AG Driedaagse Brugge-De Panne Preview

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Usually this classic marks the middle of the classics season with a day for the sprinters, this year it becomes a pure sprinters classic and marks the end of the classics season. It's a flat circuit around De Panne and should be an exciting season finish for everyone present in the race.

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The Route

The route of the De Panne classic is ordinarily a flat one but with some cobblestones, but this year it is purely a sprinters classic, where the profile is as flat as you could find (just 236 meters of climbing accord to La Flamme Rouge).

The race starts in Bruges and then heads for a final 46 kilometer long circuit around De Panne, and the finish is rather technical in the streets of the Belgian city. The final 2.3 kilometers where the race enters the center of De Panne are quite technical with some very narrow before it widens in the final kilometer, the final 800 meters are straight and wide so there is time to recover positions, but it's still quite a sketchy finish (although the train tracks this year shouldn't be an issue!).

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The Weather

Rough Belgian classic conditions. Although the riders may evade the rain it will rain a lot overnight and the roads will be wet and dangerous, specially in the center of De Panne as it isn't always paved. And the wind, it will be very strong from the southwest. This means echelons are very possible and likely even though the run-up to the coastal town will have a lot of headwind. In the final circuit it will break up, and the sprint will be in a cross-tailwind.

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The Favourites

This should be a pure sprinter showdown despite the presence of some of the strongest classics riders and rouleurs in the bunch, the profile is just pan-flat and there isn't really any specific palce that can be targeted by the offensive riders and no place to ditch out the fast men.

So the list is naturally huge, there's tons of contenders and some of the best sprinters in the world starting by Scheldeprijs winner Caleb Ewan, one of the best pure sprinters in the bunch and coming in with support of a very strong leadout with De Buyst, Kluge and Degenkolb all in there. Alexander Kristoff has just finished third in Flandres, he's in great form and usually races very well in Belgium and can be another big candidate for the win, follows then what I'll put on as a list of win/podium contenders which has no particular order:

Mike Teunissen

Phil Bauhaus

Matteo Trentin

Jempy Drucker & Erik Baska

Jens Keukeleire

André Greipel & Hugo Hoffsteter & Travis McCabe

Max Walscheid

Mads Pedersen & Edward Theuns & Jasper Stuyven

Jake Stewart

Owain Doull & Chris Lawless

Cristophe Laporte & Attilio Viviani

Timothy Dupont & Danny van Poppel & Andrea Pasqualon

Amauri Capiot

Tim Merlier & Mathieu van der Poel

Bryan Coquard

Niccolo Bonifazio

Dan McLay

As you can tell there wouldn't be a proper way to write all these names and then say some are more favourites than the others, they aren't. There is so much quality and so many young sprinters coming in big into the scene that the Top10 will feature only a few of the names previously mentioned. Besides this some may attack in the sketchy finale and in here I mentioned no-one from Deceuninck but yes they are here and with a strong team just without a set leader, but you can expect something from riders like Lampaert and Sénéchal who are in great form.

It will be for sure a very dangerous finish once the riders go into the final kilometers, the bunch will be big and very fresh, there's tons of strong leadouts and riders looking to succeed in their final race day of the season, it can get very complicated for some.

*To note that at the time of posting only 6 teams have confirmed their lineups, so some changes in the provisional startlist are possible.

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Prediction Time

🌟🌟🌟 Ewan, Kristoff, Pedersen

🌟🌟 Bauhaus, Walscheid, Merlier, Bonifazio

🌟 Theuns, Teunissen, Greipel, Hoffsteter, Stewart, Laporte, Dupont, D.van Poppel, MVD.Poel, Coquard, McLay

I'm going with a win for Alexander Kristoff, a specialist in Belgian racing, experienced rider on harsh weather and crosswinds and the fast tailwind sprint that is expected to happen suits him very well, whilst everything in the race points away from Ewan.

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