchman with Yves Lampaert also there as road captain and Mr Opportunist Paul Magnier has never raced Opening Weekend before He’s actually only raced two spring classics ever at last year’s Bredene Koksijde (11th) and Dwars Door Vlaanderen (39th) but after a sturdy start to 2025 with three race days and three podiums he earned top billing should Omloop Nieuwsblad end in a sprint And the young rider confidently weathered the earlier drama to nab second in the bunch gallop – a result that seemed to hurt as he crossed the line with a howl “The team encouraged me the whole day and protected me the entire time, making sure I was in a good position going into all the important climbs, while I tried to save as much energy as possible,” Magnier said in team quotes. “It was a nervous race but we did a good job and we can be proud of this I am happy with this result after a hard race and an equally hard sprint in the headwind It’s a good result for us and for our confidence to kick off the Classics.” The team took their confidence into Kuurne like Lidl-Trek – only worse – the result was anti-climactic with the European champion only managing 15th The pedigree and physiology of the likes of Nils Politt Tim Wellens and Mikkel Bjerg are nothing new to cobbled classics such as these Jhonatan Narváez has bucked the trend of northern European one-day supremacy and emerged as a true challenger even on terrain where an extra 15-20 cm and >10kg would usually serve a contender The freshly minted Ecuadorian national champion started the season with an ever-so consistent Tour Down Under collecting a full quota of podium steps on his way to overall victory then a visit home to ensure no changes to his wardrobe would be necessary before returning to the happy hunting ground of Belgium Neither of the former Ineos rider's Opening Weekend appearances came to much despite the best efforts of himself and a particularly enthusiastic Wellens The Belgian bridged up to the ill-fated break late in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne Portuguese puncheur António Morgado was unable to show any of his early-season promise though he was the team's top finisher at Omloop in 42nd.. Ineos Grenadiers netting a top-five finish at Omloop Nieuwsblad – no Kuurne for the Grenadiers – should probably go down as a huge win for the British team who brought a rather young and inexperienced squad to the opening classic Bob Jungels and Connor Swift were the elder statesmen in a team that included three debutants they evidently have a promising rider for the spring That’s alongside Ben Turner who we’ve already seen prove himself on the cobbles and bergs as well as Josh Tarling who took himself a break from the peloton on Saturday after going on the attack about 50 km from the finish His acceleration only really amounted to 20 km in purgatory but a better timed move by the generational time-trial talent could be a real threat in the northern classics but don’t be surprised if one or two Ineos jerseys find their way onto the podium of a more minor classic this spring so the time is most certainly now for the Grenadiers While there were also strong performances from UAE Team Emirates-XRG and the likes of Stefan Küng arguably the most compelling storylines from Opening Weekend come from the lower ranks Uno-X Mobility performing at the top tier is not at all surprising but Søren Wærenskjold’s victory at Omloop Nieuwsblad is notable nonetheless.  What’s more intriguing still is the sudden emergence of Unibet Tietema Rockets’ Lukáš Kubiš an early contender for revelation of the spring with teammate Tomáš Kopecký also getting his name out there in Sunday's breakaway Slovakian national champion Kubiš – technically the first post-Sagan champ given Peter raced to second in 2023 – signed with Bas Tietema’s ambitious now-French outfit over the winter Kubiš had a super strong Tour de la Provence which proved a one-day specialist’s paradise as demonstrated by overall winner Mads Pedersen He’s already proven himself a nifty sprinter this season finishing hot on the heels of Sam Bennett (Decathlon-AG2R) twice in Provence so the fact he made it into the top 10 of both Omloop Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne is not that surprising But what’s particularly notable is that the 25-year-old appears to have an instinct for positioning himself in the notoriously challenging Cobbled Classics which he’s never raced before – the commentators quickly got themselves used to saying his name in the latter stages of Omloop Nieuwsblad on Saturday A few words for Q36.5 and Lotto before we close: Tom Pidcock was content after Omloop offering a pragmatic assessment of his positioning going into the crucial final bergs which ultimately didn’t matter much given he couldn’t expect to challenge in a bunch sprint Next stop Strade Bianche for the rejuvenated Q36.5 man Arnaud De Lie was among the top favourites on Saturday but was sent out the back by an “a bloc” chase earlier in the race The Belgian ProTeam still managed a top-4 finish thanks to the smart positioning and powerful sprint of Brent van Moer whose 90 points won’t do the team any harm in the quest for promotion This sprinter-friendly Classic rounds off Opening Weekend for the men's peloton The second half of the Belgian Opening Weekend the 77th Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne takes place on Sunday This race offers up a slightly less arduous route than its counterpart but with plenty of cobbles before the long flat run to the famous finish in Kuurne The 77th edition of Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne closes Opening Weekend before the riders head back to Italy and France before returning to Belgium for the bulk of the Spring Classics later in the month Starting in Kortrijk the 196.4-kilometre race wastes no time in hitting the famous cobbled climbs as it arrives at the dreaded Tiegemberg after just 17 kilometres Other key climbs on the route are the Volkegemberg The hellingen end with 60 kilometres left and from then on it's flat as a pancake to the line in Kuurne Favourite to take this year's race will be defending champion Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) or if he falters his American team mate Matteo Jorgenson could step up Although the race typically favours an all rounder it's one of the more sprint-friendly Classics so many of the world's best sprinters are in attendence this year including Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) and Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) It's going to be another cold dry day in Flanders and after the surprise win of Soren Waerenskjold in yesterday's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad will we be in for another shock today Read on for everything you need to know to watch a 2025 Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne live stream from anywhere Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne is streaming on lots of platforms around the world but what if you're abroad and don't want to take out a new subscription just to watch the race It's outstanding at unblocking streaming services it's fast and it has top-level security features too and you'll need to get the B/R Sports Add-On to watch cycling which is another $9.99 – so you're looking at a starting cost of $19.98 a month though you can make savings by committing to a year With Eurosport no longer available in the U.K., the only place to catch the cycling action is now on TNT Sports Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne coverage will be on TNT Sports 2 on TV though BT Broadband customers can get a discounted rate You will also have access to the Premier League Champions League and Europa League football plus rugby A subscription will set you back CAN$150 for the year or CAN$29.99 on a monthly basis In Australia, Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne will be shown on Staylive a relatively new platform that shows various events Warner Bros A subscription to Staylive Cycling costs $5.99 AUD per month or $59.99 for the year DisclaimerWe test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service) Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing you will then be prompted to enter your display name The Opening Weekend of the Spring Classics concluded on Sunday with the 1.Pro-rated Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne. If Saturday’s 40-rider sprint at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad was a surprise with Wout van Aert placing outside the top-10 a bunch sprint where Jasper Philipsen won on his 27th birthday His first triumph of the season comes a day after an Omloop podium Wout van Aert escaped with Tim Wellens and Oier Lazcano and beat them to the line Visma-LAB had two former K-B-K winners returning as van Aert and Tiejs Benoot will be the main Dutch Bees Matej Mohorič and Red Bull duo Lazcano and Tratnik brought the resistance Awaiting the riders were nine cobbled sectors and five climbs The Canadian contingent was the same as at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad: Israel-Premier Tech duo Guillaume Boivin and Riley Pickrell and Q36.5’s Nickolas Zukowsky A breakaway of seven bounced over the first half of the 196.9-km route A few counterattacks flared out and were extinguished but all the action streamlined the peloton a handful of riders tried more bridging moves With 58 km remaining and the reinforced breakaway within hailing distance Red Bull’s new man Roger Adrià on his wheel Van Aert and Adrià were hauled back and the breakaway one of the riders who had bridged to the fugitive group but only managed to chip off a few fellows The gap stayed at around a half minute for an hour the escape was absorbed just before the first passage of the finish line with 12 km remaining the multicoloured serpent slithered through the streets of Kuurne Alpecin-Deceuninck and Visma-Lease a Bike were all prominent A single-rider crash hardly interrupted the pace who stayed on the right-hand barrier and held off Olav Kooij for the day’s flowers Next Saturday is the Race of the White Roads Get the digital edition of Canadian Cycling Magazine Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Kaden Groves celebrates his team-mate Philipsen winning Birthday boy beats Olav Kooij and Hugo Hofstetter in a thrilling bunch sprint The 77th addition of this race took on a 196.9km route starting in Kortrijk and finishing in Kuurne including seven cobbled sectors and 20 named hills with the classic lap around the finishing circuit.  This race has seen anything from solo winners to mass bunch sprints Various attacks went off the front of the peloton as the race left the start but it took an extremely long time for the breakaway to form after 45km of racing a group of seven riders managed to force a meaningful gap and get away from the peloton Wave after wave of counter-attack from behind brought back the break with the sprinters' teams taking full control and drag the break back with one lap to go The pace was rapid and Alpecin-Deceuninck timed their leadout beautifully for their main man who took the victory in a very powerful sprinting performance "It's a little bit unbelievable to win today on my 27th birthday for sure gives me some extra power!" the Belgian joked at the finish we had a really strong team in the end and it wouldn't be possible without them "I knew the chances of a bunch [sprint] were pretty high the part in between with the hills there were some movements but there was always still a big bunch fighting to get back always The riders involved in the day's break were Dries De Bondt (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) Tomáš Kopecký (Unibet Tietema Rockets) They had a maximum gap of over four and a half minutes on the peloton Heading into the final 100km Omloop Het Nieuwsblad winner Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) was dropped from the bunch while there was an attack by Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ) and Thimo Kielich (Alpecin-Deceuninck) The latter had a front wheel puncture which saw him drop out of the attacking group and to the back of the peloton Behind this new move there was wave after wave of attacks mainly led by Visma-Lease a Bike’s Matteo Jorgenson and Tiesj Benoot but Lidl-Trek kept a stranglehold on the race with Jonathan Milan a big favourite at the start of the day there were more attacks with Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) and Stan Dewulf getting clear and bridging to Askey This group swelled with 16 riders getting away from the main peloton with 80km to go and Narváez dropping back into the group too Just 5km later the new attacking group was dragged back under control by the sprinters' teams but the likes of Wellens kept on trying to force a break Jorgenson and Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) tried once again: Van Aert put in a very long acceleration on the front but he wasn’t able to split the group Stefan Bissegger (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) went off the front of the pack on his own and put in a great effort pushing across to the break Wellens kicked again and made his way across to Bissegger before he got to the break In the peloton the pace dropped dramatically as the favourites blocked any attacks on the Côte du Trieu before kicking hard over the top stretching the bunch out into one long line and two big groups but Soudal-QuickStep dragged it all back together Van Aert attacked hard with only Roger Adrià (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) able to follow the superstar Van Aert decided that he wouldn't drag the Spaniard to the finish and sat up to rejoin the Soudal-QuickStep-led peloton After the duo were brought back it was the sprinters' teams that took over in the peloton keeping the pace high as they tried to control the gap to the break and dragging them back An attack in the break by De Bondt with just under 40km to go managed to do nothing but drop his teammate as well as Van Petegem with them both quickly getting caught by the peloton The remaining seven riders in the break continued to attack each other with Wellens going solo on the final cobbled sector of the Beerbosstraat with De Bondt The four riders who kicked clear got their gap up to 42” again but the sprinters' teams in the peloton got everything under control and the leaders had just 15” heading into the final 20km As they crossed the circuit's finish line for the penultimate time the breakaway tried one more time to get away with Mayrhofer the last man clear before the break was caught The pace continued to ratchet up as the kilometres ticked down through the technical lap around Kuurne with Alpecin-Deceuninck waiting until the final 2km to bring Philipsen towards the front The team executed the leadout perfectly with Jonas Rickaert and Kaden Groves setting up their man with Kooij not able to swing around the Belgian and Israel-Premier Tech’s Hofstetter following the wheels all the way to third place on the day Here's how to watch the 2025 Kuurne Brussel Kuurne on FloBikes Belgian clinches first victory of 2025 season on home soil with well-timed bunch sprint After placing 94th last year in a race which has never favoured him in the past, the fastman had already shown on Saturday on the hills and cobbles of Omloop that his climbing and all around Classic aptitude was very much in top shape All that was lacking after he and his team turned in a sterling performance all the way to the final kilometres of Nieuwsblad was the victory itself the Alpecin-Deceuninck racer has also made a very timely statement about his intentions for a title defence of the fast-approaching Primavera but of course it' it's difficult for our opponents to beat when you have a team and support like this from guys like Jonas [Rickaert] and Kaden…it was a perfect leadout," he said in his winner's press conference on one side of the Ninove press room "Yesterday [Saturday] I felt a bit stronger on the climbs to be honest but it was clear it was going to be a bunch sprint I tried to focus pretty quickly on the sprint [on Sunday] and also the legs weren't the best any more but nobody had good legs after a hard day like this." "We just needed to have the confidence on the flat part that we could do something in the last kilometre." "I think we took a really good step since last year we weren't successful yet in Opening Weekend we always had our best shape later," he confirmed.  "I just hope we can continue to keep this shape and not go downwards because it's still a long way into the Classics We changed a little bit in our preparation and I could feel the team was there that also gives confidence for the next races "It's also clear that UAE and Visma were not as aggressive as we've seen in the last year being instrumental in maintaining his discipline in winter training too but we had some racing feeling in the last couple of kilometres and maybe that helped as well." "He really pushed me this winter," Philipsen confirmed "he stayed nearby and we spent a lot of hours together training." "I think I've never trained as hard as I did this winter because he was always pushing me [telling me to be] on time at 10 o'clock  - 'Be there and don't be two minutes late' "I need people to motivate me and it was nice to prepare with him Philipsen will return to altitude training "because last year we did Tirreno to make that extra step But maybe it can be overkill with doing that race we have to find a good balance between training and racing I'm fully confident with what the performance team is doing so hopefully it's the right choice Rather than head straight to Milan-San Remo, though, he'll do Nokere Koerse in Belgium on the preceding Wednesday "because I'm normally not that good  when I come straight down from altitude At a race like Omloop and above all Kuurne Philipsen was able to reap the benefits of all that hard work with a triumph which both eases the pressure on the squad but also confirms he is in top form for the spring "It was always the plan to do Opening Weekend I think so far we are on schedule and things are going like expected in terms of preparation So hopefully we can keep this momentum going because there's still a long way to go in the Classics." although he did not classify Kuurne as a 'normal sprint' it appears that he has found the perfect balance between speed and power to race very well in the toughest of one-day races nobody really had the legs any more it was a really hard legs Yesterday was a good chance so I missed some extra balance it's always a difficult balance between speed and being strong." Opening Weekend for a Belgian guy is very special I'm very happy to have this and we can go to the next races with an open mind." Alasdair FotheringhamSocial Links NavigationAlasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991 He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain he has also written for The Independent,  The Guardian,  ProCycling All of the broadcast information for part two of the Flemish Opening Weekend Watch Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne to see some of the best riders in the world go head-to-head as the Spring Classics season continues to get underway in Belgium with all the details here on live streams and TV channels wherever you are in the world This year’s race features a quality startlist with almost a full complement of UCI WorldTeams and a strong contingent of ProTeams. Visma-Lease a Bike bring the last two winners in Wout van Aert and Tiesj Benoot as part of their squad with other former winners Kasper Asgreen (EF Education-EasyPost) and Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek) also in attendance.  as this race covers some of the same roads as the Flemish Monument Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne will take place on Sunday with broadcast options for the race available in the UK as well as free live streaming options in Belgium Read on for all the details on how to watch Omloop Het Nieuwsblad online The 2025 edition of Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne will have free-to-air coverage for viewers in Belgium via French-speaking public broadcaster RTBF The race will also be streamed on the Auvio streaming service If you are based in Belgium but currently outside of the country then you can still tune in by using a virtual private network (VPN) - more on that below If you're outside your usual country when Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne is on you might think you can’t watch the race due to geo-restrictions A VPN is a nifty piece of internet security software that can alter your device’s IP address to make it seem like it’s in any country in the world Provided it complies with your broadcaster’s T&Cs you can use a VPN to unblock your usual streaming services and enjoy your coverage as if you were back home.  TechRadar love NordVPN’s super speedy connections trustworthy security and the fact it works with Android 24/7 support and it's currently available for a knockdown price with coverage starting at 13:30 GMT on Sunday.  This is one of the first races on TNT Sports following the closure of Eurosport on February 28 TV viewers will need to upgrade their TV package accordingly.  streaming via Discovery+ has now shot up in price with subscriptions increasing from £6.99-a-month to £30.99.  Unlike Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday, Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne will be available to watch live in Australia on the new streaming service Staylive, who are also showing the race in New Zealand, with plans costing $9.99 a month.  DisclaimerWe test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing. The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox! Joseph Lycett is a freelance writer for Cyclingnews and has been covering professional cycling since 2022 writing for outlets such as Cycling Weekly regularly racing in his local crit races and time trials All the action from the 196.8km race with 13 climbs but plenty of room for sprinters to rejoin on the roads to Kuurne Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne 2025 - Everything you need to know Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews' live coverage of Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne Though not quite as hyped as Omloop Het Nieuwsblad it's still a great race that always provides thrilling action.  Søren Wærenskjold was the surprise winner of yesterday’s Opening Week first leg The Norwegian came out on top in what was a rare sprint finish at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad sprint finishes are a more common occurrence at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne Wærenskjold could therefore be in the mix again though he faces a much higher calibre of sprint opposition this time around.  especially the way he managed the bergs to remain near the front all race And today’s race is one that should suit him better The riders are in the neutralised area and will be starting properly in about five minutes The two sprinters who have probably been the quickest in the world this year are both appearing today - Jonathan Milan and Tim Merlier where they got the better of Jasper Philipsen there could be a resumption of that battle - albeit in very different conditions the cold and cobblestones of Belgium a far cry from the hot deserts of the UAE Two riders are now trying to go clear - Tomáš Kopecký Leander Van Hautegem But they're unsuccessful and are back in the bunch Soon they'll be at the first climb of the day We've been racing for about 40 minutes now and still no break has got up the road.  That might change soon as they approach the next obstacle of the day - the Volkegemberg attract much attention today is Wout van Aert He was a protagonist of yesterday’s Omloop making accelerations and putting his Visma-Lease a Bike team to the front of the race unable to make his attacks stick or pack his usual punch in the sprint finish He ultimately finished down in 11th - will he improve on tha today Another attempt is being made to break clear It seems not - those riders too have been caught.  It has 7 riders in it and they're building a gap Dries De Bondt (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) especially with the presence of De Bondt and Mayrhofer Both riders are capable of a good result here the latter having won the Cadel Evans Great Ocean race in the past but the breakaway riders are back climbing again The gap's now 3-30 between the peloton and the 7 leaders It’s calm out there for now though that’s likely to change when we reach the next cluster of climbs there will be three climbs and three cobbled sectors in the space of just 13km Sam Bennett is an outside bet for the win today should he still be in contention for a bunch sprint.  it always clashed with UAE," he told Cyclingnews in the start in Kortrijk so I'm just excited to see what I can do here Provence [where he won two stages last month] was a different level I'm more looking forward to the middle part of the race and just compare myself to the rest of the field and just enjoy it I'm always putting myself under pressure to get a result  and I know that's the aim for today but here I'm just looking forward to racing today and seeing what's possible." As for Saturday and how much you could read from Omloop into possible results at Kuurne nobody was absolutely flying so anything is possible." "Often I come to these races I'm not super and I'm with a bit of anxiety because I know I'm going to get my ass kicked But here I'm knowing I can ride the race." If the race does conclude with a big bunch going for the finish line Bennett describes the scenario as "a tired sprint So it's like riders try to kick off as if it's a normal sprint but riders then realise their legs aren't there any more "At UAE you'd see the real powerhouses coming through Here's a look at the breakaway up the road Last year's Omloop winner Jan Tratnik had a puncture just before the Mur de Geraardsbergen and as he told Cyclingnews on Sunday morning at the Kuurne start his race was effectively poleaxed as a result Quickly there was a breakaway and then it was quite relaxed in the bunch but because there was a crash and then naturally it fell apart." just before the Mur so it was the worst timing Tratnik is again representing Red Bed Bull-Bora Hansgrohe having made his debut for the team at yesterday’s Omloop "We're coming together as a new group of riders and for sure we need to work together to get used to each other with the brothers Van Dijke [Mick and Tim] Jordi [Meeus] and Ryan [Mullen] did an amazing job early on as well and I saw some positive things as well and for sure we saw we made some mistakes but this will help us moving forward in other races." and Tratnik says he will be there to help Jordi [Meeus stage and points classification winner in Volta ao Algarve] as much as possible “Then we'll see what happens on the climbs." but I see other teams are interested in different scenarios This is the first of a cluster of bergs that could ignite the race The break has made it over these climbs with a lead still intact over over four minutes.  Matteo Jorgenson was arguably the strongest rider for his Visma-Lease a Bike team at Omloop on a day when globally the results were not up to expectations with Wout van Aert their best finisher in eleventh they're hoping for a very different outcome it's just to come back from altitude and have a good feeling straightaway like I normally do but always with the first race it's good to put the doubts away and know that you're one of the strongest in the race "Thankfully we can try to win under the two scenarios it's either a frontal group that goes away in the hilly part We have Olav [Kooij] who will always stay with the sprinters but Plan A is to make it really hard in the hills and try to win from there with a select group." as the breakaway take on La Houppe (1.7km at 4.4%) the riders are enjoying a flatter stretch before the next cluster of bergs Though that gap is coming down as tr pace is on in the peloton This is what they've been battling for position for - the Hameau des Papins climb It's all happening on this climb - 2 riders have attacked His bad luck continues following yesterday's puncture before the Muur Some riders are being dropped on this climb including yesterday's winner Søren Wærenskjold He must be fatigued from the efforts made to win that There were in fact 3 rider who attacked on the climb and they've put themselves in a good position ahead of the coming climbs Lidl-Trek are taking responbility of chasing them They could be controlling things for Milan That leaves Narváez and Askey alone together The bunch caught and passed him before he had managed to remount.  Visma's strategy is to make the race hard during this section of hills Jorgenson went clear with about ten riders who was dropped by Narváez earler on the climb It'll be hard for him to get back onto the peloton.  Those four have been brought back by another group that escaped from the peloton And now Narváez has been brought back too Meanwhile the leaders are now only 1-40 ahead of this group There's less than 20 riders in this group.  There are now no riders between the peloton and the leaders Now Van Aert is leading on the draggy road after the summit Rui Oliveira and a EF rider tried an attack Meanwhile all this action is going to spell the end of the break's chances Stefan Bissegger is the latest to attack out of the peloton They're less worried about him than they were of Van Aert.  Attack from Tim Wellens on the Côte du Trieu It's all breaking up in the peloton after that climb There are about 25 riders in a front peloton Top sprinters Milan and Philipsen are both in that front peloton Bissegger and Wellens are still 25 seconds away from the leaders They've also picked up Huub Artz who was dropped out of that group Bissegger and Artz have joined the leaders just as they're about to start the day's final climb They crest the top with a gap of several seconds Van Aert has multiple Visma teammates towards the front That could make the chase complicated.  The Red Bull rider with Van Aert is Roger Adrià Van Aert and Adrià have 10 seconds on the peloton The gap's grown a little between Van Aert/Adrià and the peloton and now the Belgian is remonstrating with him He's going to allow himself to get caught by the peloton That leaves just the nine riders out front It seems very likely that the race will come down to a sprint and most of the big name sprinters are in it - Philipsen with Roger Adrià glued firmly to his wheel He might be the top contender for the win following the way this race has unfolded The peloton aren't rushing to bring the break back yet The sprinters' teams have this firmly under control They're setting a fast enough pace for noone to attack on this flat terrain which doesn't feature any more hills from now until the finish you'd have thought he'd be one of the strongest given that he was the rider who bridged to the group with Wellens earlier Artz is the latest rider from the break to drop back into the peloton Desal and Wellens are working well together They're working well enough in fact to retain a lead of 30 seconds on the peloton Soudal-QuickStep and Lidl-Trek are especially well represented in the long train of riders leading the peloton If they still have enough left in the tank come the finale they could be able to give their respective leaders Merlier and Milan good lead-outs in the sprint Philipsen and Merlier are the top favorites for the win as we approach a likely bunch finish But sprint finishes in tough classics like this don’t always play out like you’d expect - as we saw yesterday There are plenty of riders here who could spring a surprise Cofidis clearly fancy their man Fretin’s chances They’ve sent a rider to help the chase in the peloton One team conspicuously absent from the front is Visma-Lease a Bike Their plan on tearing the race to pieces and forcing a break to go clear did not work out but it’s not too late for them to rescue this race who is one of the sprinters capable of challenging the big three As the break cross the finish line to hear the bell there's a bit of a fight to cross the line first the sprinters' teams jobs aren't over yet - they've got to control the peloton keep their man well-positioned and prepare the final lead-out Jordi Meeus is also present in the peloton and a contender in the sprint though did have to work hard earlier to rejoin the peloton after bike problems UAE take control as we enter the final 5km  Wærenskjold's been dropped but Tiller is here Can they make it an unlikely two wins in two days That's Philipsen's first win of the season Philipsen benefited from a brilliant lead-out from Kaden Groves Other sprinters tried to go around him even before Philipsen started his sprint but were unable to such was the pace from Groves While Alpecin kept Philipsen perfectly positioned in the finale the other big favourites Milan and Merlier found themselves well down in the finale.  starting his sprint from too far back to compete for the win Philipsen is building quite the palmares of classics He today adds Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne to Milan-Sanremo two editions of Scheldeprijs and two editions of Brugge-De Panne and the racing comes thick and fast from here on in for the rest of the Spring Australian receives fine and relegation with new UCI rule taking effect Groves received a yellow card - his first of 2025 - and a fine of 500 CHF He was also relegated from tenth to 57th place The new UCI rules now bans "rider decelerating during a sprint and endangering other riders (knowingly staying within the line of other riders talking on the radio or taking hands off handlebars while in the bunch)" Numerous new and revised UCI rules came into effect January 1 2025 which saw the official roll-out of the yellow-card system for safety violations and more specific rules surrounding sprint finishes both times for deviating his line after leading out his sprinter If a rider gets two yellow cards during the same event they can be disqualified and suspended for seven days Three cards in 30 days can earn a rider or director a 14-day suspension Six cards over a 52-week rolling period can result in a 30-day suspension If the suspension falls during the off-season Other new regulations for 2025 include prohibiting WorldTour and ProTeam men from competing as under-23s at the World Championships Lyne LamoureuxLyne has been involved in professional cycling for more than 15 years in both news reporting and sports marketing quickly becoming a trusted source for news of the North American professional cycling world She was the first to successfully use social media to consistently provide timely and live race updates for all fans She is proud to have covered men's and women's news equally during her tenure at the helm of the site Her writing has appeared on Cyclingnews and other news sites.  Check out the full report Results powered by FirstCycling Together with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on the preceding Saturday it forms part of what's known as the Opening Weekend of the Belgian Classics season – a tone-setter ahead of the bigger prizes to be won in the main spring period.  That has been changing in recent years as the organisers have sought to intensify the route and racing has become more open, but two of the last four editions have culminated in bunch sprints, with Fabio Jakobsen and Mads Pedersen speeding to glory although it heads southeast through the Flemish Ardennes The winner of Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne receives a toy donkey stemming from the not-so-affectionate nickname for locals of this sleepy town just outside of Kortrijk.  The race organisers for Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne have paired with RouteYou to create an interactive map and profile for the 2023 edition The 193km route around Kuurne tackles some of the most popular climbs of the Spring Classics The early loop sends riders over the famed Koppenberg and the Wolvenberg while the foray into Wallonia uses lesser known but equally punishing ascents of the Hameau des Papins all of those are out of the way with 60km to go and a pan-flat run-in almost always ensures a fast finish Break with UAE Team Emirates-XRG racer caught 12 kilometres from the line albeit with a very different and far less successful result than 2024 Wellens remained upbeat on the finish line nonetheless after testing the waters on the same ascent Wellens and Stefan Bissegger (Decathlon-AG2R)  bridged across to the early break of the day some 30 kilometres further on and the leading group then proceeded to keep the bunch at bay for the best part of an hour The final four survivors, including Wellens, were only reeled in after a long pursuit across the flat plains of West Flanders leading back to Kuurne But despite failing to make the podium for a second year running Wellens nonetheless insisted his strategy in a gutsy 50 kilometre break had been the best one to pursue but then only the two of us made it across," Wellens told reporters afterwards but there were just too many riders behind "It was a nice group but the bunch was never that far behind I tried to get things going by shaking off some of the other guys but the bunch accelerated as well and it was hard to attack even more."  What might have been a gamechanger would have been if Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) had subsquently managed to bridge across with Roger Adria (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) in his counter-attack after Wellens' move riding his first ever cobbled Classic this season was clearly under instructions to wait for the bunch where Bora were hoping to contend the sprint with Jordi Meeus - who finally placed 11th - and despite some obvious gestures from Van Aert to collaborate Wellens remained positive despite the lack of visible success arguing that he came away from Opening Weekend with good sensations and good numbers all of which bodes well for the rest of Classics season.  but the Watts were pretty high for me and I felt good," he said "We don't have a win this weekend  but we tried and we can't win every race "Everybody knew the sprinters' teams would go for it but we do these kinds of moves to progress But this wasn't an attack to test my legs for later Wellens came away from the Kuurne mixed zone with a smile on his face, in any case, as he learned from a reporter that even if he hadn't taken a victory, UAE had just managed to win the Faun Drôme Classic with his teammate Juan Ayuso "That's brilliant news," he said with a grin before pedalling away to a well-earned shower and rest after a hard weekend's racing Philipsen's Aeroad was racked with second and third place finishers Olaf Kooij and Hugo Hofstetter's machines Worn bar tape at the shifter for Philipsen perhaps he likes the worn-in feel or preferred not to have it changed pre-race and gels added into the mix towards the end The Canyon Aeroad handlebar is width adjustable  Philipsen has the more aggressive Canyon 'Pro' CP0049 stem that is 120mm long Philipsen raced with the Canyon Thru Axle levers installed front and rear perhaps to save time if a wheel needed to be removed Dura-Ace C50 wheels have won an awful lot of races  Spot the monster bottom bracket shell on the Canyon Aeroad CFR  We are told Philipsen's team number is '2' the race bikes are then ordered A/B/C Worn bar tape and a detailed fuelling strategy for the Belgian sprinter The sunshine was starting to weaken on Sunday afternoon when the Belgian fast-man finally rolled into the post-race interview zone to speak to the media I spent a few minutes taking a look at his bike before he was whisked away again.  Canyon has sponsored Alpecin-Deceunick for several years now.  and Philipsen won on 30mm tyres at Kuurne.  The bike was covered in race splatter and was UCI security tagged post-race but had a '2' sticker next to the Philipsen top tube name sticker We understand each rider in the team has a number perhaps this number just helps with general organisation Despite having a degree in English Literature he has spent his entire working life in the cycling industry in one form or another He has over 10 years of experience as a qualified mechanic with the last five years before joining Cyclingnews being spent running an independent workshop This means he is just as happy tinkering away in the garage as he is out on the road bike and he isn’t afraid to pull a bike apart or get hands-on with it when testing to really see what it’s made of.  He has ridden and raced bikes from an early age up to a national level on the road and track and has ridden and competed in most disciplines He has a keen eye for pro-team tech and enjoys spotting new or interesting components in the wild Tom has already interviewed some of the sport's biggest names including Mathieu van der Poel He's also covered various launches from brands such as Pinarello tackled the Roubaix Challenge sportive aboard his own rim-brake Cannondale SuperSix Evo tested over 20 aero helmets in the wind tunnel and has created helpful in-depth buying advice relating to countless categories from torque wrenches to winter clothing.  Tim Merlier and Dries Van Gestel will all be in action on the cobbles The first Classics of the season are finally here the Soudal Quick-Step riders will take on Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne the two prestigious races our team has won a combined total of 13 times the first World Tour race of the season held in Europe and the Belgian Classic puts on the table another demanding parcours that will see the peloton take on two of Belgium’s most iconic climbs The fact that both of these come in the last 20 kilometers after the riders had already tackled the likes of Eikenberg will make the fight for victory even more fiercely contested A two-time winner of Dwars door Vlaanderen and a podium finisher in Paris-Roubaix Yves Lampaert will headline our squad for Saturday’s 197km-long appointment where he’ll be joined by Mattia Cattaneo for Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne – whose 196.9km course comprises more than a dozen climbs the last of which comes around 60 kilometers from the finish – European Champion Tim Merlier Bert Van Lerberghe and Warre Vangheluwe will join Lampaert and Van Gestel on the start line “We have a good team for both these races and we are excited to kick off the cobbles season It will be nice to see Mattia and Paul for the first time on the cobbles but we don’t put any pressure on them Yves and Casper bring a lot of experience to the roster while the other guys can provide important support so we are confident in our chances of fighting for a good result and if the race comes down to a bunch sprint as was the case so many times in the past he’ll have a strong squad to help him there” to know how many times a particular page is read We only use this information to improve the content of our website These cookies are only placed after you have given your consent Tim Merlier is our team’s first rider home at the 77th edition of the Belgian race Soudal Quick-Step came at the start of the Opening Weekend’s second race with a lot of confidence after Paul Magnier’s impressive runner-up place in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and our team was prominent from the moment the flag was waved and a breakaway formed Martin Svrcek and Warre Vangheluwe worked tirelessly at the front of the peloton to keep the gap around the five-minute mark and to make sure no other attacks would come on the many hills in the first part of the race it was again the Wolfpack who pushed hard and chased down those up the road bringing them back after the last difficulty of the day Our riders continued to give their best on the way back to Kuurne going into the final kilometer of the race Tim Merlier was separated from his lead-out man Bert Van Lerberghe and as a result he found himself far from the front of the bunch Despite his best efforts to make up ground in the final corner at 800 meters to go and then on the finishing straight Tim couldn’t be in the mix for victory anymore which went to Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) “The race went almost as we wished and hoped without too much wind in the finale and with our riders well positioned going into the climbs it’s just a pity that things didn’t click in the final part of the race and Tim lost Bert we can take a lot of confidence from our display and the way we raced despite not getting the result we wanted” said Soudal Quick-Step sports director Iljo Keisse Photo credit: ©Billy Ceusters / Getty Images Lotte Claes celebrates with the trophy after the biggest win of her career The pack of riders pictured in action during the men's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) got the team's best result in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne Lorena Wiebes leading the main field at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad Women 2025 Jasper Philipsen wins Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne The major talking points from Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne The 2025 Spring Classics season is officially underway after the men’s and women’s pelotons blasted across the cobblestones of Flanders over the weekend The biggest prizes of the Spring Classics season – such as the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix may still lie over a month away but we can now declare the Belgian racing season underway The first cobbled races of 2025 brought up plenty of talking points, from the form of Classics superteam Visma-Lease a Bike in the men’s races to the new landscape of power among the women’s peloton There was plenty to talk about during the grand opening of the cobbled season and the coming weeks – as we ramp up towards the two big Monuments – will throw up countless questions and topics of discussion are our five big conclusions from the 2025 Opening Weekend The Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne pressroom was located inside the local church this year television screens and trays of sandwiches replacing pews and prayer books for at least one afternoon.  When Jasper Philipsen delivered a couple of home truths in his press conference late on Sunday evening it wasn't quite a case of preaching to the choir but the assembled congregation of listening journalists were hardly surprised by what he had to say.  but not better than the others," Philipsen pointed out the evidence was very much already plain to see.  Indeed, after three years of runaway success in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, crowned by victories for Marianne Vos and Jan Tratnik last year and a triumph the next day in Kuurne for Wout van Aert Visma visibly struggled at this year's Opening Weekend 2025,  Not even the runner-up spot for Olav Kooij on Sunday compensated for that the media criticism would surely have been all the fiercer come Monday morning.  It was impossible to avoid the contrast with the previous weekend's stunning triumph in the Volta ao Algarve for Jonas Vingegaard not to mention taking their netting top two spots in the final time trial of the Portuguese stage race The whys and wherefores will surely be amply discussed and dissected in the weeks to come.  arguably their strongest rider of the weekend pointed out that two key components of their usual Classics line-up Christophe Laporte and 2023 winner Dylan van Baarle were missing from the 2025 line up because of illness and injury and he might have added (but didn't)  that last year's winner was no longer in their line-up either.  Team director Grischa Niermann also reminded everyone that retired rider Nathan van Hooydonck previously so often crucial for positioning Wout van Aert in exactly the right spot for a Classics attack The biggest question mark likely resides over Van Aert himself He had an uncertain start in the Clasica Jaén and also faltered in the sprints at the Volta ao Algarve pushing the Belgian way back up the rankings of favourites for Omloop The moment when he could have blasted away the winter cobwebs and left the field for dead in Omloop never materialized Van Aert is never one to avoid self-criticism and he said himself that he was never really in the running on Saturday.  he again came up against the stranglehold of sprinters teams Helped enormously by the excellent weather conditions they were determined to suffocate any challenges.  "It was not as much of a demonstration as the past two years," Niermann admitted to Nieuwsblad. "Just fine but of course not at the level he needs to reach in a month.”  There is still plenty of time for Van Aert to move up to absolute top shape and he'll be looking to do that in the biggest cobbled Classics after a long block at altitude  Visma-Lease a Bike 'just hasn't clicked yet' The most encouraging sign from Opening Weekend is the American rider who seems both on form for both Paris-Nice in the short-term the number of unquestioning believers in Visma-Lease a Bike sure fell away Lotte Claes (Arkéa-B&B Hotels Women) and Femke Gerritse (SD Worx-Protime) were the surprise winners across Opening Weekend's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Omloop van het Hageland showing just how unpredictable racing can be where she earned a well-deserved victory while Nerlo finished second place Vollering beat Pieterse in the sprint for third The following day, Gerritse secured the victory at Omloop van Het Hageland a 1.1 race that is widely recognised as being part of Opening Weekend.  The 23-year-old all-rounder did not compete at the previous day's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad but she joined a powerful team that included former world champion Anna van der Breggen who just returned to competition after a three-year retirement She outsprinted her breakaway companions to win in Tielt-Winge and also claimed the first professional victory of her career Although many would have anticipated that Van der Breggen would take the win since she too was in the breakaway she did the lion's share of the teamwork in the move and then led out Gerritse perfectly to secure the win She will be looking ahead to peak form at the Ardennes Classics in April When Tom Pidcock was asked on Friday who he thought might be a top contender for Opening Weekend he barely missed a beat before answering 'Jonnie Narváez' The line-up for both races for UAE Team Emirates-XRG was certainly a daunting one Figueiras Champions Classic winner Antonio Morgado and former Paris-Roubaix podium finishers Florian Vermeersch and Nils Politt all present.  Wellens himself made the biggest effort of any of the favourites to try to break the sprinters' stranglehold on Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne UAE were the first to raise the pace on Saturday some 90 kilometres from the line and despite Narváez' impressive early show of power on Sunday in the hills of Kuurne overall UAE's one major cameo came down to Wellens' refusal to bow to the inevitable They certainly didn't reshape the narrative of either race with Antonio Morgado's stunning early season form seen in Portugal most definitely not on show in Belgium For the first time since Omloop, the UAE Tour and its predecessor were all added to the WorldTour race calendar in 2017 Rather than UAE finishing on the same weekend as Omloop and Kuurne the Middle Eastern stage race finished a week earlier The change was small but the benefits were immediate and notable.  It reduced an already ridiculously overloaded weekend of racing and allowed a bigger media spotlight to shine on the first WorldTour Classic in Europe of the year it meant that the UAE Tour was the only WorldTour event the previous weekend Tadej Pogačar was racing - and winning - that event also gained in prominence.  Putting together a WorldTour calendar that avoids major race overlap in the future as has been widely rumoured will be the case in the 2026 reordering of the WorldTour But on the evidence of this weekend in Belgium Het Laatste Nieuws explained the surprise outcome of the women's Omloop Nieuwsblad with lots of sarcasm: 'Bickering and poker between Dutch riders and a winner called Lotte - how the Omloop was a carbon-copy of the World Championships'  The Flemish newspaper was referring to how the biggest teams in the women's peloton threw away their chances in a welter of disagreements on who would work to pull back the early break.  Ellen van Dijk of Lidl-Trek told Cyclingnews how Saturday's scenario reminded her of the disagreements in the Tokyo Olympics as the teams passed the buck and so lost the race Full marks were due to Lotte Claes (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) for her stunning victory and day-long break and for Aurela Nerlo (Winspace Orange Seal) who went with her and then tried to beat her with a kilometre-long sprint.  giving the early move a 14-minute advantage at one point was perhaps the biggest single factor in a success Claes herself said afterwards she could never have expected in her wildest Omloop dreams Rather than point specific fingers at specific teams it was clear that the new hierarchy in women's cycling was so finely balanced that it failed to produce the exciting racing everybody had predicted would happen Everyone was left wondering why the top teams failed to take the initiative and rather than trying to claim one of the biggest prizes in the cycling calendar opted to play a disastrous waiting game instead It remains to be seen how Mathieu van der Poel performs in his surprise early season debut at Le Samyn this Tuesday but there is doubt if his co-leaders and teammates are already firing on all cylinders with the Opening Weekend providing a resounding answer to any doubts Jasper Philipsen did not win Saturday's Omloop Nieuwsblad after starting his sprint too early but the hilly race is as much about studying a team's collective form as it is about individuals and as they marshalled the peloton to ensure a bunch sprint and then rode the final kilometre faultlessly Alpecin-Deceuninck were very much in evidence and control in a way that Visma-Lease a Bike and UAE could only manage much more sporadically Appropriately enough given their title sponsor Sunday's Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne was very much a case of 'rinse and repeat' only this time with a much more well-deserved conclusion The pressure is most definitely off Alpecin-Deceuninck particularly as they are still waiting for their Classics leader and the storylines ahead of the start of Classics season at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne The men's 2025 WorldTour season has been underway for more than a month but the old-school racing fans will finally join in on the celebrations this Saturday The Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (followed by its slightly smaller Sunday sibling Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne) will kick off the traditionalists' bike racing season with Classics action in Flanders there are plenty of big names on the start list This is just the beginning of the Classics After Jan Tratnik (then with Visma-Lease a Bike now with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) took a stunning win in 2024 this year's edition of the race will give us a chance to see just what kind of Classics form his former teammate Wout van Aert has at the moment It will also provide a stage for Jhonatan Narváez to make his pavé debut for UAE Team Emirates-XRG – and without Tadej Pogačar to hog all the spotlight Here is what you need to know ahead of the first race of men's Opening Weekend, starting with a little teaser of the pre-race favorites before we look at the route, the start list, and the storylines, and then close it out with a quick primer for KBK as well. Looking for the women's preview Matt de Neef has the rundown for Saturday's Het Nieuwsblad and Sunday's Omloop van het Hageland ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: Wout van Aert⭐⭐⭐⭐: Jhonatan Narváez The Omloop has really settled into its niche as an homage to the classic Tour of Flanders route with several big Flandrian climbs leading into a finale tackling both the Muur van Geraardsbergen and the Bosberg neither of which feature for Flanders anymore those things that have changed about the route probably won't be especially decisive riders will cover 197 km from Ghent to Ninove with 15 stretches deemed worthy of demarcation as cobbled sectors (kasseien or pavé) All but two of those come in the second half of the day and it is the final 55 km of the race that will really see things heat up starting with the Eikenberg at 53 km to go the Wolvenberg climb and the Holleweg and Karel Martelstraat cobbles come in quick succession Then there is a brief moment of respite before a brutal stretch on the Jagerij cobbles The repeated efforts will invariably string out the group and will possibly propel attackers up the road and it is followed by a descent to the bottom of the punchy Bosberg From the top of that it's less than 10 mostly downhill kilometers to the finish line Getting away and staying away over that finale will be two different things – although the last three winners of the race have been attackers and with the sport generally trending that way it could well be down to an opportunist again on Saturday We've got a guide for streaming all the WorldTour races this season but the short version is that it's status quo except in the UK where coverage has shifted to the TNT Sports platform The race starts at 11:15 CET and should finish around 15:50 CET (for Flanders Classics events The race will be shown live in its entirety in some regions We go into the Omloop with a few questions on our mind Wout van Aert won't be able to stay out of the spotlight on Saturday his first cobbled Classic after a very disappointing 2024 season that saw his Classics campaign start strong and then end abruptly in a crash just ahead of his main objective Van Aert is a former Omloop winner at the head of the team that won last year – although Tratnik himself has a new team – and the 2025 lineup is a strong one so Visma and Van Aert really should win this thing with no Mathieu van der Poel or Pogačar in town to stop them It should come as no surprise that the course suits Van Aert who can handle cobbled climbs better than most people on the planet and who also has the engine to go solo and the speed to win a reduced sprint Is he in shape to win at this level right now Does he even want to be in shape to win at this level this early in the season or Visma newcomer Victor Campenaerts will be glad to try their luck with long-range attacks giving Visma alternate paths to victory along the lines of last year's win The bookmakers like a UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider as one of the top favorites which might seem like a lot of confidence to place in Jhonatan Narváez but the Ecuadoran was stellar in his win at the Tour Down Under and has done well on similar terrain at past editions of E3 The fact that he moved from the Ineos Grenadiers to the perennially overachieving UAE squad is reason enough on its own to expect big things from him although he may be less likely to go solo than some others in this race the peloton will likely look to Visma to control the race potentially taking some pressure off of Narvaez and Co where surprise winners happen with some regularity At least you won't be surprised after reading this preview if a UAE dark horse "pulls a Tratnik" to win this year Arnaud De Lie's palmarès is already impressive for a 22-year-old so it might seem a bit silly to point this out he has generated a ton of hype without winning anything quite as big as the Omloop So far he only counts two WorldTour victories on his results sheet: a one-day win at the GP Québec and a stage of the Renewi Tour A cobbled Classic that is not nearly as long as the Monumental Flanders or Paris-Roubaix feels like the perfect place for De Lie to step it up and take that big win he'll need to survive the climbs even with a training program that has not been ideal partially derailed by an offseason knee injury already grabbing a win at the Étoile de Bessèges and if he can make it to the finale of the Omloop Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) is not planning to race the Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix this year but he will have a bit of fun on the cobbles on Saturday and it would not be a surprise at all to see him win The climbs are not hard enough for him to be the favorite He is also on flying form after winning the AlUla Tour and riding to third overall at the Ruta del Sol A flat run-in to the line will force smaller riders like Pidcock – who may not want to chance a sprint – to try their luck from a little ways out and hopefully that means we get to see some action Obviously Tratnik himself deserves a mention here although it would be fair to say that he is not a major favorite even as the defending champion within his own Red Bull team there are at least two riders who seem pretty much just as likely to win: Oier Lazkano and Jordi Meeus Soudal-Quick Step will look to the new generation in the form of Paul Magnier the young Frenchman with a heck of a finishing kick Yves Lampaert will be another strong option for the Belgian team you'd think we would have mentioned Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) already and his only so-so showing at the UAE Tour mean that he has been relegated to fringe favorite status for the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad though obviously he will be a favorite in a sprint if it comes to that and one does not simply finish second in Paris-Roubaix without having just a bit of pavé prowess Lidl-Trek has a promising triple threat in the form of former winner Jasper Stuyven That's three riders who can be on the lookout for attacking opportunities Also on the list of potential attackers are former Flanders winner Alberto Bettiol (XDS-Astana) and the other former Flanders winner that EF Education-EasyPost signed when Bettiol left When the peloton hits the 50 km to go mark they will be among the many names you may hear animating the race After the dust settles on the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad many of the same riders will jump right back into action at Sunday's Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne with a few new names joining the party as well Many of the notables skipping the first race and doing the second will be sprinters because KBK is often – although not always – a race that favors fast finishers the Beerbosstraat at more than 30 km to go is the only cobbled sector on tap making it hard for attackers to stay clear Defending champion Van Aert will be in attendance and will be among the favorites again but he'll have Olav Kooij in his squad as the likely sprint leader Philipsen will start with much shorter odds the double billing this weekend will give us a much better idea of what's the come in the one-day races ahead Enjoy the racing and stay tuned for plenty more Classics coverage here at Escape Collective Watch as Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin–Deceuninck) sprints to Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne victory to claim his first win of the season Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne winner Jasper Philipsen will have major leadout this summer: 'The plan this year is that Groves comes along with me to the Tour' KUURNE, Belgium (Velo) – Birthday boy Jasper Philipsen and his Alpecin-Deceuninck team are the winners of the Belgian opening weekend The Belgian team surprisingly overshadowed UAE and Visma on both days On Saturday they still had to settle for third place in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad but on Sunday a perfect team lead-out left everybody staring at Philipsen’s rear wheel He heads back home on his 27th birthday with the plush donkey trophy after the win in Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne It’s not my favorite animal but it’s a nice trophy It’s an iconic trophy and it’s cool to have it It will get a nice place as a memory to this day My birthday was an extra motivation but you still need the legs “It will probably be the first and last time I win on my birthday I think we can have a small celebration tonight,” Philipsen laughed speaking during the post-race press conference in the Kuurne church Philipsen already won nine Tour de France stages and the green jersey in 2023 He also won three stages in the Vuelta a España and last year he managed to win his first monument with Milan-San Remo Adding Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne to that list makes him proud “I’m really happy with how things unfolded this year during the opening weekend Yesterday was a day with mixed feelings but winning on my birthday makes it very nice,” Philipsen said in the post-race flash interview The opening weekend for a Belgian guy is a nice thing The biggest classics are still to come but I’m really happy to already have this,” he added during the post-race press conference in the Kuurne church His Alpecin-Decueninck team didn’t disappoint and Philipsen also noticed something else “It’s clear that teams like Visma and UAE weren’t there as aggressively as we have seen last year They were on a good level but not exponentially better than any others.” Those teams weren’t able to drop fast men like Philipsen on both days First Visma-riders Wout van Aert and Matteo Jorgenson led the peloton into the finishing straight Then Alpecin took over the command with Jonas Rickaert and finally Kaden Groves He kept the speed extremely high until the final 150 meters It was a really hard race and I think everybody was on the limit,” Philipsen said “We had one of the strongest lead-outs here with Jonas Rickaert and Kaden who did a part-time job as a lead-out; he can win sprints at the highest level himself It’s super that it was possible to get everybody on the same page and win the race together with the team.” Kaden Groves himself already won seven stages in the Vuelta and a stage in the Giro d’Italia The Australian sprinter sacrificed his own chances on Sunday to lead out his Belgian teammate The team will be happy to see that Groves and Philipsen are a strong tandem “The plan this year is that Groves comes along with me to the Tour We talked during the race to see how everybody was doing Philipsen had said that he was keen to test his legs on the Belgian climbs “It’s a good test but it’s still early,” he said at the start of the Omloop in Ghent “I’m glad that we finally start for what we’ve trained for Usually I’m not enjoying my best legs during the first tough race of the year.” A few hours later he turned out to be much better than expected as the race somewhat surprisingly ended in a bunch sprint Philipsen wasn’t delighted to finish third behind Soren Waenskjold I made the wrong judgement to focus on Wout Van Aert but he wasn’t accelerating anymore,” he said When you get into such a position then you want to win and that didn’t succeed I didn’t find the killer mentality to be able to win Mathieu van der Poel didn’t ride either race but his benefit was felt anyway Philipsen spent a lot of time with him in recent months and that showed he noticed that he was able to keep up with the best on the climbs “I was feeling much better in the race than expected I had the legs to be in a smaller group too so that’s encouraging for the upcoming races,” he said It confirms the sensations I had during the winter that I made a nice step forward I worked really hard and I feel that my overall condition is quite fine “I just have to find out how to win a sprint.” By Sunday he had already found how to do that What was key to his improvement was working with Van der Poel in the off season We spent a lot of hours together during training,” he said It’s nice to have this preparation with Mathieu and also Jonas [Rickaert] and a lot of teammates.” he will now do another altitude camp to prepare for his title defense in Milan-San Remo He was second in Paris-Roubaix the past two seasons and would love to improve on that Last year we did Tirreno-Adriatico but it can be overkill to do a hard race because then your form can go quickly downwards,” he said “We need to find a good balance between training and racing I’m fully confident in what the performance team is doing Normally I’m not really good straight after altitude - 2025 Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne Live Online Coverage Guide - Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne LIVE - Click for high resolution - photo Copyright © 2018 Fotoreporter Sirotti/cyclingfans.com Sirotti photos can be purchased at www.sirotti.it The peloton rides on the cobblestones of Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. - Click for high resolution - photo Copyright © 2021 Cor Vos/cyclingfans.com 2017 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne: KBK art by Greig Leach.  More The Art of Cycling - Sponsored by Richeson Art - Copyright © 2017 Greig Leach Cyclingfans.com Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne TourTracker w/live profile  Notes:  (latest notes always appear at the top)   Cyclingfans LIVE on Twitter - Videos:  Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne Videos - Expected LIVE video here.  (Rtbf - Expected LIVE video here and here.  (Sporza - Need a VPN to access a geo-restricted video? Try ExpressVPN - Photos:  2021 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne Photos - This page will be updated throughout the race - Route map and parcours info here - Art:  Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne Art - Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne Start List here - Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) won the 2024 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne - UAE Team Emirates-XRG roster for the 2025 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne: Mikkel Bjerg (Den)
 Rune Herregodts (Bel)
 Jhonatan Narváez (Ecu)
 Rui Oliveira (Por)
 Nils Politt (Ger)
 Florian Vermeersch (Bel) Tim Wellens (Bel) - Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG): "Being from Belgium this period of the season is always very special and exciting for me I believe our classics team continues to evolve year on year and I think we  go into the races with a very strong team with the possibility to do great things This year we will be one of the main favourites in these races compared to other years We’ve had a very strong start to the year and the atmosphere is very good so we’ll hope to keep that going The weather is also looking to be favourable so that’s always a nice bonus for the opening weekend." - The 2025 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne is being held Sunday - Photos:  Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne Photos - Results:  Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne Results NOTE:  If you believe you may not be seeing the latest content on this page try clearing your browser's cache (or try a different browser) - We will update here with the best and latest live feeds at broadcast time - Welcome to our live coverage guide for the 2025 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne 2025 Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne LIVE March 2, Belgium Official Website Start List Race starts at 12:05pm CET (6:05am U.S Finish at around 5:01pm CET (11:01am U.S Live video from 2:30pm CET (8:30am U.S  Kuurne weather Live video streaming: Links to come as available (English Eurosport) (-- CET) (-- U.S (Dutch Sporza KBK livestream) (1:30 CET) (7:30am U.S (French en direct) (2:30 CET) (8:30am U.S (Italian   (--) (Listen online) (Sportwereld) (Translate) (cycling news) Yahoo photo gallery (AP/AFP) Copyright © 2025 www.cyclingfans.com Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) won the 2021 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. - Click for high resolution - more 2021 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne Photos - photo Copyright © 2021 Cor Vos/cyclingfans.com 2021 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne: Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) awaits the race start. - Click for high resolution - photo Copyright © 2021 Cor Vos/cyclingfans.com Notes from the 2024 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne - Expected LIVE video here and here.  (Rtbf - Expected LIVE video here and here.  (Sporza - Tiesj Benoot (Team Jumbo-Visma) won the 2023 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne - 2024 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne television TV broadcasters and streamers for LIVE and On Demand coverage include Sporza - The 2024 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne is being held Sunday Notes from the 2023 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne - Expected LIVE video here and here - Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne Start List here - Fabio Jakobsen (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team) won the 2022 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne - 2023 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne television TV broadcasters and streamers for LIVE and On Demand coverage include Sporza - The 2023 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne is being held Sunday Notes from the 2022 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne - Ticker and tracking LIVE here.  (auto-translated) - Expected LIVE video here.  (Rtbf, geo-restricted) - Expected LIVE video here.  (Rtl, geo-restricted) - Expected LIVE video here.  (Sporza - Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) won the 2021 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne Fabio Jakobsen (NED) Iljo Keisse (BEL) Yves Lampaert (BEL) Florian Sénéchal (FRA) Jannik Steimle (GER) Zdenek Stybar (CZE) Bert Van Lerberghe (BEL) Sports directors: Wilfried Peeters (BEL) Tom Steels (BEL) Rik van Slycke (BEL) - Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl sports director Tom Steels: "As a Belgian team the Opening Weekend is always very exciting especially as it will be a good test for their condition Florian and Zdenek – who can be there in the finale and fight for a good result in Omloop when Fabio will be part of the team together with Jannik we have a new guy who maybe lacks some experience in this kind of races but has a lot of horsepower and will be guided by Iljo while Bert knows how to put our leaders in a good position before the crucial points on the course." - Team DSM lineup for the 2022 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne: Tobias Lund Andresen (DEN)
 John Degenkolb (GER)
 Nils Eekhoff (NED)
 Leon Heinschke (GER)
 Jonas Iversby Hvidberg (NOR)
 Marius Mayrhofer (GER)
 Casper Pedersen (DEN) - Phil West (Team DSM coach): "Sunday sees us take on the second part of Opening Weekend at Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne the race is more likely to end in a reduced group sprint finish but like a lot of classics the attitude of the peloton and any inclement weather can split the field up we want to be present towards the front of the race and be attentive for any dangerous moves that might go clear making sure our Team DSM jersey is visible through some good teamwork and kicking off our classics campaign with some aggressive racing with John and Nils as our finishers." - 2022 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne television TV broadcasters and streamers for LIVE and On Demand coverage include Sporza - The 2022 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne is being held Sunday Notes from the 2021 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne - Expected LIVE video here - Expected LIVE video here - Expected LIVE video here - Expected LIVE video here - Sonny Colbrelli (Team Bahrain Victorious): "Here we go with the first race of this 2021 season (referring to Saturday's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad) It’s the season Classics opening in Belgium it’s very important for me to have a good start I must admit it’s not a soft start to the racing season I will be coming to the race after an excellent block of altitude training with the team We have a perfect lineup to do well at the start of the Classics season." - Team Bahrain Victorious lineup for opening weekend in Belgium: Sonny Colbrelli Marco Haller Heinrich Haussler Mark Padun Marcel Sieberg Dylan Teuns Stephen Williams - Team Bahrain Victorious Sports Director Rolf Aldag on the team's goals heading into the cobbled classics: "The coming races in Belgium are going to be the first real test on cobbles and that needs a lot of commitment from riders and the whole team and we know that we’re going to face many young motivated neo pros and rising talent on home soil —Belgians who are really hard to beat We are confident with the team’s depth. Sonny Colbrelli for a sprint finish a super motivated Dylan Teuns and an experienced Heinrich Haussler. It’s also an exciting moment for Mark Padun We are here to race and really go out there ride offensive and be fully committed." - Team DSM roster for the 2021 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne: Søren Kragh Andersen (DEN) Tiesj Benoot (BEL) Marco Brenner (GER) Nils Eekhoff (NED) Max Kanter (GER) Andreas Leknessund (NOR) Casper Pedersen (DEN) - Marc Reef - Team DSM coach: "We head to Kuurne with a strong team that combines youth and experience; the younger guys in a perfect position to gain some experience with the older ones on what is a testing parcours The parcours itself is more or less the same as last year so we should expect an attacking race that could be decided from a reduced sprint or a breakaway group Søren and Tiesj showed last year that they can ride for a good result on a parcours like we have at Kuurne We want to work well as a team to get the four of them into the finale so that we can race aggressively and have multiple options to play - Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-Quickstep) won the 2020 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne the race organizer has not made public the time schedule as they want spectators to remain at home -Eurosport - too soon to know -NOS - too soon to know - The 2021 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne is being held Sunday Notes from the 2020 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne - Tracking LIVE here.  (auto-translated) - Expected LIVE video here. (Sporza, geo-restricted)  - Expected LIVE video here. (Rtbf, geo-restricted)  - Expected LIVE video here - Team Total-Direct Energie roster for the 2020 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne: Niccolo BONIFAZIO Florian MAITRE Adrien PETIT Geoffrey SOUPE Niki TERPSTRA Anthony TURGIS Dries VAN GESTEL -Mikkel Bjerg (Den) -Tom Bohli (Swi) -Jasper Philipsen (Bel) -Alexander Kristoff (Nor) -Vegard Stake Laengen (Nor) -Marco Marcato (Ita) -Sebastian Molano (Col) UAE Team Emirates): "We go into this opening weekend of racing in Belgium with Alexander Kristoff as leader for Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday and Jasper Philipsen leader for Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne Both guys have shown some good form already this year and I know both are hungry to get their first wins of the season." - Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates): "It’s been a few years since I raced on the opening weekend at Omloop and Kuurne so I’m looking forward to getting back there I think my condition is still building but after good blocks of racing in Spain I’m looking forward to really getting into the classics mode now." - Team Sunweb roster for the 2020 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne: Søren Kragh Andersen (DEN) Nikias Arndt (GER) Cees Bol (NED) Nico Denz (GER) Nils Eekhoff (NED) Casper Pedersen (DEN) Jasha Sütterlin (GER) - Marc Reef (Team Sunweb coach): "We are happy that Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne is back on our calendar Just like in a lot of the other Flemish races the Oude Kwaremont will play an important role alongside the Kluisberg which quickly follows it The Kluisberg is now at just 50 kilometres to go; the change of parcours will make it harder for any chasing groups to get back to the front of the race or for teams to set up a bunch sprint finish We're prepared for different scenarios and we will look to bring Søren into a good position for the Oude Kwaremont and Kluisberg who has proved he is in good form after his win in Algarve and the guys will work to set him up if the day ends in a bunch sprint finish." - Bob Jungels (Deceuninck-Quickstep) won the 2019 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne 5:40am ET Race finish time 16:30 CET -Sporza TV (een) at 15:15 CET - The 2020 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne is being held Sunday Notes from the 2019 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne - Cyclingnews ticker LIVE here - LIVE video here. (Sporza, geo-restricted)  - LIVE video here - CCC Team for the 2019 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne: Paweł Bernas (POL) Josef Černy (CZE) Kamil Gradek (POL) Gijs Van Hoecke (BEL) Nathan Van Hooydonck (BEL) Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (BEL) Fransisco Ventoso (ESP) Sports Directors: Valerio Piva (ITA) CCC Team): "Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne is more of a sprinters’ Classic so we have made the decision that Greg (Van Avermaet) won’t race and instead the other riders will have an opportunity to go for a result Kamil Gradek and Josef Černy will line up on Sunday to replace Greg we have good options for all race scenarios.  As we have seen in recent years it can be difficult to avoid a bunch sprint at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne so we will aim to race aggressively and be part of a small group that goes to the line." - Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) won the 2018 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and he is expected on the start line in 2019 to defend his title.  Others expected to start include: Ackermann 5:45am ET Race finish time 16:40 CET - The 2019 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne is being held Sunday Cobbles season is here! - Click for high resolution - more Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne Photos - photo Copyright © 2018 Fotoreporter Sirotti/cyclingfans.com Sirotti photos can be purchased at www.sirotti.it Notes from the 2018 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne - News: Groenewegen nets first spring Classic at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne (Cyclingnews) - Dutchman dreaming of big one-day victories - News: Groenewegen wins Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne - Julien Vermote (Team Dimension Data) came close to winning the 2018 KBK.  Said Vermote post-race: "I felt quite good today I missed some important information at crucial points and that cost me some energy I am always motivated to race my bike but today I had nothing to lose but believed I could do something I got 12 to 13 seconds with the other 2 guys but on these wide roads and they were shouting in the radio for me to go It's such a pity to come so close like that it would have been great to win but we take the positives from today." - LIVE video here.  (Sporza, geo-restricted)  - LIVE video here.  (Rtbf - LIVE video here.  (Vrt/Sporza - News: Ganna going to Belgium's 'opening weekend' to gain experience (Cyclingnews) - 21-year-old Italian anchors the youthful side of UAE Team Emirates' roster BMC RACING TEAM DS: Lodewyck Klaas 81.  Van Avermaet Greg 82.  Roelandts Jurgen 83.  Ventoso Francisco 84.  Drucker Jean-Pierre 85.  Bohli Tom 86.  Bettiol Alberto 87.  Vliegen Loic QUICK STEP FLOORS DS: Peeters Wilfried 41 Sénéchal Florian 47 - FDJ DS: Guesdon Frédéric 61.  Démare Arnaud 62 Delage Michel 63.  Duchesne Antoine 64.  Kanovalovas Ignatio 65.  Sinkeldam Ramon 66.  Le Gac Olivier 67 - BAHRAIN - MERIDA DS: Hoffman Tristan 121.  Colbrelli Sonny  122.  Bozic Borut 123.  Bole Grega  124.  Garcia Ivan  125.  Koren Krisjian 126.  Pibernik Luka 127.  Haussler Heinrich Friedrich - Tristan Hoffman (Bahrain-Merida D.S.): "Our leader will be Sonny Colbrelli both mentally and physically after his Middle East races and a stage victory at Tour of Dubai  We believe he is the ideal choice for classic races like these are Sonny feels really comfortable at Belgium Classics and with a huge support of his Belgian "Daytona Fan Club"" - TREK - SEGAFREDFO DS: Demol Dirk 1.  Stuyven Jasper 2.  Nizzolo Giacomo 3.  Felline Fabio 4.  Rast Gregory 5.  Reijnen Kiel 6.  Mullen Ryan 7.  Van Poppel Boy (source: KBK official site) Team Dimension Data): "It is exciting to be part of Opening Weekend this year and be racing a full classics program once again riders with a lot of experience and knowledge of these roads which is always important for a good result in the Belgian classics Having Julien in our squad this year gives our classics team a massive boost so I think you will see a motivated performance from the guys this weekend and naturally we will race to win." - Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) won the 2017 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne - Official Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne Start List - Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) won the 2018 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne ahead of Arnaud Démare and Sonny Colbrelli.  Groenewegen after his victory: "I may have won this sprint very easily but the two hundred kilometres before that were anything but easy very windy and at times the pace was very high After the Oude Kwaremont the peloton broke into several groups and I ended up in the third group But the team brought me back to the front perfectly I could get back in a good position." - The 2018 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne is being held Sunday Peter Sagan (Bora Hansgrohe) won the 2017 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. - Click for high resolution - photo Copyright © 2017 Fotoreporter Sirotti/cyclingfans.com Sirotti photos can be purchased at www.sirotti.it Peter Sagan celebrates his 2017 KBK victory. - Click for high resolution - photo Copyright © 2017 Fotoreporter Sirotti/cyclingfans.com Sirotti photos can be purchased at www.sirotti.it Peter Sagan (Bora Hansgrohe) on the podium following his 2017 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne victory - Click for high resolution - photo Copyright © 2017 Fotoreporter Sirotti/cyclingfans.com Sirotti photos can be purchased at www.sirotti.it 2017 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne: "Making Sure - Peter Sagan (Bora Hansgrohe), Jasper Stuyven (Trek Segafredo), Luke Rowe (Sky)" by Greig Leach.  More The Art of Cycling - Sponsored by Richeson Art - Copyright © 2017 Greig Leach (Cyclingnews) Graham Watson Photography Twitter Watch cycling highlights as Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin–Deceuninck) claimed his first win of the season on his 27th birthday at the Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne race Opening Weekend tech from Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne and by the time the team buses and cars were pulling into their designated start zone and the warm blue skies seemed to welcome the start of the European spring classics period after a long The field for Kuurne was largely the same as Omloop apart from one addition, the Wagner Bazin WB squad You can see their bikes and equipment down below.  Some key standouts for me from the start were some very specific rider-fueling strategies The interesting stem notes on some bikes really hit home how much fuel the pros need to take on now to be competitive The second was a spate of aftermarket brake rotors and you can understand teams looking for every advantage possible.  I paid another visit to Bora and Lidl to check out their new Roval tyres and wheels and SRAM XPLR groupsets and had a good look at Intermache-Wanty's hidden tubeless valves and we can look forward to all the exciting racing to come over the next few months Opening weekend tech gallery part 1 I was back at Bora-Hansgrohe to get a better look at their wheels and tyres I believe this is a new Roval wheel and tyre from Specialized The rim lacks any model branding and has a black hub Spot the contrast with the rear wheel behind it which has the team issue silver one so to our eyes it's the first 'road mullet' wheelset we've seen in use I headed to Pro Team Wagner Bazin WB to check out their De Rosa 70 bikes fitted with Shimano Dura-Ace and Ursus wheels green and white looked good together in the morning sun and it certainly was refreshing to see something other than the standard WorldTour gear for a change The wheels are from the Italian brand Ursus and 30mm Goodyear Eagle F1 R tyres are fitted for Kuurne The team was running SwissStop disc rotors the first aftermarket brake parts of the day Most teams fit a piece of inner tube over their race transponders for an aero gain but there were some uncovered units at Wagner Bazin WB Rotor Aldhu chainsets with INspider power meters for the team Spot the protective film over the crank arm and the bearing sponsor sticker from Cema the chain is actually the M1800 unit from Shimano The Israel Premier Tech Factor bike's paint has a deep lustre that draws you in This is Jake Stewart's bike; no tall spacer stack is needed for the British racer Stewart finished the race 14 seconds down in 70th place Carbon-Ti thru axles on the Colnago frames potentially with some frantic wheel changes This mechanic at Q36.5 was torquing these shifter clamp bolts off before the start maybe after a last-minute position change for a rider Lidl Trek's 1x SRAM aero chainrings were paired with RED XPLR gravel derailleurs and cassettes Red XPLR uses a 13-speed cassette that can be run with a regular 12-speed SRAM chain The derailleur is burly and strong and has firmer clutch spring tension than the standard Red rear mech which should be advantageous over the cobbles Spot the carb mix written on the Lidl-Trek aero bottles which need to be used with the most recent version of the Madone to ensure the maximum aero benefit More external cabling on this standard Zipp stem but the mechanics have left a little extra length to make future adjustments and work easier Continental Conti Coach tubeless radials for the Lidl bus I'm not sure how much sealant they were running in these The Visma-Lease a bike bus was swarmed as soon as it arrived and fans happily waited to catch a glimpse of their hero The team's Cervelo bikes had Wolf Tooth disc rotor lockrings fitted Visma and Quick Step were by far the most popular teams The team were running standard Roval CLX Team wheels as far as I could see not the prototype wheels and tyres Bora are using Pro bikes are tools and pick up battle scars here and there This was Yves Lampaerts' second bike on the team car roof rack The Di2 electrical wire is kept in place on this Quick Step bike but spot the additional piece of clear tape keeping it tidily attached to the chainstay I assume to minimise the risk of it getting snagged and to prevent it catching the wind in any way There seems to be a serious focus on aero gains at Intermache Wanty More than one team bike had a handlebar setup like this; they were comfortably the most aggressive around Intermache use Hutchinson tyres and this is a new presumably now the top of that brand's performance line They also take advantage of the Newmen Streem tubeless valve system which means the shorter valves stay hidden inside the rim for an aero gain The sticker you can see covers the rim's valve hole A team mechanic was happy to show me the team's pump extension tool to reach the recessed valves This Astana mechanic looked despairing when I asked what was going on here The mechanics were trying to troubleshoot some kind of time-trial handlebar angle issue using a digital angle tool The Astana X-Lab AD9 bikes appear to be fairly stock as far as I can tell They were hidden away between this wall and the team bus There is no mistaking the Lapierre frame design of team Picnic PostNL The white paint pen marker indicates Van den Berg's seatpost height This intimidating fuelling schedule was the most impressive I saw on the day It was from Steffen de Schuyeneer's bike over at Lotto Lotto were another team using aftermarket brake components Galfer are a Spanish brand with origins in motorbike products A floating Galfer rotor at the rear and burly lockring Spot the 'open' Orbea dropout on the non-drive side which I assume makes wheel swaps a touch faster I assume this is to minimise any computer rattles on the cobbles Another healthy spacer stack over at Jayco AlUla and a 10mm spacer on top the team's purple and chrome Giant Propel race bikes just seem to glow in the bright sunshine A slightly more DIY stem note had been deployed here; I have no idea what this means but it's probably where all the big hills arrive The team's Cadex Aero tubeless tyre info is very easy to spot A stall near the team's setup area had a wide range of cycling memorabilia for sale I resisted the temptation and kept walking Decathlon AG2R were riding the RCR-F aero bike this is Belgian classics star Oli Naesen's The team told me they used slightly shallower wheels for Omloop's more unforgiving parcours The RCR-F hasn't officially been released yet but we've seen it in testing as far back as summer 2024 The Deda handlebar has a deep top section profile and looks very aggressive More than one squad were running the Continental Aero 111 tyre It was originally developed in conjunction with SwissSide The Bahrain Merida bikes always look dialled Spot the Elite Ice Fly 500 thermal bottles I was admiring this neat carbon fibre number holder at Bahrain Finally all the riders had zipped through to the start and the team cars loaded up and rolled out How to Watch Kuurne – Brussels – Kuurne in CanadaA day after a dramatic Omloop Het Nieuwsblad riders will line up for Kuurne – Brussels- Kuurne but the men will ride from Kortrijk to Kuurne for a total of 196.9km There is also a junior men’s race on Sunday The majority of riders who raced on Saturday will be there for KBK, including Visma – Lease a Bike’s Wout van Aert will be hungry for redemption after a disappointing Omloop Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne has long been part of the opening weekend for the Classics Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and KBK make for a solid weekend of racing for the pros It is seen as the opening weekend for Classics season Other favourites for the 76th edition of the race include Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike) Canadians racing will be Guillaume Boivin and Riley Pickrell from Israel – Premier Tech along with Tom Pidcock’s new teammate March has a lot in store in both the men’s and women’s WorldTours March 30: Gent-Wevelgem in Flanders Fields You can catch Sunday’s action at 9:30 a.m. EST on Flobikes.com. be sure to also catch the final stage of O Gran Camiño Israel – Premier Tech’s Derek Gee currently leads the race He won the TT and had a great stage on Saturday this would be his first pro stage race win ‘Boy did he need that’ – Philipsen sprints to sublime Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne victory Highlights: Waerenskjold takes surprise Omloop win on the sprint AdvertisementHow was your experience today Philipsen was well-positioned throughout Saturday's race Alpecin-Deceuninck leader looking for second chance in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne The most prolifically successful WorldTour racer of 2023 with 19 wins Philipsen conquered Milano-San Remo and took three Tour de France stages in 2024 as well as winning a top Belgian one-day race last spring "I had to come from a bit too far back," he told Sporza.be afterwards adding he had followed Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) for a long time in the dash for the line because he thought he would be fresher Maybe I forgot a little bit how to win a sprint." Philipsen took some time in 2023 and 2024 to get his first victory of the season with his earliest wins coming in Tirreno-Adriatico both years.  he and his team did everything right in Omloop on Saturday creating a very dangerous split with 40 kilometres to go which left both the other top Belgian contenders van Aert and Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) on the wrong side of the divide - and Philipsen ahead.  but the Belgian sprinter then stayed well ahead all the way over the final cobbled challenges of the day the daunting Mur de Geraardsbergen and Bosberg and he said afterwards he would have signed beforehand for a podium finish in such a challenging race he would be producing an identical set of results to compatriot van Aert last year in the Opening Weekend with third in Nieuwsblad followed by victory in Kuurne albeit for a different top Belgian contender “I just have to figure out again how to win a sprint”,  Philipsen told Nieuwsblad after Saturday evening although he also confirmed his overall satisfaction with how he had managed to get over the toughest climbs in Omloop as well I have to find the urge to win again.” Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name. This weekend in Belgium, the classic cycling season kicks off with the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. Team Visma | Lease a Bike delivered four different winners in the past two years and aims to continue that success. Wout van Aert and sports director Grischa Niermann preview the Flemish races. Team Visma | Lease a Bike will think back to the previous editions of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne with warm feelings. In 2022, Van Aert won the Omloop for the first time and in 2023, Dylan van Baarle and Tiesj Benoot ensured a fine double in the opening weekend. That was repeated last year by Jan Tratnik and Van Aert, who gave the team a dream start to the classic campaign. If it is up to Niermann, that trend will continue. "Our goal is to win a race", the sports director stated. "Despite the necessary changes we have had to make in the lineup, we have a very strong team for both days. We have prepared well and are motivated to get a nice result." With Van Aert as leader and Kooij joining as sprinter in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, Niermann expects to be able to do well in both races. "Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne is decided more often than Omloop in a sprint of a large group. The past two years we have been able to avoid a sprint, but now that Olav is there, we have multiple options. Olav likes to ride these races and we think Kuurne is one of the spring classics that suits him best." Van Aert made his first road race kilometres of this season in the Clasica Jaen and the Volta ao Algarve and left a good impression, especially in the final time trial. Behind Jonas Vingegaard, who won the general classification, he took a second place. "I look back on the first races with a satisfied feeling", Van Aert said. "The goal was to win an extra percent in those first races and I think I succeeded. I found the confidence and fun and that has pleased me a lot", said Van Aert. "I think after next weekend we will really be able to tell what my level is like. The most important thing is that I felt better every day and took a step forward." View this post on Instagram A post shared by Team Visma | Lease a Bike (@teamvisma_leaseabike) Niermann is tempering expectations around Van Aert. "Wout showed in the time trial of the Volta ao Algarve that he is in good shape. Nevertheless, we should not yet expect him to be in absolute top form this weekend. His peak is in late March, early April, when the monuments are on the programme. The Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne are two nice benchmarks." Squad Team Visma | Lease a Bike - Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (1-03): Wout van Aert, Tiesj Benoot, Matteo Jorgenson, Edoardo Affini, Per Strand Hagenes, Victor Campenaerts and Matthew Brennan. Squad Team Visma | Lease a Bike - Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne (2-03): Wout van Aert, Olav Kooij, Tiesj Benoot, Matteo Jorgenson, Edoardo Affini, Loe van Belle and Victor Campenaerts. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Team Visma | Lease a Bike (@teamvisma_leaseabike) American confident of form and looking forward to defending 2025 Paris-Nice title Visma then salvaged at least part of their weekend at Kuurne with a gutsy breakaway by Van Aert late on and a notable second place for Olav Kooij behind winner Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) it was clear the team was not operating at its one-day best partly through reasons  - like injury and illness - that were beyond their control The American pointed out that in terms of the team's overall progression this could mean that rather than starting from a high point and going downhill as happened in 2024 this year things might well work out in the opposite direction but we have some clear things we've already discussed in the debrief and I'm sure we'll discuss it in the debrief again," he said on Sunday evening when asked by reporters what the squad needed to improve but I think actually this year is going to be good but we can build into the cobbled Classics a little bit instead starting at the top and kind of petering out.” was really good," Jorgenson said about Omloop prior to starting Kuurne.  "I've just come back from altitude and I have a good feeling straightaway like I normally do But always in the first race it's good to put the doubts away and know that you're one of the strongest in the race So that was good on a personal note.” Jorgenson will now head towards Paris-Nice and after using the opening Classics in part as training for the first part of the Course Au Soleil through northern France - 'they have their similarities' he pointed out - he is keenly anticipating a race where he'll be both defending Champion and working alongside team leader Jonas Vingegaard "I'm glad that like every year to make it through Opening Weekend with all my skin on my body,  that's also a good feeling," he said after Kuurne I think as a team we have some things to improve on for the coming Classics but  I think from a personal standpoint Jorgenson says he will have an almost identical program to 2025 with the only difference that Amstel Gold will most likely be scratched from the program for his first half of the season with Flanders his last race of the Classics season it's nice to go with a really strong team like that and I love racing with Jonas for it'll be a highlight of the year like it always is," he said "I think my form is building towards that and I hope to make it the highlight of my spring." you will then be prompted to enter your display name.