Brugge - De Panne Classic

The Driedaagse Brugge – De Panne -the name is the legacy of this former stagerace, now held as a men’s one-day event, a women’s race and a sportive which, obviously, isn’t held in 2020- have ended up as the final one-day race of this season for the Movistar Team, after Paris-Roubaix was cancelled earlier this month. It also ends up into a somewhat strange position in the calendar, since it was going to be a warm-up race for ‘L’Enfer du Nord’ and now sits as ‘just’ a final chance for the sprinters not racing the Grand Tours. It also marks, however, the final event in Belgium this year, and a WorldTour one nonetheless!

The completely flat route (just two hundred meters of elevation gain) covers 201km between Bruges’ Grote Markt square, formerly the start of the Ronde van Vlaanderne held on Sunday 18th, and a final circuit (three laps) near the coast, in and around De Moeren, Veurne, Houtem and De Panne. The main feature of this decisive loop is its mostly urban character, which makes racing harder through road furniture, direction changes, roundabouts, bridges and other obstacles.