Opening Weekend is finally here, we did it, we made it through the winter. The Classics kick off on Saturday 28th February with Omloop Nieuwsblad (the ‘Het’ got dropped) before Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne on Sunday 1st March.
Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne’s route is slightly flatter than Omloop making it more of a sprinters’ race – evident from its honour roll, which includes the likes of Mark Cavendish, Dylan Groenewegen and Fabio Jakobsen. However that isn’t always the case, in 2023 Tiesj Benoot won with a Jumbo-Visma 1-2 from a group of five and in 2024 Wout van Aert beat Tim Wellens and Oier Lazkano to the win. Last year is was a sprinters’ race though, with Jasper Philipsen beating Olav Kooij in the bunch sprint.
While it’s a UCI ProSeries race rather than top-level WorldTour, it still attracts a high calibre of riders, with this year’s startlist including the likes of sprinters Jasper Philipsen, Jonathan Milan, Arnaud De Lie, Biniam Girmay, Paul Magnier and Matthew Brennan, as well as more traditional Classics specialists such as Matej Mohorič, Kasper Asgreen, Dylan van Baarle, Tim Wellens, Stefan Küng and Fred Wright.
Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne 2026 key information
- Date: Sunday 1st March 2026
- Start: Kortrijk, Flanders
- Finish: Kuurne, Flanders
- Distance: 195km
- Most wins: Three – Tom Boonen
- 2025 winner: Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
- Live television coverage: TNT Sports, Discovery+, VRT, Sporza. FloBikes, Eurosport, HBO Max
Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne 2026 route
The route for 2026 is almost identical to 2025 barring a couple of minor tweaks that make it a few kilometres shorter and bring back Lapepstraat for the third sector after a year flirting with the nearby Boembeek instead.
Starting in Kortrijk, the 7km neutralised start meanders briefly through Kuurne before the racing proper begins near Harelbeke, home of the E3 Saxo Classic. The Tiegemberg is the first climb to be scaled around 17km in, before the Volkegemberg, which includes some cobbles, gets us into the real meat of the race.
The 13 hellingen (hills) are short, the longest being Lepelstraat at 2.1km. 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 Hameau des Papins with a gradient up to 16.2%, followed by Le Bourliquet (1.3km, max 15.3%) 8km later and Mont Saint-Laurent another 5km further on, which hits extremes of 17%.
The final climb is the Kluisberg, which reaches a max 11% gradient but comes 59.5km from the finish, giving the riders a long, flat run to the finish, hence why it’s common for this to end with a bunch sprint.
Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne 2026 favourites
With a limited number of Classics protagonists to break the race up, it would be brave to be against this year’s race coming down to a sprint of some kind. Whether that’s a reduced group, due to climbs or even echelons, or a mass bunch sprint, if Jonathan Milan makes the final selection he’ll be the favourite to take the win. The big Italian is clearly in form, taking several stage wins at the UAE Tour, while his closest challenger TIm Merlier is currently injured and last year’s winner Jasper Phiilipsen hasn’t looked quite on it so far this year.
The two riders that may cause an upset would be young stars Paul Magnier and Matthew Brennan, who have both tasted victory in 2026, though Brennan shared sprints stages at the Tour Down Under while Magnier took comfortable wins at the Volta ao Algarve after getting beaten by Dylan Groenewegen at the Clàssica Communitat Valenciana.
If anyone’s going to stop this becoming a bunch sprint it’s UAE Team Emirates XRG, who have Classics giants Tim Wellens and Florian Vermeersch to try to break up the field on the climbs and try to hold on for the final quarter of the race.
Cyclist‘s ratings
- ★★★★★: Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates XRG)
- ★★★★: Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep), Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike)
- ★★★: Tobias Lund Andresen (Decathlon-CMA CGM), Biniam Girmay (NSN Cycling), Florian Vermeersch (UAE Team Emirates XRG)
- ★★: Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Christophe Laporte (Visma-Lease a Bike), Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Intermarche), Pavel Bittner (Picnic-PostNL)
- ★: Matteo Milan (Groupama-FDJ United), Stefan Küng (Tudor), Milan Fretin (Cofidis), Tom Crabbe (Flanders-Baloise)
How to watch Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne 2026
Coverage of Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne starts on TNT Sports in the UK at 13:30 and finishes at 16:15. It’ll be on FloBikes for viewers in USA and Canada, while the local coverage is on VRT and Sporza. Viewers in mainland Europe and Asia can find it on Eurosport and HBO Max, and it’ll be on SuperSport in Africa.
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.