Dylan Gronewegen sprinted to victory at the Ronde Van Brugge on Wednesday, marking Unibet Rose Rockets first ever WorldTour victory.
The Dutchman rounded Alpecin–Premier Tech's Jasper Philipsen in the finale, with Max Kanter (XDS Astana) in third place.
On a nervous day of racing, when cruel crosswinds and headwinds made breakaways next-to impossible and riders had to contend with everything from wet roads and a protestor on the cobbles, history was created on Wednesday, after a final sprint which saw Amaury Capiot (Jayco AlUla) go down in a final straight crash.
There were multiple crashes throughout the race, including one caused by a motorbike that had pulled over to try and deal with a protestor on the cobbles section, which led to a collision that took down Juan Sebastián Molano (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), last year's winner - an incident that left him well out of the action and remonstrating with a commissaire.
Wild winds and controversial crashes
This year marks the 50th birthday of the race formerly known as the Classic Brugge-De Panne, and despite wicked winds making the day tortuous for riders and severely restricting breakaways, the sprinters classic delivered drama in spades, with numerous crashes and a super tight sprint finish.
The 203km course from Brugge to the Belgian coastal resort town of De Panne features just 376 metres of climbing, but the gusts sweeping across the flat fields of Flanders harangued riders throughout, and whenever a lead group did get away it was quickly reeled back in by the peloton.
Three-quarters of the way through the race, eventual winner Groenewegen was forced to swap bikes after suffering a flat, but he stayed with the group. Others weren't so lucky. Spaniard Daniel Cavia (Burgos Burpellet BH) and Italian Vincenzo Albanese (UCI WorldTeam EF Education–EasyPost) both crashed heavily, and a bizarre fate lay in wait for the winner of the 2025 event.
Twelve months ago, Juan Sebastián Molano was the beneficiary of an even more crash-marred finish to the 2025 Classic Brugge-De Panne, but this year the Colombian was left sprawled on the cobbles after colliding with a safety motorbike that had been attempting to clear a climate protester off the course as the peloton sped towards him. The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider was seen talking furiously to a commissaire after the unfortunate incident, which completely ended his chances in this year's race.
Lidl–Trek's Max Walscheid mounted an attack with 2.5k to go, but he was quickly caught and, as expected right from the beginning, the outcome of race came down to the final few seconds of frenetic action.
Philipsen led the dash for the line, but he didn't have quite enough left in his legs, having worked hard to ride through the peloton in the final few kilometres of a race that also saw XDS Astana's Davide Ballerini launch several doomed attempts to get ahead of the leading group. Groenewegen ultimately edged it, crossing the line in 4:15:57.
It is the 32-year-old sprinter's third win in a row, and fourth success of the season, having already won the Bredene Koksijde Classic 2026, the Clàssica Comunitat Valenciana and Grote prijs Jean-Pierre Monseré. For Unibet Rose Rockets, it's the team's first UCI WorldTour trophy and biggest victory to date - a clear statement of intent.
